Colchester made it nine games without defeat with a 2-0 win at a lacklustre Carlisle outfit.
Lambert's men continue push for play-offs
Colchester made it nine games without defeat with a 2-0 win at a lacklustre Carlisle outfit.
The visitors rarely had to raise their game to account for the Cumbrians who created precious few scoring opportunities against a resolute rearguard in which former Carlisle man Paul Reid stood out.
Carlisle looked uncomfortable from the start and things went disastrously wrong for central defender Danny Livesey in the 11th minute after he lost the ball to Mark Yeates inside his own half.
Yeates fed the ball out to Lewis Gobern on the right and the winger's cross was turned past his own goalkeeper by Livesey from six yards out.
Carlisle were unable to gain a foothold in the game as Yeates found acres of space on the left before cutting inside to fire a shot just over Ben Williams' bar.
And Colchester were rewarded for their persistence in the 82nd minute when Scott Vernon forced a point-blank save from Williams and David Perkins was following up to slide the rebound home from 10 yards.
