A Littleborough wedding had put Carlisle’s North Lancs Cumbria promotion challenge on hold.

But when they finally did host the Rochdale side at Warwick Road a week later than scheduled, it was Carlisle who were able to celebrate.

The 22-12 win for the Cumbrians lifted them to joint fourth in the table, just four points behind the leaders.

Last week’s wedding excesses didn't seem to have affected Littleborough too much, and within six minutes, the visitors took an early lead from a penalty.

Unfazed, Carlisle stuck to their game plan, and after the visitor's defence was tested down the left wing, the ball was worked quickly across the Littleborough 22, allowing winger Martin Brodie to crash over in the right-hand corner.

Littleborough kept plugging away at Carlisle's defence, and after a home player was judged to be not releasing, the visitors’ winger added another penalty for a 6-5 lead.

A delay while the Littleborough full-back recovered after being knocked out interrupted the flow of the game but it did allow Carlisle to re-group a little after a period of opposition pressure.

On the half hour mark, after fly-half James Telford put a penalty deep into touch ten metres from the visitors’ try line, a catch and drive from the line-out was steered over by the forwards, with second row Matt Davis claiming the honours.

Almost immediately from the restart, Carlisle pushed down the left wing again and the ball was worked across for back row Guy Graham to crash through the middle of the Littleborough defence and secure Carlisle's third try under the posts. Telford converted.

Then a yellow card for Josh Holmes allowed Littleborough's marksman to convert the penalty and close the gap to 17-9.

Another penalty infringement right at the end by Carlisle saw Littleborough get within a score of the Carlisle side at half-time with their fourth penalty.

The second half was marked by periods of solid defence by both sides with only the one try being scored in the 40 minutes.

It was Carlisle who eventually broke through on 50 minutes after a period of sustained pressure on the 22.

A penalty to touch allowed a Carlisle line-out ten metres out, and this time, it was Rory Parish who was driven over for the bonus-point try.

This was to be the last score of the game, and although both sides had chances to add points to the board, the result was never really in doubt.