Paul Simpson said a "horrendous" Tomas Holy mistake saw Carlisle United throw away the chance of reaching the FA Cup third round at Walsall.

The Blues were hit by two late goals as the Saddlers went through 2-1.

Simpson felt the hosts’ 88th-minute equaliser, which came after a calamitous error by keeper Holy, was the crucial moment.

United’s boss insisted his side were “in control” until that point – and he said there was no avoiding the importance of the mistake.

“It’s a game where they [Walsall] had gone, they were absolutely shot to pieces,” said Simpson.

“We dealt with everything but unfortunately I can’t legislate for that first [Walsall] goal.

“The way the first goal came is the disappointing thing because that’s cost us the game. It’s a horrendous mistake.”

Andy Williams took advantage to equalise for Walsall – and then Douglas James-Taylor scored again in added time.

It cost the Blues £67,000 in prize money, as the Saddlers go into Monday night's third round draw when Premier League clubs come into the competition.

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“We were breaking off their corner, having defended it really well, but we gave the ball away and we were opened up,” added Simpson of the home side's winner.

“Credit to the lad who finished it off, but we shouldn’t have been in that situation. The first goal killed us.

“We cannot make those mistakes, it’s as simple as that.

“They’ve obviously deserved it because of the way they did it from the 88th minute until the 95th minute. Because of that you have to say they deserved to go through.

“But for the 88 minutes before that we’ve dominated the game and been the better side. But they were the better side for those closing minutes and that’s what got them the win.”

Crestfallen Holy held his hands up to the 418 travelling fans after the game.

Simpson said he felt for the big Czech, but there was no need to tiptoe around the issue.

“We’ll always look after every one of them, but there’ no hiding place today,” he said.

“I feel for Tomas. He’s apologised to everybody in there, everybody’s unhappy about it, he’s unhappy about it, I am – it’s about moving on now.

“Tomas has kept us in games and made saves so far this season, and I thought today he looked really comfortable.

“As a team we looked really comfortable until the 88th minute. We just haven’t dealt with the end properly.

“I told the players that we’ve chucked it away. That’s an FA Cup tie where we should be in the draw, and we’ve thrown it away.”

Ryan Edmondson’s goal had given United a half-time lead before Carlisle spent much of the second half on the defensive.

Simpson, though, felt they were “totally comfortable” in this approach.

And he added that Carlisle should have made more of their attacking positions after the break to kill the game off.

“I think we’ve had some good opportunities where with a bit more quality we could have got goalscoring chances,” he said.

“That’s the bit that’s let us down. We can all talk about a really bad mistake from our goalkeeper which has given them the leg up, but we’ve had some other mistakes in our attacking play as well.

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“If we’re better at it that mistake could have counted for nothing.

“We had breaks in the second half where if you find the right pass and get the right quality, you finish teams off and get better chances. We just haven’t done it.”

Simpson also felt United’s body language was wrong after the equaliser.

“I don’t like the reaction from the first goal when people have got head in hands and not watching the game,” he said.

“There’s no point showing the whole world you’ve made a mistake, we all know it’s happened, the only thing you can do is dust yourself down and get ready for the next one.

“That’s in-game. Now between games we have to do that again.”