Salford boss Richie Wellens claimed the officials couldn’t keep up with play in his side’s 2-1 defeat at Carlisle United.

The visiting boss conceded his team’s performance wasn’t good enough as they fell to Chris Beech’s side at Brunton Park.

But Wellens also reserved some criticism for the officials after they chalked off a Bruno Andrade equaliser for offside two minutes before Rhys Bennett doubled Carlisle's lead.

He felt they got that second-half decision wrong and, speaking on the club’s official channels after the game, said: “That was the biggest turning point, that’s at 1-0.

“Bruno’s onside. Usually when you score goals like that your first instinct is to look at the linesman, but we didn’t do that because it felt like it was onside – usually you have a feeling.

“But the referee can’t keep up. We’re breaking, Di’shon [Bernard] plays a quick ball out [for the cross], and the linesman can’t keep up, so he’s probably guessed…

“Where he’s played it is on the six-yard box. You can see clearly where Bruno is, a yard or two behind that cut of grass.

“It was a big turning point but we need to start games better and manage the game better.”

Wellens also felt United picked up momentum during the period of several minutes when Salford were down to 10 men in the first half.

That was while striker Ian Henderson was back in the dressing room having a head injury attended to.

Wellens said word eventually reached him that it would take half-an-hour to get the injury properly stitched, so he decided to make a substitution.

He said, though, that he was “not making excuses” for his side’s loss at Brunton Park.

“It wasn’t good enough,” he said. “We huffed and puffed at times. On the whole, the first half was nowhere near good enough.

“Our decision-making and game-management was poor. We’re playing in wrong areas when teams put the press on you – we were still trying to play in front of them.

“The players kept going to the end but I would like that energy to be from the first whistle, not when we’re 2-0 behind.

“If you come to a place like this and your men, your backbone of the team, don’t win second balls and win individual battles, you’re going to struggle.”