OPENING UP

Carlisle's die-hard fans are facing slightly less travelling than last term - but it won't feel that way on the day 2016/17 kicks off.

For Portsmouth, the second-longest trip of the campaign, is how it all begins for Keith Curle's side.

By the time supporters return from that 702-mile round trip to the south coast, a little more will be known about how well Curle's new-look team is equipped for a promotion challenge.

Pompey, beaten play-off semi-finalists, are every bookie's favourite for promotion next season and are traditionally strong at their home ground.

Carlisle themselves have not won at Fratton Park since 1984, and lost 1-0 to Paul Cook's side last spring.

United will also need to improve modest recent opening-day form, the Blues having not recorded a league win on the first weekend since 2010.

A challenging start to the new season then brings Plymouth, who lost the play-off final, all the way to Cumbria for Brunton Park's first league game of 2016/17.

Another home game sees upwardly-mobile Cheltenham at Carlisle after their Conference title win, followed by trips to Cambridge and Barnet, as the season takes early shape.

LIFE ON THE ROAD

United were presumably at the back of the queue when the key home games were being dished out.

It has not been lost on long-suffering fans that the Blues are not at home for any of FOUR key fixture dates in the new season.

They begin at Portsmouth. They spend Boxing Day with a festive 144-mile hack to Crewe. They see out 2016 with a New Year's Eve jaunt to Notts County.

And if that wasn't enough, the final day of the season - hopefully with some glory in store for Curle and his troops - requires the satnav to be set for Exeter, 347 miles away.

No chance of any money-spinning home crowds on those traditional afternoons, then.

At least, unlike last term, sanity has prevailed and Carlisle will not be heading to Plymouth on a Tuesday night - instead they go to Home Park on a Saturday in March.

Midweek trips are in general a fraction kinder than last season, when it was one long haul after another.

Tuesday nights next term take United to Doncaster, Grimsby and Cheltenham.

CLOSE QUARTERS

While League Two is a touch more geographically-balanced in 2016/17, it still leans towards the south.

So United and their fans will still want to make the most of their encounters with clubs relatively close by.

The nearest, Morecambe at 70 miles away - a game that saw 1,454 Blues fans head to Lancashire for a memorable comeback win last term - involves a trip to the Globe Arena on Saturday, October 8.

That trip will also reunite summer signings Jamie Devitt and Shaun Miller with their former club.

The Shrimps then head to Cumbria on January 14.

Sort-of local rivals Hartlepool are first faced at Brunton Park on October 15, while the return game at Victoria Park falls on Easter Saturday, April 15.

Many eyes will also be on United's games against newly-relegated Blackpool, who hosted one of three 'home' games for Carlisle after Brunton Park was flooded last season.

Carlisle go back to Bloomfield Road to face the Tangerines on September 17, while Karl Oyston's club, including ex-Blues Brad Potts and Tom Aldred, come to Brunton Park on February 11.

NEW FACES

The 2016/17 season welcomes Grimsby and Cheltenham back to League Two.

Both were in the promotion race with Carlisle the last time the Blues enjoyed a successful fourth-tier campaign, back in 2005/6.

They return from the Conference after absences of six and one season respectively, so the division is not as new-look as it might have been had, say, Forest Green made it out of non-league.

Cheltenham, who rebounded under Gary Johnson, meet Carlisle very early in the season: Brunton Park's first midweek league game, in fact, on April 16.

The next clash with one of the new boys comes on a Tuesday night in Grimsby in November. The Mariners then form Carlisle's first opponents of 2017 when they arrive at Brunton Park on January 2.

Whaddon Road, home of Cheltenham, is then visited by Curle's team on Tuesday, February 28.

United will also encounter more old foes after last season's promotion and relegation shake-up.

Games against Doncaster, who came down from League One, are both on Tuesday nights, including a Valentine's date at Brunton Park.

The trip to relegated Colchester comes early in the new year, January 7, while the Railwaymen of Crewe chug their way to Carlisle in late March.

THE RUN-IN

If Carlisle are still in with any chance of success come the business end of the season, they will have to clock up the miles in order to make it count.

Optimists may also look at their run-in and feel that the Blues have dodged some of the more potent opposition League Two is likely to offer.

On April Fools' Day they head to Yeovil, before entertaining Notts County.

Easter weekend then offers a tasty trip to Hartlepool, before the visit of Stevenage two days later.

Like last season, a trek to Crawley also comes in the season's closing weeks, while fans will hope the final home game of 2016/17, against Newport County on April 29, has something major riding on it.

CURTAIN FALLS

Last season Carlisle's trip to Exeter was nearly curtailed by a smoke grenade, which caused the game to be delayed more than an hour.

Hopefully the next visit to St James' Park will be remembered for more wholesome reasons.

For it is in deepest Devon where United will draw their 2016/17 season to a close - unless, that is, they are involved in the play-offs.

Such are United's regular travelling commitments that Exeter is only the fourth-longest journey they face in the league, after Plymouth, Portsmouth and Crawley.

Last season, of course, a long campaign on the road was increased by a pair of absorbing cup runs, as well as the need to stage three 'home' games away from flood-ransacked Brunton Park.

The final day is a traditional fancy-dress occasion for many of United's travelling fans, with Robin Hood the theme for Notts County last month.

Here's hoping the last of a 11,016-mile league odyssey is completed with something to celebrate on May 6.