We spoke to Mark Hughes shortly after full-time at Cheltenham, a defeat which confirmed relegation to the National League.
On the game, Mark said: “Today it was difficult for us. I thought once we'd gone into the lead we just needed to retain that lead for a little bit longer so that we could get that control that we needed in our play. It was a little bit erratic today.
“Unfortunately, the referee has played a part today. I'm really disappointed in the officials’ display. Gabe clearly has touched the ball and knocked it away from him for the penalty decision.
“If it was a foul, the ball would have run out for a corner. It didn't because Gabe got a touch on the ball. The lad runs into Gabe. It's not one that you can give. I asked the referee if he was 100% certain, which clearly he couldn't be, but he seemed to think he was. That really just affected us, I felt.
“Then we obviously conceded again. We should have had better courage and better belief in that second half and got back on level terms. Then the draw wasn't good enough for us, so we had to go for it and we just got caught on the break.
“I can't criticise the guys too much today. They gave everything as they have done in recent weeks and I thank them for that. Today, it was just one step too far.
“We couldn't control what was going on at other grounds, so we just had to try and do what we had to do here. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
“We were away from home and we're having to ask questions of a good team. We have to keep on sometimes overextending ourselves, throwing bodies forward, so you're likely to get caught on the break on occasion. You just hope on those occasions you deal with those situations really well, but a couple of times we didn't do that.
“We scored two good goals. Georgie on another day could have had a hat-trick. Matty as well could have scored two or three. We created chances once again, asked questions of a good team, but the reality is the situation we found ourselves in wasn't one ultimately that we could turn around.
“I've got to thank the players since I've come in. I think they've been excellent in terms of what they've tried to do. They've tried to implement what we talked about and I thank them for that.
“But today we just came up a little bit short, as we have done in the season.”
We then asked Mark if he could put his finger on where things had gone wrong, he said: “I've got a few ideas in that regard. I've got my thoughts on that, but it's not the time or the place now.
“It's going to be difficult for the club and everybody connected, but the key is that we bounce back very, very quickly.
“We got to the last but one Saturday and I don't think anybody gave us any hope of getting that close to the end of the season and still being with a chance of staying up. Up to a point we were affected in a positive manner, but the ultimate aim was to clearly stay in the league and we haven't been able to do that.”
On whether he had spoken to the owners about what might happen next season, he said: “It's not the time or the place. It's certainly not today and 20 minutes after a game, so I'm sure there'll be conversations taking place soon.”
On his final message to the fans, he said: “Everybody's disappointed today. We had great support once again.
“I think they could see that the team was really trying to at least win this game and give ourselves a fighting chance to be able to get to the last game of the season. In the end, that opportunity was taken away from us.
“We thank them once again. It's been a really hard season for everybody connected with Carlisle United, not least the fans, but they'll be there again.
“The love for the club is on show every time we play, so we don't take it for granted. We don't expect it. You have to obviously earn their respect.
“I think they've understood it was a difficult situation and they've got behind us really, really well once again today. We've just come up a little bit short.”
