Hartlepool started with promise, but it was Carlisle who took the lad with a spectacular goal on 12 minutes. There looked to be little danger as home defender Ben Clark headed out a long ball from the back, but he didn't get enough on it and it landed kindly for Marc Bridge-Wilkinson to volley a 25-yard shot into the top corner of the net.
Antony Sweeney went close for the home team, but his curling 20-yard shot was tipped round the post by Carlisle keeper Ben Williams. With Graham Kavanagh running things in midfield, Carlisle looked the better organised team and they doubled their lead on 40 minutes. Kavanagh's corner was headed back into the area by Peter Murphy and Cleveland Taylor hooked his five-yard shot into the roof of the net.
Two minutes into the second half, Williams made a one-handed reflex save from Joel Porter's glancing header after Matty Robson's right-wing cross to preserve Carlisle's two-goal lead. But the home team did get back into it with just less than an hour gone.
A ball from Robson on the left was flicked on by Michael Nelson and Andy Monkhouse was right in front of goal for an emphatic close-range finish. The pressure mounted on Carlisle and five minutes from the end it paid for the home team as Porter hit the net with a glancing header from Robson's right-wing corner.