Mansfield keep pressure on at top of League Two after easing past Carlisle

Mansfield fired themselves towards the League Two automatic promotion places with an emphatic 4-0 win over woeful Carlisle on Tuesday night.

Goals from captain Ollie Clarke, Alfie Kilgour, Lucas Akins and Elliott Hewitt condemned the Cumbrians to back-to-back home defeats for the first time in a year at Brunton Park.

Nigel Clough’s in-form side – now unbeaten in five games – cut the gap between themselves and the third-place Cumbrians to just three points with a potentially-vital game in hand.

Stags’ skipper Clarke started the rout in the 14th minute as he powered home a header, his second goal in as many games, from Stephen Quinn’s cross.

In-form Kilgour bagged his third goal in four games as he thundered home a header from Davis Keillor-Dunn’s 25th-minute corner.

Keillor-Davis was at the forefront of the third goal as well as he was fouled by Morgan Feeney to earn the visitors a penalty.

Akins duly obliged and sent hapless Carlisle goalkeeper Tom Holy the wrong way to bag his seventh goal of the season – and third from the spot – on the half-hour mark.

Hewitt curled home a fourth before the break to compound Carlisle’s misery, while Will Swan hit the post late on for the visitors.