Carlisle Utd 5 Mansfield Town 2: More than five months must still be negotiated before this can go down as a season for the ages. But let us stop regardless and celebrate where Carlisle United are, so soon after misery stalked this football city.

Two years and two months ago, Keith Curle arrived in town with the Blues bottom of League Two. One year ago, the floods were also a week away from bringing deeper troubles to this club and community.

Carlisle now sit at the very top of the pile despite those various traumas. Curle and his team are bringing entertainment, and also a bit of joy, to a place that has endured more challenging emotions in the recent past.

That has to be worth a mid-campaign salute. And anyone concerned with United's journey is entitled to take great pleasure from the arithmetic of the league table, before things resume again.

Even the reason they are up there - goal difference - is a mark of their path. It was not too long ago that the plus sign in United's GD column was a dusty relic, not seen for generations.

Now it is one more weapon they can wield against their rivals. On Saturday their numbers were given another healthy boost by Charlie Wyke's hat-trick and further clinical strikes from Jason Kennedy and Reggie Lambe, as the Blues eventually outclassed Mansfield and their incessant manager, Steve Evans.

More of him shortly. But it is Curle, the man behind this vast improvement, who deserves to speak first. "There's a lot of pride for the people that support the club, and people who work inside the club," Curle said.

"I don’t think that was there [when I first took charge]. A few people had fallen out with the club. But that spark's still there. It's like your first love - very difficult to drop, isn't it?"

This was Curle's way of explaining the affection now pouring his way from the stands and also towards his players, who have created a useful seven-point gap above the play-off places and teed up some great expectations as we head further into winter.

Wyke, now on 12 for the campaign, is currently guzzling goals. Nicky Adams and Danny Grainger are setting them up with relish and there is enough about the rest of the side to see them through various tricky games, which this was at times.

It was, naturally, made this way in part by the Mansfield manager, and the hope at full-time was for Shaun Hudson, the fourth official, to be somewhere near an armchair and a pint fairly soon.

An alternative candidate for man of the match, Hudson had to cope with so much badgering by Evans and his assistant Paul Raynor that one started thinking football needs to adopt cricket's DRS system, and limit managers to a handful of appeals and protests. Either that or issue officials with a cattle prod.

No man in black should have to face this much ear-bending, this much grief. Evans complained about Carlisle's ball-drying tactics before long throws. He complained any time ref Seb Stockbridge dared to point his arm the way United were attacking. He probably objected to the Highways Agency any time Mansfield's team coach encountered a red or amber light on their way home.

The Paddock and Main Stand contributed to this theatre with increasing voice, especially when United got ahead. Yet this took a little time for, on a pitch which had passed a midday inspection, Mansfield initially looked robust and keen to sabotage Carlisle's table-topping hopes.

They got what has become a strangely traditional early goal against the Blues, when Patrick Hoban evaded Kennedy to head home Chris Clements' inswinging corner. Yet United then also made their traditional reply, and after Grainger's free-kick was tipped wide by Scott Shearer, a short corner routine saw Adams cross and Kennedy bury a header of his own.

At this point a flare landed next to Mark Gillespie's net; apparently thrown by some Morton fans who had ventured south of the border for the day. As yellow smoke billowed through United's penalty area, Curle's team made some more inroads into Mansfield's, though Kennedy was booked for diving and then scuffed a good chance at Shearer.

Carlisle had certainly livened up, and in a brisk period forced more half-chances for Kennedy and Adams. In response, Mansfield tried to make the most of some sloppy moments in United's half, with Mitchell Rose, Hoban and Oscar Gobern all missing the target, the latter by millimetres.

Michael Raynes then spurned a great chance against his former club, as the Evans and Raynor histrionics continued. When one particular Krystian Pearce challenge on Wyke was penalised, the visiting boss and his sidekick converged on Hudson with faces like thunder. A few moments later, Blues kitman Colin Nixon was dispatched to say something to a ballboy.

Maybe these were the towelling instructions that would later enrage Evans. United were not breaking any rules when Tom Miller and Grainger dried the ball in this way before launching throws. Stockbridge saw no time-wasting infringement, and so the Mansfield boss went puce. Elsewhere, Adams tested Shearer at the end of the half as Shaun Brisley had a facial cut patched up.

The panto ended on 45 minutes with a sharp word in Evans' ear from captain Grainger as the teams came off. Fifteen minutes later they all reappeared and Wyke strode to centre stage.

On 49 minutes, Carlisle's number nine capitalised on superb work from Adams to loop an aerial finish over Shearer. Later, Gobern and Rose having missed for Mansfield, the striker got another: a laser-accurate header into the far left corner from Grainger's pinpoint delivery.

This seemed to ease any lingering anxiety, and brought a spate of songs from the crowd (one or two at Evans' expense) as Gillespie tipped over an overhit Ashley Hemmings cross to keep Carlisle comfortable.

United advanced with a little more freedom from here, the persistent Adams at times inspired, and while there was significant debate about their fourth goal - Stockbridge saw a handball that few others in the ground had - it nonetheless arose from further Blues pressure.

It also saw Grainger very decently hand over spot-kick duties to Wyke, who drilled home to complete his first ever league hat-trick.

It was over now, and even a close-range consolation from Danny Rose did not deter United. After Gillespie saved superbly from Pearce, there was then one more tradition: the late Carlisle goal. Not quite the 97th-minute, like the previous week, but still in the fifth minute of injury-time, as a cross from sub Joe McKee reached Lambe and the Bermudan clipped merrily home.

So the climb continued. "It's going to be a task for everyone to catch us," said Curle, who had had his own things to say to the besieged Hudson but was, overall, a much more controlled touchline figure than his opponent.

Even if his Blues are reined in, this has been a transforming time that does the manager and his men great credit. If they aren't, no place will deserve a greater party.