A crowd of 5,360 produced a night of Simmotion at Brunton Park as rejuvenated Carlisle United made it back-to-back wins for the first time in two months.
Despite a 68-32 per cent possession count in Rochdale’s favour it was Carlisle who took their chances to earn a valuable three points and move to 19th, three points clear of the drop zone they occupied a week ago.
Paul Simpson, in charge of his first game at Brunton Park for 16 years, won’t be getting ahead of himself though, with a lot more work still to do to climb completely out of trouble.
Goals from Omari Patrick and Tobi Sho-Silva sealed the points for the Cumbrians after Patrick had grabbed the winner at Leyton Orient on Saturday.
Patrick broke the deadlock in the 25th minute, before Sho-Silva wrapped up the game on 90 minutes as Rochdale were chasing an equaliser.
Barrow-born Alex Newby had the first shot of the game when Rochdale put together a clinical move from kick-off but Mark Howard held comfortably.
But the first chance fell to Carlisle when Patrick ran strongly from deep before slipping the ball through to Kristian Dennis who should have done better but shot well wide.
It was an end-to-end start and Rochdale were denied by the legs of Howard when Matty Done, on his 250th appearance for the visitors, got through one-on-one with the keeper.
Jamie Devitt sliced a shot the wrong side of the post and there was another chance for Dennis but he headed Joe Riley’s cross wide of the target.
Rochdale keeper Jay Lynch was almost wrong-footed by a cross from Jordan Gibson but get back to claw the ball off the line in acrobatic fashion.
Rochdale, dominating possession for long spells, went close three times in quick succession. Tahvon Campbell had his shot blocked; Howard did well to push away a powerful free-kick from Newby and then Stephen Dooley had a shooting opportunity from outside the box.
But the visitors were rocked on 25 minutes when Lynch was unable to hold on to a free-kick from Devitt and Patrick was first there to fire home.
Patrick was close to doubling the total when he saw a curling effort come back off the post.
Captain Eoghan O’Connell tested Howard six minutes into the second-half with a dipping shot from 20 yards and they continued to have the better of the chances, with the home keeper forced into several important saves.
Carlisle, on limited possession, were still dangerous on the break and the lively Patrick saw a shot held by Lynch while Gibson shot over from a good position.
On the hour, Kelly picked out Done with a superb through ball but he was denied by the legs of Howard.
Rochdale looked the mostly likely to net an equaliser as the game entered the closing stages, as they battled to find the goal that would draw them level.
Grant had a shot tipped around the post by Howard who was then forced to get two hands behind a shot from Kelly which was driven in forcefully.
Full marks to Carlisle, though, for standing tall and with Rochdale chasing the game they broke in the 90th minute to wrap-up the points.
Tobi Sho-Silva kept his nerve to go round Lynch and slot home to send the home fans into raptures.
The three points will be welcomed by Simpson, but he will also be hugely satisfied that his team have kept another clean sheet.
