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

Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2023 by PA

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.