Carlisle cemented their place at the top of North Lancs and Cumbria League with an impressive 29-17 victory at Aspatria.

As a result, Carlisle go seven points clear at the top while Aspatria slip to third and join a chasing pack of seven clubs, who are all covered by a five point spread.

Carlisle’s head coach David Stout said: "It was a great result against a good Aspatria side, so huge credit to the players for stepping up and delivering by far and away their best performance of the season so far.

“I was delighted with the way we controlled the game and also how the team really came together when it mattered most.”

The key to Carlisle’s success was a forward effort that put Aspatria under pressure from minute one and crucially starved the home side of quality possession.

The home back line had opportunities throughout the game to even up the scoreboard but the majority of these were forced to start from deep.

Even when success looked likely, far too many moves failed due to a lack of precision.

From the kick-off, Aspatria made the fatal mistake of handing possession on a plate to Carlisle. A clearing kick out of defence, which should have put them on the front foot, was charged down by Jason Israel.

Building on phases across the park, the Carlisle forwards went through a series of pick and go’s until back row Josh Holmes was driven over, although the referee was unsighted and adjudged him to be held up.

Carlisle kept up the pressure and a line-out gave them the chance to put together a perfect training ground move.

The ball was fed quickly to Israel, with a dummy run from centre Dan Holmes taking out three Aspatria defenders.

This allowed Israel to put fly-half James Telford in space and he off-loaded to full-back Robbie James, who hit the line at pace to beat the last man to score in the right corner.

Aspatria responded positively to the setback.

While set-piece scrums were proving a nightmare for the home side, the line-out’s and rolling maul were effective and, on 19 minutes, the Black Reds were right back in the game.

A penalty was sent to the corner, from which, Aspatria set up a powerful maul and inched to the Carlisle line.

Former Carlisle hooker Ali Randall waited his moment and timed his final surge to the line perfectly. Jack Clegg nailed the conversion and, against the run of play, Aspatria led.

The Carlisle pack were dominating the scrum though, and with Alex Neil turning his opposite number inside out, it didn’t take long for a series of scrums across the Aspatria 10 metre line to give scrum-half Matty Roper the chance to use his considerable bulk to crash through two defenders and score Carlisle’s second try. Israel converted.

Carlisle did not need telling they were in control of this game.

Confidence was high; high enough to spurn an easy three point penalty on 28 minutes to go into the corner. Aspatria defended aggressively but were conceding penalties far too regularly, leading to a warning from the referee.

On the half hour mark, another penalty deep into the Aspatria 22 was scrummed by Carlisle and their dominant pack drove the home forwards backwards.

As a result, Josh Holmes was able to burrow under the bodies for the third Carlisle try, again converted by Israel.

Aspatria responded with another move from deep that should have put them back in the game.

Full-back Andrew Miller made a 30 meter surge up-field and set his backline in motion. Lurking wide was number eight Matthew Atkinson, who outflanked the Carlisle defenders but, with the line open, the ball was dropped.

The second half started brightly for Aspatria and they rocked Carlisle with a series of attacks but the only reward was a Clegg penalty to close the gap to 19-10.

On 55 minutes, the game erupted with a brawl around the half way line and, as a result, Carlisle’s Stuart Graham was red-carded, followed by Aspatria’s James Ravell for retaliation.

The double dismissal shook the game up but did nothing to improve Aspatria’s ball handling.

On 62 minutes, yet another backline move broke down in midfield.

Dan Holmes picked up and, after a surging run was stopped on the Aspatria 22, the centre offloaded to number eight Henry Wainwright.

He then put Robbie James into space to round the remaining home defence and score Carlisle’s bonus-point try.

If there was any remaining doubt regarding the end result, the issue was put to bed on 68 minutes with Carlisle’s fifth try.

A Carlisle rolling maul was driven down the left flank and captain Tom Graham was on hand to crash over for the fifth try.

Aspatria did manage to finish the game with some consolation from a rare backline move that was executed to perfection.

Centre Craig Foster got on the score sheet after he picked up a cross kick on the Carlisle 22 and sailed over the line. Clegg’s conversion adding some respectability to the final score line.