For the most part Rochdale were a division behind Carlisle United who set off at top speed and stayed there.
They got a couple of first-half goals, the first one by Danny Livesey who sneaked up from defence to head home from a corner kick, with goalkeeper Matthew Gilks too far away to deal with the effort.
Then on 43 minutes it was Peter Murphy who got number two. A mis-hit shot from the right reached Murphy close in on the left side of the area and he hammered the ball home from a tight angle.
There could have been lots to go with it in the second half when Dale had a lot of defending to do but goalkeeper Gilks saved their bacon.
Not once did Rochdale threaten the visitors' goal after the interval. The nearest they got was a shot from Chris Dagnall which just missed the corner flag.
Nippy Carlisle had things very much their own way, but a fortified Dale, who had brought on Blair Sturrock for Jon Boardman at half-time, put up more resistance than they had done before the interval.
Still it was United all the time in championship form with Livesey going close again, as did Murphy and also Chris Billy.
The opportunities were there for United to score four or five, but thanks to Gilks and thanks to the Cumbrians' shooting, which did not always match to their approach play, Dale managed to keep the score down.
The corner kick count told its own story - almost a dozen to United and one for the home side.