Each of Stuart Campbell's flagged kicks found the head of Chris Lines. From the first Lines thought he had scored his first ever goal but keeper Keiren Westwood got a hand to it. Westwood could only push it into the path of Andy Williams though who knocked it back past him. Lines' second effort was hit low for Craig Hinton to fire it left footed past the keeper from 15 yards.
After being booed off by their fans three days earlier for failing to beat eight-man Luton, Rovers were not basking in their support. They had a nasty moment when Carlisle's Simon Hackney, always dangerous on the left wing, got through with a shot which swerved late and so nearly caught out keeper Steve Phillips.
But in the swirling wind Carlisle were well below the form which has seen them among the League One promotion group all season. In a match with a high corner count they tightened up in defence but should have gone another goal down when David Pipe battled to reach the byline and found Sammy Igoe with an accurate centre. Unmarked and 15 yards out, Igoe completely missed his kick.
His error could have been doubly expensive as Carlisle cleared and raced away only to see top scorer Joe Garner miss Phillips' far post by a foot. Garner again, Hackney and Paul Thirlwell then went close for the visitors but a third Rovers goal early in the second half put the game out of Carlisle's reach. A calculated one it was too with Williams turning carefully inside the box to swerve a shot into the top left hand corner.