Missed chances cost Carlisle City dearly in their Northern League defeat at Guisborough.
Rob McCartney had a last gasp chance to level matters from the penalty spot five minutes into added time at the end but saw his effort saved.
To add to the problems for manager Jim Nichols his goalkeeper Scott Simons suffered a serious ankle injury and with no second choice on the bench defender Adam Gordon had to take over for the final few minutes.
Nichols said: “I can’t really knock the effort or the performance of the lads against one of our play-off rivals but the difference was our finishing.
“We created hance after chance and couldn’t take them or we could have been comfortable winners against a side who didn’t offer a lot more than the two goals they scored.
“They are one of the sides pushing for the top five so that made it extra disappointing that we didn’t bring anything back.
“It was another blow losing Scott to an injury which could keep him out for a few weeks of the final run-in. There are also injury concerns over Dan Kirkup and Josh Simpson ahead of our game on Wednesday night against Whickham.”
They travel to 12th in the table Whickham who are at Penrith tonight, which offers Nichols the chance to have a look at them in action.
Guisborough hadn’t really offered much of a threat until Jason Blackburn put them ahead on 21 minutes.
After spurning numerous opportunities City finally got level on 71 minutes through McCartney but two minutes later Blackburn netted his second, which proved to be the winner.
