Carlisle United continue to head the cluster of clubs chasing the top three for automatic promotion.
They maintained fourth sport in the League Two table with a hard-fought 2-0 home win over Newport County.
The Cumbrians scored either side of the interval to take charge against a Newport side who had looked lively in the first-half.
Top scorer Kristian Dennis grabbed the crucial opening goal in first-half stoppage time when he managed to steer the ball home after Newport failed to clear the danger in the windy conditions.
It was Dennis who set-up the second goal on 57 minutes when he laid on a shooting chance for new signing John-Kymani Gordon and the Crystal Palace loanee fired low past keeper Joe Day.
Newport couldn’t find a response from that and Carlisle saw out the game in comfortable fashion.
Manager Paul Simpson said: “It was nice to get the win and keep up the pressure on the teams ahead of us.
“I particularly liked the second goal. Kristian did really well under pressure to lay on the perfect pass for John and it was great for him to mark his debut with a goal.
“We have a week to prepare for the Bradford City game but on Tuesday we are at Workington in the County Cup and we have lads who need game time who will be involved there.”
The Newport manager Graham Coughlan said: “I thought the lads were excellent for 46 minutes. I thought our game plan, our set up, everything about us was really, really positive, really good and then we pressed the self-implode button.”
