Carlisle avoided a potential banana skin at Gateshead as they were comfortable 3-0 winners in the National League.
The Blues haven’t been in the best form of late and Gateshead had lost their previous nine games in all competitions.
But there were no real alarms for Mark Hughes’ men who stayed firmly in the race for automatic promotion, in what is a really tight contest.
Former Sunderland midfielder Elliot Embleton scored his first competitive goal for the Blues in the 36th minute.
He did well to dispossess Ibrahim Bakare before cleverly flitting past Tiernan Brooks.
Although much the better side Carlisle had to wait until 19 minutes from the end before they doubled their lead.
Regan Linney was fouled in the area and Carlisle’s leading scorer gratefully knocked home from the penalty spot.
Luke Armstrong notched the third after 88 minutes to wrap up three more valuable points for the Cumbrians.
