Carlisle City manager Jim Nichols admitted his side’s 6-2 home defeat by Crook Town was embarrassing.
It was the game City had won earlier in the season but then lost the points and were ordered to play it again because they had fielded an ineligible player.
Nichols said: “It certainly was nowhere good enough and the lads themselves knew that. We struggled with their physicality and although they didn’t create a bagful of chances everyone they did seemed to go in.
“We didn’t help ourselves with some poor errors so all in all it was really embarrassing performance from us.
“All of our best performances seem to have been against the top teams while we have tended to struggle against teams near the bottom.
“We are starting to look to next season and already a couple of lads have expressed an interest in joining the club. We do feel we have a good core of players but it does need freshened up and in the games that we have left it’s up to lads to show they want to be part of the squad next season.
“We have a quick opportunity to get back into action and put this one behind us as we go to Newcastle Benfield on Tuesday.”
City had made a dreadful start and were 2-0 down inside nine minutes after goals from Craig Moody and Ben Garrity.
Jordan Palmer pulled one back after 27 minutes but Dan Mitten (31) and Moody (45) gave Crook a handsome 4-1 interval lead.
Zachj Bewley added a fifth goal on 72 minutes before Connor Shields knocked in City’s second but Crook had the final word on a good afternoon for them when Moody completed his hat-trick two minutes from time.
