He may have scored on Saturday but Carlisle striker Jamie Proctor’s goal meant little to him, come the full-time whistle.

The frontman, on loan with the Cumbrians from League One promotion contenders Bolton, scored United’s second in their 3-3 draw against Crawley last weekend.

That meant Proctor had made a telling impact on proceedings at his old stomping ground in Sussex as he hit the goal trail again and drew the Blues level shortly before half-time, with Keith Curle’s men having fallen 2-0 down at one stage in the first half before their fightback.

After the restart, Carlisle began the second period in a similar vein to the way they had ended the first, taking the lead and completing their turnaround shortly before the hour mark when winger Reggie Lambe found the net and then celebrated with the away fans who had made the 700-mile round trip.

But the decision to bring off former Crawley man Proctor in the latter stages of the match saw the pendulum shift in the game and, in stoppage time, United’s fading promotion hopes were delivered another killer blow as midfielder Jimmy Smith found the net to secure Crawley’s Football League status for another season.

Asked how he felt after the draw, the hitman says: “Gutted, disappointed – I think that is about it, really.

“I think, to go 2-0 down and get 3-2 in front away from home, that has got to be it. You have got to see the game out. You have got to win the game.

“I thought we played some great stuff. Even when we were 2-0 down, I do not think we deserved to be behind.

“We got ourselves back in front – I thought we were playing well. And then to let in a goal like that at the end is disappointing. It is not good enough.”

Crawley’s third in Saturday’s draw was the second time this month the Blues have let a winning position slip in the closing stages of a match.

On April 8, Carlisle had let Notts County 1-0, heading into the final 10 minutes before late goals from Jon Stead and defender Matt Tootle saw the Cumbrians snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on that occasion.

“As we have seen all season, you are never comfortable with a one-goal lead,” Proctor concedes.

“It has happened to us in the last few weeks. We have been 1-0 up and we have conceded two and we got beaten.

“We have got a point but we do not want to come here and get a point at this stage in this season. It is not enough for us.

“Scoring three goals at this stage in the season, it has got to be [enough for] three points and we have not got it. We will have to have a look at the reasons why, put ourselves together and go again next week.”

Last weekend’s results saw Carlisle, who at one stage on Saturday were set to move up to sixth, drop to 10th with both Wycombe and Mansfield capitalising on their slip-up.

And, if the Cumbrians are to stand a realistic chance of reaching League Two’s top seven come the end of the season, they are most probably going to have to win both of their remaining two matches, even though they are still only a point outside the play-offs.

“We have known for the last few weeks what we have to do,” the striker says. “We have to try and win every game.

“Now, we are out of there [the play-offs] by a point and I know a few other teams won at the weekend. So, we are going to be out of the play-offs.

“We have got to win our next game now. Unfortunately, it is not in our hands anymore, which it was. But we will try to win the next two games and see where it will take us.”

The Bolton loanee’s own form has improved in United’s last two matches, with Proctor claiming an assist for Jabo Ibehre’s goal in the 1-1 draw against Stevenage, before he latched on to a Gary Liddle cross and powered past Crawley’s sub keeper Yusuf Mersin at the Checkatrade.com Stadium.

But the ex-Preston North End, Fleetwood and Bradford frontman was in no mood to reflect on his own contribution.

“I’m pleased with it but it means nothing really when you come off the pitch and you have not won the game,” he adds.

“If we had needed a point, maybe then a point away from home [would have been good]. But we needed three and, when you play as well as we did at times, to go 3-2 up. My own performance sort of means nothing with the goal as such.

“It is a tough one to take, with us not getting the three points.”

But Proctor says there is no point in the Carlisle contingent “feeling sorry for ourselves” after a run that has seen them take seven points out of the last 36 available.

He says: “We have got experience in there. We have staff with a lot of experience and we will have to get ourselves going because there is no point feeling sorry for ourselves.

“We have to go again. We have to win both games now. We have to pick ourselves up, pick our confidence up and look at the positives, and look at what we can take into the next two games.”

But, despite all the disappointing results for Carlisle since the turn of the year, including just four wins in that period, if they can muster six points from their final two games of the regular league season, a play-off place could well still be on the cards.

And, asked if United were in any mood to give up in their promotion bid, Proctor replies: “No, no chance.

“It is two games. We have to win on Saturday [against Newport] and win the week after [at Exeter].

“We have got to go for both of them and play as we did in certain spells. Take the positives from this and last week. Hopefully, put them together and grind out two wins.”