Carlisle Utd 1 Grimsby Town 3: It took just two days for 2017 to inflict something on Carlisle United that they had avoided for all the second half of 2016 - a home league defeat - and this chilly first game of the year cannot be repeated very often if the Blues are to remain on their otherwise positive path.

Losing for the second time all season is no reason for anyone to cry into their new year pints. But Carlisle's defending was too generous in the second half and Grimsby, particularly the deadly Omar Bogle, turned this into a flawed afternoon.

United were ahead and not in vast trouble when Charlie Wyke's strike had them ahead at the break. But by the 78th minute they were 3-1 down, the consequence of allowing Bogle the only real glimpses of goal he was ever likely to need.

Perhaps the only League Two forward in better form than Wyke, Bogle bundled his way through to equalise and then planted a free header into Mark Gillespie's net for his 18th of the season. Substitute Adi Yussuf then finished Carlisle off and this turned into one of the rare occasions in 2016/17 when United's faulty defending cost them.

Previously, they have righted wrongs at the back before the final whistle. Hence their position in the automatic promotion places (they're now third, four points above the play-offs). But Keith Curle surely needs to exert some control on a section of his side that has not kept a clean sheet since October. Otherwise the race for League One is going to keep many other teams interested until May is eventually reached.

"There will be twists and turns," United's boss later said, and he is surely right. "Staying on the bus," another Curle mantra, should not be hard for most supporters to do on the basis of how the table still looks. United's seven-point buffer zone may have been cut but it remains substantial, provided one defeat does not unfold into more.

Curle, for this chilly first game of the year, declined to settle with the team that started 2016's final win at Notts County, instead making two changes. That saw Shaun Miller and Reggie Lambe return to the side at the expense of Jabo Ibehre and Jamie Devitt. Up front, that meant both Miller and Ibehre have lost their starting places in consecutive games despite scoring in their last one.

Either way, Carlisle's strikeforce had to become the first to find a way past Dean Henderson in first-team football. The 19-year-old keeper was back on familiar ground here, having come through the Blues' youth ranks before joining Manchester United aged 14.

Now a promising loanee with Grimsby, the Whitehaven lad returned to Cumbria trying to block his former club's march towards the third tier. Another man with a United past, former loanee Brandon Comley, was welcomed back with a heavy aerial challenge from Luke Joyce as things got under way. As the first half developed it was these contests, the skirmishes, that set the tone without a flow of chances.

With their extra man across midfield, Grimsby at times stretched Carlisle. United's early interplay near the visiting box was hopeful but imprecise. It took time for any real openings and when one did come, via Scott Vernon's pass, Mark Gillespie saved Zak Mills' shot from the edge of the area.

With Bogle quiet to begin with, United coped with Grimsby's sometimes bright ventures forward. One delivery from the right almost reached Craig Disley at close range, but in Adams' ball-carrying on the break Carlisle had a familiar outlet even in their sterile spells.

Shaun Miller and Wyke showed flashes of a dangerous understanding and it was the former who enjoyed Carlisle's first real opportunities, curling over after a counter-attack, and then denied by a sharp Henderson save.

Then the pair combined to open the scoring: Miller feeding Wyke down the middle, and United's top scorer beating Henderson from the sort of space a No9 dreams about.

This lifted Carlisle's mood and their tempo, and in the following minutes more goals nearly followed. Shortly after the opener, Miller's back-post cross was attacked by Wyke, drawing a fine, close-range save from Grimsby's young keeper. Adams then tormented Comley and flashed the ball right across the face of goal.

United's creator in chief, a player of the month nominee, was now causing Grimsby bother on the right, having switched flanks with Lambe. These were choppy waters for the Mariners, whose progress was now more sporadic. They did fashion one good chance towards the end of the half, but Andrew Boyce headed wide Shaun Pearson's back-post cross. Michael Raynes, rising to meet a Macaulay Gillesphey delivery, then went close for United shortly before the interval.

All seemed positive. But no side can settle against a man with Bogle's record. Marcus Bignot, the Grimsby manager, seemed keen to gee up his main striker before the second half, pausing for an extended chat.

Perhaps it was all the 23-year-old needed, for two minutes after the restart he had announced himself on the game, pushing forward on the right and then charging down Shaun Brisley's attempted clearance on the run before slotting smoothly home.

It was made to look simple by a finisher in form. It also prompted Curle to make a change, swapping Shaun Miller for Jamie Devitt. Carlisle did not look watertight as Grimsby came forward again, but they did establish another spell in the visitors' half as they regrouped.

Lambe, back on the right, showed impressive pace to react to a breaking ball, but misplaced his finish from a tight angle. Then, on the left, the Bermudan checked well and crossed, but Henderson plucked Raynes' header out of Wyke's path.

The second goal, though, wasn't coming, and after the next outbreak of Grimsby pressure Carlisle found themselves behind, Danny Andrew's inswinging corner finding Bogle with far too much room to leap and head home.

Brunton Park's first home league defeat of the season was suddenly a serious risk. It should have been curtailed moments later when Jabo Ibehre, on for Tom Miller, arrived at the back stick to meet Wyke's header, but instead the sub's close-range finish with his thigh trickled towards the line and was scooped away by Henderson.

Grimsby then mercilessly punished this waste, and from more Bogle work, new signing Adi Yussuf sprinted clear of the faltering back line and finished clinically.

Carlisle's resolve, seen impressively so often this season, now had its most daunting test. Back they came in search of an unlikely comeback, but Jason Kennedy had a shot blocked, and then Devitt, agonisingly, failed to score from Joyce's pass, sending the ball past Henderson but watching it hit the inside of the far post and roll to safety.

Before the end, Andrew's next inswinger found the target for Grimsby but was disallowed for a foul. This did not, though, lower the volume in the away seats. The Mariners had United in their net and were going to enjoy it. Henderson certainly did, celebrating a momentous personal day in front of the travelling fans.

Now it is down to Carlisle to restart 2017 in much better and tighter fashion, at Colchester this weekend.