United looked set to be taking a place in the round three draw with just a few minutes of the game left to play on Saturday afternoon, but that was all turned on its head as Walsall bagged two goals in the space of five minutes to leave the Carlisle contingent with nothing but a deep feeling of frustration at what might have been.
“It was a game where Walsall had gone, they were absolutely shot to pieces,” manager Paul Simpson said. “We dealt with everything for 88 minutes but unfortunately I can’t legislate for that first goal. I just can’t legislate for it.
“After that we had an opportunity where we were breaking off their corner, having defended it really well, but we gave the ball away and we were opened up. Credit to the lad who finished it off, but we shouldn’t have been in that situation.
“Like I say, it was the first goal that killed us. The way it happened is what cost us the game. It’s a horrendous mistake and, like I say, you can’t legislate for that. They got a bit of momentum from that point.
“We defended the set plays really well through the whole game and we defended the last one well where we got the break from it. It was similar to one we had in the first half where we should have found the right pass.
“We weren’t good enough in the final third, and we weren’t clinical enough or clean enough with our possession to kill the game off, which we should have been able to do.
“There was a lot that was massively positive but unfortunately, and I have to come back to it, that first goal has killed us. We cannot make those mistakes, it’s as simple as that.
“That mistake has cost us the game. They’ve obviously deserved it because of the way they did it from the 88th minute until the 95th minute.
“Because of that you have to say they deserved to go through. But for the 88 minutes before that we’ve dominated the game and been the better side, but they were the better side for those closing minutes and that’s what got them the win.
“All I can say about an error like that in a situation like that is that it should never happen, end of story.
“I’m not even going to try and protect anybody, because that mistake cost us a place in the draw. And I’ve told the lads collectively that we’ve chucked it away. That’s an FA Cup tie where we should be in the draw.
“It’s another straight ball, straight down the pitch, it has to be dealt with properly, wasn’t dealt with. I think he misjudged it if anything. I’m looking at him thinking I’m glad they’ve done that, Tomas will just start backing off, he misjudged the ball, I don’t know if the wind took it, I’ve no idea what happened. He’s apologised in there, but it shouldn’t happen.”
Having taken the lead through an excellent piece of football, the second period was about seeing the job through, which looked be the case until that late home goal was grabbed.
“I thought we were comfortable,” the gaffer told us. “I think we’ve had some good opportunities where with a bit more quality we could have got goalscoring chances.
“That’s the bit that’s let us down. We can all talk about a really bad mistake from our goalkeeper which has given them the leg up, but we’ve had some other mistakes in our attacking play as well. If we’re better at it that mistake could have counted for nothing.
“I thought for the majority of the game what we wanted to do was working well. We looked to be in control. We had to make a couple of changes, lads were getting cramp and tiring, which is a bit disappointing.
“But the changes weren’t the reason for us losing. It’s other things have cost us. As a group we’ve just got to be better, move on from it, that’s all I can say.
“We have to just move on, get ourselves ready, have a good week of training and make sure we’re ready again.”
“I’ve been asked about the tackle on Ryan in the first half but I’m not so sure,” he concluded. “When I looked at it at the time I thought it was a penalty, but I’ve looked again and it’s a tight call.
“Ryan certainly got the first touch on the ball, he took it away from the defender, but I’d probably be clutching at straws to say that affected it. It hasn’t, it’s the mistake for the equaliser that’s had the real affect and that’s what took it away from us.”