Manager Keith Curle says Carlisle United must quickly respond to the "royal slap in the face" they suffered at the hands of Blackpool.

Their heaviest home defeat of the season was inflicted on Saturday with ex-Blues midfielder Brad Potts among the scorers.

And on the eve of their clash with leaders Doncaster, Curle said his players will know they were their own worst enemies in their 4-1 humbling - and have to improve.

"We got slapped in the race royally and deservedly," he said.

"If you make those errors, and you haven't got that cohesion in your play, the likelihood is you're going to get a slap on the face.

"But I've got players in that changing room that don’t like being slapped, and they will learn very quickly."

Potts fired Pool in front, later apologising on Twitter for his celebrations in front of home fans in the Pioneer Stand.

Jordan Flores, Sanmi Odelusi and Nathan Delfouneso also scored, sub Jabo Ibehre heading Carlisle's consolation.

It was an error-strewn United display in front of a 6,170 crowd as their gap above the play-offs was cut to three points.

Curle admitted his team was "disjointed" and below par at both ends, blasting "pathetic" defending for Blackpool's fourth goal.

He said: "Mistakes change games. We made some howlers and got punished by a team that's playing very well away from home at the minute.

"We gave them a head start and continued to give them opportunities. They gladly took them. And we didn't cause them enough problems going in the other direction.

"The errors were silly. The players hold their hands up. That's all well and good and I know they mean well. But now we need a reaction, and playing against top of the league on Tuesday is great way to respond."

Jamie Proctor will be available tomorrow having been suspended on Saturday.

While fellow loanee George Waring struggled to test the Blackpool defence, Curle said the supply to the big Stoke frontman was poor.

The manager said: "You're a 6ft 5in centre-forward, you're going to thrive on balls and crosses into the box, and I don’t think we gave him enough with any real quality.

"Ideally we want to be progressive with our passes, work the ball into wide areas, and then deliver quality in the box. We didn’t do that enough."

Curle added: "This is where the unity within the changing room, within the football club, is vitally important.

"You're not going to have to watch that video and search through the eye of a needle to find the mistakes - they're blatantly obvious.

"Sometimes you can get away with it, and people start making more mistakes because they think they can get away with it. But sometimes you need to get punished. We have been punished and we can eradicate those mistakes."