Crawley boss John Yems admitted his team didn’t threaten Carlisle United enough at Brunton Park last night.

The Red Devils lost 2-0 at the hands of Chris Beech’s Blues.

Manager Yems said his side were well below par in the first half and while there was improvement after the break, United’s Paul Farman was given few saves to make.

“First half we were nowhere near good enough,” Yems said to his club’s official channels.

“Second half we had a go. I don’t think we had any shots on target, though.

“It wasn’t a very good performance but we grew into it through the second half.”

Yems also felt Crawley could have done more to prevent United’s goals, even though there was a strong element of fortune in Joe Riley’s opener.

“The finish, the bobble, yeah, but we’ve got to close balls down,” he said.

“You can’t have shots from outside your box finding their way into the net whatever way.

“That was the same with both goals. My opinion. But what do I know?”

United’s win saw them leapfrog Crawley with the visitors’ own play-off hopes suffering another blow amid a four-match winless run.

Yems referred to the fact his squad has been hit by injuries recently, but said they simply had to get on with things.

“It’s difficult when you’ve got players in who ain’t fit,” he added.

“The starting line-up had to change and we’re down to the bare bones.

“No excuse. That’s why we’ve got to keep changing, rotating. It’s difficult but it’s difficult for everybody.

“Will we come out fighting? Yes we will. Did we give in? No we didn’t. First half, carrying on from the weekend, I just think we weren’t up to it.

“Saying that, I’m maybe being critical of the boys because the two goals they scored were preventable.

“It was disappointing from us that we never made their keeper work a bit more.”