Cheltenham Town 2 Carlisle Utd 0: This was not a good advertisement for the Big Ideas which were supposed to take Carlisle into interesting new places this season. Philosophies and good intentions won’t get far if this is how you defend set-pieces, and this is how you are overrun and outbattled when games are in the balance.

United spent much of the second half in Cheltenham territory but do not be deceived by that. When this match was there to be grabbed, they were nowhere. Before the break, the home side pressured and, at times, overwhelmed them. At 2-0 up Michael Duff’s men could afford to soak up what later came.

The same scoreline as three days earlier, then, a third straight league defeat for the first time in a couple of years, and more worries than Steven Pressley will have wished to be spreading through United’s supporters this early in a campaign.

Yes, it is still early. Yes, Cheltenham are useful at home. And yes, a new team is still finding its way. Carlisle’s first few ventures in this League Two campaign, though, have overall been too flawed for comfort and there is a need for extra steel, not to mention a more consistent structure to their attacking play, if this is not to be an extended spell at the wrong end of the table.

Their flaws when defending dead-balls, first witnessed at Swindon, appeared again here when Gavin Reilly put Cheltenham ahead. There may have been injustice in the hosts’ second, when Luke Varney seemed to handle before scoring, but again, don’t let that cloud things.

United were, it was clear enough, comfortable value for their two-goal deficit and nothing of what Pressley has said about “high-energy” football was delivering sufficient results until, belatedly, they set about Cheltenham in the second half. A goal, though, wouldn’t come to trigger any sort of serious fightback and there is more pressure now on Saturday’s visit of Salford than is ideal before August is through.

Pressley had felt it too soon for changes after the defeat to Mansfield and is probably regretting that now. The same XI went out and, after a deceptive opening 10 minutes on the front foot, vanished into the game’s margins and duly went behind.

Just as Cheltenham had not lost at Whaddon Road since January, United had waited as long for an away win in League Two, and they started with reasonable enough intent, Harry McKirdy seeing the game’s first serious shot deflected wide after a counter-attack. As on Saturday, though, they couldn’t turn this early hope into conviction, and then the opposition scored.

Cheltenham recovered from United’s pressing and began stretching the play down the sides, Ryan Broom and Sean Long eating up ground. From one break, Varney fed Reilly as Carlisle were outdone on the edge of their box. Adam Collin saved that attempt but it was depressing, two minutes later, to see their seams unpicked: Cheltenham working a corner low, then back to Jake Doyle-Hayes, and Reilly evading Mike Jones to head home the cross.

Coming not long after a corner nailed them at Swindon, this did not reflect well on United’s defending and amid an unconvincing response, they were fortunate not to fall to another. This time the post reprieved them as Cheltenham players queued up at the back stick and Charlie Raglan rose unmarked to head a free-kick across goal.

Carlisle themselves were struggling to connect passes and failing utterly to threaten Cheltenham now. Their experienced centre-halves failed to dominate a pair of canny but not necessarily imposing strikers. Ben Tozer’s long throw caused some bother and bar a Jack Bridge dart that could have opened the door, there was nothing from their main attackers, Ryan Loft served with nothing to attack as the theoretical No9.

Cheltenham had a better presence and purpose, were overwhelming United through a midfield short of muscle, and almost got another, when Broom was first to a Collin clearance, fed the overlapping Long and was only prevented from reaching the return cross by the alert Byron Webster.

The offside flag then wiped out a Varney goal and it was not until the 40th minute that Carlisle came up for a gulp of air. Stefan Scougall’s shot was blocked and Nathan Thomas curled over but this was a rare flurry and, even though there was a large amount of controversy about Cheltenham’s second, it was hardly ill-deserved on the balance of play.

The ball, after all, was allowed to reach Varney in the first place in a promising position as the right side of United’s defence lost grip. Those with a close view in the away seats called handball, as did Christie Elliott, as the striker brought it down (and footage seems to confirm Carlisle's version) but the officials saw no infringement and Varney clipped it past Collin.

Pressley’s only change at the break was in personnel – Olufela Olomola for Loft – but nothing particularly structural, and United, at the start of the half, remained under pressure. Another disallowed goal, this time for a foul on Collin, provided the latest scare, and the Blues simply had to come out of this rather hollow shell.

Twice in the space of three minutes they almost did, as Olomola began holding the ball up well and linking midfield and attack and his team-mates finally starting to using it more constructively. A couple of corners came and when one fell to McKirdy, Scott Flinders saved superbly, Olomola inadvertently getting in the way of Webster’s follow-up.

Next, Olomola pounced on sloppy Cheltenham passing and clipped the ball over a defender. Thomas was in, a golden chance, but Flinders saved it and the United man’s attempt to force the ball in with his arm was penalised by ref Will Finnie.

This was welcome, if belated, impetus, as Scougall emerged into the game, working the ball better between the lines, but with such a deficit Carlisle needed to prove they could mount a comeback, not flirt with one. Thomas sliced wide from their next foray, was denied by Flinders from another, and in this period looked the man who might find at least a glimmer for the Blues.

It was not to be. Pressley sent on Hallam Hope for McKirdy next and United were playing much more of the game in the Cheltenham half, but a heavy touch denied Webster a chance and while Carlisle now looked a better side than earlier (not difficult), the potency was still missing.

Nobody, towards the end, in fact came closer than Broom, who fired narrowly wide on the break for Cheltenham, and by the time sub George Lloyd skied a late free-kick out of the ground nobody in the home contingent was overly concerned. United had long since come, floundered and left with all they deserved, and it needs to be much better than this before this faulty start becomes more concerning.

Cheltenham: Flinders, Long, Raglan, Greaves, Tozer, Debayo (Hussey 71), Doyle-Hayes, Clements, Broom, Reilly (Lloyd 78), Varney (Campbell 85). Subs: Lovett, Brennan, Bowry, Thomas.

Goals: Reilly 15, Varney 44

Booked: Tozer

United: Collin, Elliott, Iredale, Webster, Knight-Percival, Jones, Bridge (Sagaf 88), Scougall, McKirdy (Hope 71), Thomas, Loft (Olomola 46). Not used: Gray, Mellish, Branthwaite, Sorensen.

Booked: Scougall, Iredale, Thomas

Ref: Will Finnie

Crowd: 2,634 (207 Carlisle fans)