United boss Chris Beech issued an apology to the supporters following the disappointment of the manner of the defeat against Sutton on Saturday, and he also insisted that there would be a response from a group of players who were equally disappointed.
“We have to take responsibility, and not hide from that fact that it wasn’t good enough,” he said. “We don’t accept it, we accept the responsibility, we apologise, and I apologise, because it doesn’t represent our hard work.
“A response has been demanded. In fact, it’s not a demand, that is what it should be and what we should see. We move on tomorrow [Sunday] to get ready to play a very good team next Saturday with a cup match on the Tuesday evening.”
“We have to take responsibility for that performance,” he added. “I have and the players have, because it doesn’t represent everything that we try to achieve things from.
“I’m obviously very disappointed with the result and with the manner and parts of the performance. Ultimately we’ve been well beaten against a team who are very good at home, but it’s unacceptable.
“Like I say, first and foremost I have to apologise to the travelling fans who have come all that way to support us, because they want to see things that we’ve often talked about and represented very well.
“It wasn’t on show today so we accept total responsibility for that performance. I’ll share my thoughts with the lads tomorrow. You can dissect and look at the type of goals we conceded because there was nothing too exuberant within that game.
“It’s poor when you find yourself in that position when you think about how we wanted to set up and what we wanted to achieve.”
With any defeat of that kind there are always questions on why it has been the case.
“You saw the detail of the goals,” he replied. “You’ve seen how the game was played out. It’s there for everybody to see. We didn’t represent things today and we have to accept that.
“Our foundation is on competing, but that’s the same for every team, not just for Carlisle. That’s for all teams in all leagues at every level. But today we just have to accept the fact, apologise, because we’re better than that.
“We had nearly 500 people here to watch us play, we have to take responsibility for that. We have to accept criticism, nobody likes criticism, because if you want to steer away from that in professional football, the game doesn’t change too much, the industry’s all about winning football matches, and we’ve not done that today. We must accept responsibility for that.”
Having highlighted the need for a strong start to the game, the Blues were rocked back with just three minutes on the clock when the home side bagged a messy and frustrating goal.
“I’ve already shared my thoughts on that with the players,” he said. “It’s no good me telling you we could have got the ball in the box three or four times before they even attack or that we’re playing in their half before they score - it’s all irrelevant because it’s not been good enough.
“It’s very difficult to come out with any credit within that. I see certain players doing certain things in certain ways, and with things that I like within that, but you can’t defend a performance or result like that.
“You have to accept responsibility from top to bottom, you have to address what’s happened and we’ll move forward going into next week’s fixtures.
“What I do know is that we’re capable of winning games. We’ve shown good things in the first four or five games, been good in response to slow starts, but ultimately, and I know the reasons, it’s not representing everybody’s hard work and commitment to trying to achieve something on a Saturday.
“Within that as a coaching staff, if you see it going against you, you’re also fighting to change things to make a spark.
“I think you, or your press other delegates, talked about it in terms of you can’t keep searching in that position, because one day it isn’t going to be your day. Today was that game.
“We want to start better of course, play very well in the middle of it and finish games strong, and we haven’t done that.”
Absent on the day was forward Tristan Abrahams who, it was revealed, had picked up a training ground injury ahead of the trip south.
“We don’t know the extent of that yet,” he said. “I think he had an x-ray on his foot, so we’ll see. We go into next week looking for a response from everyone who is on the training pitch.
“Of course the group has a belief, but we have to accept where we are, look at ourselves in the mirror and understand it’s not good enough, and address it from that point, otherwise you’ve got one arm in the water and you’re going round in a circle.
“You’ve got to make sure you stop that and understand how you can help yourself, each other and respond to what is something I’ve not seen in this team since we got ourselves rolling. I’ve not been involved in that really.
“It was there when I inherited it, Plymouth, Colchester, there was a couple we didn’t like, but it’s not been there since we got into what you’d consider a better place. But we’re not in a better place currently - we’re in a place we need to accept and move forward from.”
With a final word on the red card shown to substitute Manny Mampala, he commented: “It was a second booking so you can’t appeal that. I wish he’d given him a red card so we could appeal, and he could get off it.
“Even that’s at the wrong end of where it needs to be. He kept his eyes on the ball, Jon Mellish has got cuts on his head from being constantly elbowed winning headers in the midfield area. We didn’t do that and we’re punished.”
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