Carlisle City’s first season in the Northern League’s top flight ended in a 3-2 defeat at Heaton Stannington.
But manager Jim Nichols admitted that he would probably have snatched hands-off at the start of the season if he had been offered a 15th place finish.
“I think the disappointment is that the season rather petered away for us after a really good start.
“All our best performances were at the start of the season and we did really well against some of the top teams in the League, the likes of Bishop Auckland, Ashington and Whitley Bay.
“We seemed to do better against the good sides while our poorest efforts have been against teams nearer the bottom.
“Now whether that’s down to complacency I’m not sure but we certainly weren’t able to put out the side we would have wanted in a number of games.
“We will now take a break, look at who we would like to bring in for next season and see how we go. Certainly I think we have the nucleus of a good side.
“Having scrambled around Division Two in the bottom half for a number of years the fact that we finished 15th in our first season in Division One says a bit about how far we’ve come as a club.”
City had taken the lead on Saturday on 10 minutes with a goal from Dan Kirkup and they were much the better side early on but were unable to add to their tally.
Leighton Hopper levelled after 34 minutes and then in first-half stoppage time Joe Shepherd put Heaton Stannington in front.
City pressed hard on the resumption and eventually deservedly drew level on 74 minutes through Jordan Palmer – his 12th goal in 14 games so going back to the club from Workington.
There looked to be only one winner after that but three minutes from the end Konner Lamb got through one-on-one and although he scuffed his shot it found the bottom corner.
“Somehow that winning goal just summed up how the second-half of the season has gone for us,” said Nichols.
