Carlisle City’s top five hopes in the Northern League suffered a severe blow last night.
They were routed 7-1 at Whickham in a Division One fixture and are now down to sixth, having played more games than all the teams above them.
Manager Jim Nichols said: “It’s a big kick in the teeth for our play-off hopes and to be fair we’ve had a punishing schedule over the last month where we’ve looked leggy and lethargic.
“We actually started quite brightly last night and really the 0-3 half-time score-line didn’t reflect how the game had gone.
“At half-time we spoke about how we could get back into the game, changing the system but we had Jordan Holt sin-binned and while he was off they scored two more and it was all over.
“Although we did pull one back, some of our defending was really poor and two more goals before the end made it embarrassing.”
Scott Robson had scored a hat-trick for Whickham at Penrith on Saturday in a 5-3 defeat and the respected striker repeated the feat against City.
He scored in the 26th and 38th minutes, completing the hat-trick after 69 minutes.
The other goals came from Lewis Leech (45), Jack Elliott (51), Dec Bisset (60) and Tom Howard (70).
Jordan Palmer pulled back one for City after 61 minutes but to add to their woes they had Rob McCartney sent off before the end.
