Keith Millen has pledged that Carlisle United will not again be as “open” as they were in their defeat to Forest Green Rovers.

The Blues manager is now preparing his side for a clash with another high-flier when third-placed Sutton United visit Brunton Park.

Millen asked his players to analyse their own displays in the 3-0 loss to the League Two leaders.

And the manager’s own assessment focused on how exposed the Blues were when Rob Edwards’ table-toppers pulled clear in the second half.

United had kept five clean sheets in seven games before the Gloucestershire trip, but were no match for the home side.

“We’re not where we want to be yet,” Millen said.

“It was a good test after all of the plaudits we’ve got after the run we’ve been on.

“It’s a test that shows we’re not there yet, which is fine, and if we’d been the better team for 90 minutes we could say we should be up there, but we haven’t got to that point.

“It’s a bit of a reality check for all of us, but it doesn’t mean we’ve become a bad team. We were better in the first half, but we became too open after their second goal, and we’ve been punished.

“Playing that way is not us and I’ll put that right for the next game.”

Millen felt United did some good things in the first half and said they did enough to have been going in at the break at least on terms.

Instead, Morgan Feeney’s own-goal gave Forest Green the edge, with Matty Stevens and Jamille Matt ramming home the advantage afterwards.

“The lads know that if you leave yourselves exposed you can get hurt, so they won’t do that again,” Millen added.

“When they scored the second we went back a little bit to being too open and too exposed, and they punished us.

“They showed why they’re top of the league and why they’ve scored so many goals. They’re clinical, and why they got into dangerous areas on the break they punished us. That was the difference in the game.

“We were far too open, and that’s not us.

“I felt the game was a good test to see where we were and we’re not a top team yet. I didn’t expect that to be the case, and we’re not a bottom team.

“We’re a team that’s in transition, that’s been on a good run and that needs to learn from this, and we will.”