Not the oldest nor most frequent fixture in our history.
There arent many teams in the England farther away than Carlisle, possibly Newcastle, with my atlas giving both places 324 miles from Southampton, luckily enough though we havent had to travel to Carlisle as much as we have gone to Tyneside.
In fact our first visit was only in 1965, that would only be a fleeting league dalliance as we were promoted to the top flight at the end of the season, that term newly promoted Carlisle visited the Dell in August to be beaten 1-0 and then six days later the sore was reversed at Brunton Park, but if we thought we had seen the last of the Cumbrians we were wrong, the following season they performed a giant killing act in the league cup, gaining a 3-3 draw at the Dell followed by a 2-1 victory in the replay.
Our paths would not cross again till 1975/76, firstly Carlisle could be said to have taken our place in the old First division in 1974 passing us as we were relegated, but their stay in the top flight would only be one season and we then met them in the league for only the second season.
In the November our promotion challenge faultered as our 1-0 defeat in Cumbria made it three losses in a row, the return in March at the Dell came at a time when Saints were preparing for an FA Cup semi final, it was also a god awful time in the league, with Saints losing three and drawing one of their previous four matches to virtually finish our promotion hopes, evenutually falling four points short of third spot at a time when it was only two points for a win. Carlsisle earned a 1-1 draw in front of 18,304, David Peach scoring for Saints.
Carlisle would be back at the Dell in August of 1976, on the opening day of the 76/77 season, the first competitive game for Saints since the FA Cup Final at Wembley just over three months earlier, Cup Fever had well and truly subsided with only 18,695 in the ground and Peter osgood scoring the consolation in a 2-1 defeat for the home side.
The away game in January 1977 would be a different story though, 9,617 turned out to see Saints record one of their classic away victories, 6-0 to be exact with Nick Holmes (2) David Peach, Mick Channon, Peter Osgood and Ted McDougal scoring the goals, it was an up and down season for Saints that would see them finish well off the promotion pace and carlisle would be relegated, never to meet Saints in the league again till this weekend.
However their would be one more meeting, this time in 83/84 in a two legged league cup 2nd round tie, or to give it its then title the Milk Cup, Saints were beaten 2-0 at Brunton Park in the first leg, at the Dell it looked good for Saints when Dave Armstrong scored early doors, however with five minutes left it was still 2-1 on aggregate to the visitors, then on 86 minutes up popped substitute Martin Foyle to take the tie into extra time, with six minutes of extra time remaining Foyle headed a second to take Saints through.
Not an illustrious history between the two sides, but with Carlsisle shading it 5-3 on wins with two draws, Saints will be keen to haul back that deficit this season.