Rock bottom Carlisle United pulled off the shock of the day to derail Peterborough’s promotion push.
A hat-trick from midfielder Jon Mellish earned Paul Simpson’s men only their sixth win of the season, but they are still 13 points from safety with six games to go.
Mellish had only scored twice this season but on 27 minutes he rose well to get on the end of a Jordan Gibson cross after he took a short corner off Dylan McGeouch.
Whatever Darren Ferguson said to his team at half-time it fell on deaf ears because within three minutes Carlisle had doubled their lead.
This time he collected a weak header from home defender Ronnie Edwards and then
The Mellish hat-trick came on 58 minutes and it was the best of the lot – a tremendous left foot volley when he connected with a McGeouch cross.
Although the Posh did hit back quickly when skipper Harrison Burrows fired through a crowd of players on 61 minutes it was to prove only a consolation goal for the hosts.
Substitute Jonson Clarke-Harris missed a great chance soon afterwards to further reduce the arrears and then late-on he saw an effort strike the bar.
But Carlisle held on well to register a heartening victory, although too late to prevent them tumbling back to League Two.
