carlisle made his preston debut in the opening match of the campaign, a 4–2 home defeat against colchester on 6 august 2011. three matches later, he scored his first goal for the club, netting the opening goal from a corner kick in the 2–0 away win over chesterfield. he was a regular starter for preston during the opening months of the season and also played in the cup competitions as the team reached the third round of the league cup before being eliminated by southampton and progressed to the same stage of the football league trophy with penalty shoot-out victories over morecambe and rochdale. he was handed a one-match ban after receiving his fifth yellow card of the campaign in the fa cup first round defeat to southend united on 22 november 2011. preston manager phil brown brought in jamie mccombe on loan as cover for carlisle, and the huddersfield town loanee kept his place in the starting line-up throughout december 2011. carlisle returned to the preston team for the visit to rochdale on 2 january 2012, when he was selected to play alongside craig morgan by caretaker managers graham alexander and david unsworth. he played five times during that month, scoring on his 27th and final appearance for the club in the 1–2 loss to yeovil town. following the appointment of graham westley as preston manager, carlisle struggled to fit the new training regime in with his commitments as chairman of the professional footballers' association and his loan deal was cancelled by mutual consent on 31 january 2012.