Carlisle United Football Club

"It was really frustrating," he said. "We lost the toss ahead of the game, and they put us against the wind, but I thought we were the better team in the first half. They obviously got the killer blow just before half time and we went in 1-0 down, which was tough. 

"We knew we'd have the wind in the second half and we came out and created a lot of chances. We just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net. We keep saying that we're playing well but we're coming out of games with nothing. That needs to change. 

"We put a good performance in against Bristol City last week and I think we deserved at least a point today, if not the win. If we keep putting good performances in we will get results. We just can't let this run knock our confidence."

"Tuesday is another game," he insisted. "If we can play like we did today, and add some goals, then we'll be fine. There is a lot of quality in the team and we've proved at home that we can beat anyone. 

"I think if you analyse today's game they didn't really create a lot. We had lots of good chances and David Amoo was almost unplayable at times. Tuesday can't come quick enough because we all want to put this right."

On the second goal, he said: "I think sometimes Courtney [Meppen-Walter] wants to play pretty football. We've all seen that he's very capable of that. The ugly stuff doesn't always look good, and the fans can get frustrated, but sometimes the best thing to do is to hoof the ball clear so you don't get caught out. 

"He's been caught out today but he's got to learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen again. He's still young and very eager to learn. He's got a lot more quality than just clearing the ball out of play but he maybe needs to do that ugly stuff for a while and take it from there."

"The league table doesn't lie and although we think we're better than the position we're in at the moment we have to start showing it," he told us. "I think we were favourites to go down when Kav took over, because we'd conceded so many goals and lost so many games, but we haven't been in the bottom four since then.

"There are teams who have been in the relegation places for months now and at the moment we're just doing enough to keep ourselves out of it. We know we're in a relegation fight and we need to make sure we start picking up points. 

"I think we have to start being honest with each other and make sure everyone is aware of the position we're in. Bristol City were below us and Gillingham are just starting to pull away, so we really need to be beating these teams. The relegation word is creeping into the changing room but I think we need that so we can make sure we stop getting beat."

"Every game is important but Tuesday night gives us a really good chance to put this right straight away," he said. "Bradford's form hasn't been great and we've been quite strong in recent games at home. It's all well and good playing well but we'd much prefer a bad performance and three points. We're all confident we can turn it around and hopefully that will start on Tuesday."