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" I said that it was going to be a tricky game, my biggest concern before the game when I had the team-talk an hour and a half before the game was warning my players what to expect. I knew about some of their good players and especially one of them, and I thought that he (Graham Kavanagh) had an outstanding night tonight and showed a class game, I thought that he had an excellent game.
" I warned my players but we were reminded of the reality of football and if it went through their minds before the game that it was going to be an easy game then they were proven very wrong. Because we were never at it, in a way we were lucky that we managed to equalise in the first-half but after that we conceded again in the second-half and it was difficult for us to get back into the game. There were chances and attempts, Gylfi (Sigurdsson) came close to getting a goal but I thought that we never played to our potential tonight.
" At home this is the lowest I have been since I have been here and I said to my players at half-time that I was happy with having a 1-1 situation at half-time. We were trying to encourage them to keep the ball and do what we are capable of doing but it looked like too many of my players were not ready to commit themselves to the battle and the discipline that was required here tonight.
" If you look into the opposite side there were players there actually who had an excellent game tonight. Three or four them performed very well and in way you have got to give Carlisle credit for how they took themselves forward and we found it difficult to cope with a few of their players. When you come up against good players you have got to at least make sure that you put the work rate in that is required, and that is the minimum requirement.
" The only positive thing is we didn't play well at all but even though we didn't play well and play to our potential we didn't have a bad defeat. There were chances for us even to get back into the game and equalise the game. It tells us that if we are at it, if we stay focused and firm in our approach and deal with things with a bit more urgency then we can be back on track. We need to make sure that we do that for Saturday, because come Saturday it will be a very, very important game. "
" The idea behind pushing Gylfi upfront is that we don't have any target strikers and we miss the target strikers, because Popey (Tom Pope) got injured. The idea behind that was trying to get the link play, get the ball up to Gylfi and ask him to drop the ball into the midfield so that we could have the quick lads on either side. Hoping that Clayton (Donaldson) and Byron (Moore) would have been on either side but it didn't work and we found it hard. Not only that but we found it hard also in midfield as well so it was overall a chasing first-half.
" I brought Steven Schumacher off because I was just looking to try to win the game. I wanted to try to win the game and I took a midfielder (Schumacher) off for a centre-forward (Shaun Miller) in that sense and put Gylfi back in the midfield. I was hoping to have a bit more of play in midfield with Gylfi and his ability but the rhythm of the team wasn't there tonight. It was a bit of both, I thought that we could have adapted in a better way but also Carlisle played ever so well.
" I have been trying ever so hard to see if there will be any chance for me to bring in players for the injured ones. Because at this moment in time I think that can obviously be a worry because there is no replacement in the squad for Dennis (Lawrence) or Tom Pope and we miss them big-time. Both of them have been very, very effective in their last games before they got injured. They have both been key players in the shape and the formation that we have been taking forward.
" Hereford are right in there with us and my concern for this game was that everybody would ease off and think that it was just enough to put the boots on and get out there tonight. We were reminded though of what is required, the game against Hereford on Saturday is a very, very important game but neither Dennis nor Popey will be fit. I have small, quick centre-forwards, but they're not the target players we need. I think it is obvious to everybody we miss Tom up front.
" I have to dig in and see if I can come up with something else than what we have got at this moment in time, but only the next couple of days can tell. I have had a conversation with the lad (Michael O'Connor) as well and he is now available on loan. I have told him that he is free to go out and get himself a club, if he can get himself sorted and get on loan elsewhere. "