United were at Fleetwood on Wednesday afternoon for the last of their Reserve League Cup group fixtures.
Victories against Morecambe and Wigan had already been secured, but the Blues were brought back down to earth as Fleetwood bagged five second half goals to earn their first win of the round robin stage of the competition.
Carlisle found themselves with an early mountain to climb when Ged Garner exchanged passes with Nadesan on the edge of the box. A gap opened up and a firm shot from Garner left Bacon with no chance.
The visitors had half a sight of goal when a punt forward invited Rigg to race into the box. His first touch took him round Crellin but it was a tight angle and his attempt at squeezing the ball over the line was easily cleared.
Defender Aidan Hutchinson was then harshly judged to have handled the ball as it flew at his face, and Ashley Nadesan doubled the home advantage with a crisp finish from the spot.
Chances were few and far between as the game tightened up and it wasn’t until after the break that either side got forward with any real purpose. Donohue and Nadesan forced a double-save out of Bacon as the pair hit the target with powerful efforts in quick succession.
Some good football handed Nadesan his second of the afternoon as he was able to finish comfortably from close range, and things went from bad to worse for Carlisle when the lively forward notched a hat-trick with a thunderbolt which zipped into the top corner.
Home tails were up and Nadesan was the man of the moment yet again when he rounded off another good passage of play to put Fleetwood five goals to the good.
United should have got themselves on the score sheet with ten minutes left to play when Salkeld lost his marker inside the box. Crellin did well to palm his effort away and the keeper recovered quickly to stop Cosgrove from sweeping the pieces into the net.
The action wasn’t done there, and Garner surprised everybody when he somehow got the ball over the line with the Carlisle defence caught on its heels.
And an own goal from substitute Jay Kelly rubbed salt into the wounds as the young defender lunged to try to stop a Donohue delivery from angling across the face of the target. His touch was heavy, and he was left disappointed as the ball spun off his boot and into the bottom corner.
Fleetwood Town – Crellin, Baines, Sheron, Higham, Nirennold, Des Pres, Trialist, Maguire, Donohue, Nadesan, Garner.
Goals – Garner (7, 84), Nadesan (24 pen, 56, 58, 67), Kelly OG (90)
Carlisle United – Bacon (C Trialist 70), Olsen, Goldthorpe, Hutchinson, A Trialist, B Trialist, Adewusi, Nabi (Salkeld 68), O’Sullivan (Kelly 82), Cosgrove, Rigg.