Carlisle United were beaten 2-1 at home by Shrewsbury Town to end their interest in the FA Cup.
With the prospect of a plumb draw when the big boys enter at the next stage, it was a good one to win but the Shrews had too much for the League One side.
They were stronger in key areas and deserved the win, but it was unfortunate for Carlisle that they suffered a series of injuries during the game.
Zak Clough and Kelvin Mellor both had to be replaced in the first-half after Shrewsbury had taken the lead and it was one of the replacements, Jordan Gibson who scored Carlisle’s late goal in the first minute of three added on after the 90.
Shrewsbury took the lead on 11 minutes when teenager Tom Bloxham worked an opening and saw his shot deflected by a Carlisle defender past Mark Howard.
Earlier Carlisle’s best effort of the whole game saw a low shot from Tristan Abrahams turned round the post by Marko Marosi. They had one other real chance when Brad Young dispossessed Marosi outside the area but he couldn’t find Abrahams who would have had an open goal.
Shrewsbury clinched the tie on 77 minutes when Ryan Bowman, who started his career at Carlisle, showed clever footwork on the edge of the area to outwit the last defender and fired a low shot beyond the diving Howard.
Gibson’s goal came too late to effect the result but Gibson would be pleased with the finish as he curled a fine finish into the bottom corner.
There had been some suggestion that some Carlisle fans would stage a protest against the club’s owners, and a number of tennis balls were thrown onto the pitch. Later a protest banner was unfurled on the terrace of the main stand.
Assistant manager Gavin Skelton said: “I thought there wasn’t a lot wrong with the performance. We passed the ball well and got into good areas at time but, it’s a recurring theme, we didn’t create enough.
“The one progress though is the fact that we’ve scored in three successive games, after failing to score in the previous five.
“We certainly couldn’t fault the effort and now with a big week coming up, and a fair amount of travel, we are already thinking about the next match.”
Steve Cotterill, the Shrewsbury manager said: “Getting into the third round is something we wanted when we started off. We wanted to look forward to the draw and maybe get a good tie.”
