Chris Beech insists Carlisle United’s efforts this season should be “celebrated”.

The Blues’ eventful campaign came to an end yesterday with a goalless draw with Walsall.

It saw the Cumbrians finish the League Two campaign in 10th position.

That represented an improvement of eight places on the previous, curtailed campaign.

But it also came with disappointment given that Carlisle led the table in January before being hit by Covid-19 and postponements, and subsequently losing form.

The Blues' failure to sustain a promotion challenge means they will face an eighth consecutive season in the fourth tier after coming back down to the division in 2014.

But Beech said that, given what his team had faced this term – along with their budget limitations – their efforts should be applauded.

“We’ve got to celebrate what we’ve achieved because in theory it shouldn’t really happen,” the head coach said.

“Sometimes that is difficult to hear from a Carlisle perspective because our fans think we are the best club in the world because they love the club.

“If you look at it with logic and understanding we’ve done very well.

“Of course, I’m disappointed because we wanted to try and touch something at the end of the season, but I think the players will have learned a lot in that time.

“In reality, in terms of how it’s supported [financially], it’s hard to gain.

“We’ve gone beyond those parameters.  We’ve played football with good content, we’ve scored lots of goals and had a really good go this season, so well done to everybody.”

United’s 46th league game was a largely forgettable goalless draw with the 19th-placed Saddlers.

Despite the stalemate, Carlisle ended the season with the equal highest amount of home goals in League Two.

They finished with six draws from their last eight games, meaning a spell of one win in eight and also one defeat in eight.

Beech’s side fell seven points short of the play-offs.

Of the draw with Walsall, he added: “I wanted the clean sheet and I think that takes us to 15.

“At the start of the season, although it’s a high target I earmarked 20 so we’ve fallen short of that.

“I wanted to get past 40 goals at home today but we couldn’t do that [United finished on 38].

“Of course I always want more, and I wanted more from this game. We didn’t gain the three points and I felt as though we could have been in a position to do that with our first half efforts.

“Jack Armer, Gime Toure and Nick Anderton all had good opportunities and the keeper made good saves – their goalie was doing all their club interviews after the game which tells the story of that.

“Credit to Walsall, they didn’t come here to lie down and they played for a manager [Brian Dutton] they hope will get the job. We pushed, but it didn’t quite happen for us.”