If Carlisle United fans expected a smooth ride back to the Football League they now know differently.
A run of tough fixtures against strong, former EFL sides has started with back-to-back defeats.
A 5-0 mid-week pasting at York was followed by a 2-0 home defeat to an impressive Rochdale side.
Manager Mark Hughes, after a relatively untroubled start to National League fare, now has to ignite his deflated squad for upcoming games against old league rivals Hartlepool, Scunthorpe, Forest Green, Yeovil, Halifax and Southend.
No gimmees there, and the Blues will have to improve dramatically on their latest display to maintain their place in the play-off berths.
It was a slick performance by Rochdale with their top-scorer Emmanuel Dieseruvwe scoring twice to make it six National League wins in a row.
Carlisle had managed four in a row at one point but that is now two defeats in succession and Hughes could not argue that this one was not deserved.
It only took six minutes for the visitors to take the lead at Brunton Park when a clever ball was pulled back to Dieseruvwe and their top scorer made no mistake.
It as Dieseruvwe who doubled the lead on 56 minutes when he took a moment to control a pass before firing accurately into the bottom corner.
Those two goals put him level on nine for the season with Carlisle’s own hotshot Regan Linney who was kept well under control by Rochdale on this occasion.
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