Carlisle United suffered a second successive League Two loss as Mansfield's Danny Rose and Nicky Maynard struck on a frustrating afternoon.

On Saturday at Brunton Park, the Stags forwards both scored in the first period as referee Carl Boyeson also came in for stick from home fans.

United could not find a way back and created little in the second half, failing to score at home for the first time under Steven Pressley.

Tomorrow night, Carlisle will look to bounce back, visiting Cheltenham.

Here's what our Blues views thought of the performance from the Cumbrians at the weekend.

Ste Anderson

A very frustrating afternoon but I don’t think we can get too despondent.

You won’t see many more negative sides than Mansfield, but credit to them for a flawless showing of organisation and hard work. You can’t afford to concede soft goals to teams like that - but we did.

I don’t think we played particularly badly and had most of the ball.

A quiet introduction for Elias Sorenson. I’m not sure he will be playing wide too often, an area where we really struggled to make any inroads all game.

Mansfield are a good side who will be up there. We have quality in the squad and we will score goals this season.

Graham Watt

Well, three league games in, and two defeats and one win is not the ideal start to the season.

But we have played teams who have a much higher budget and have bought well and are trying to compete. The referee never had control of the game and made it a scrappy stop-start affair which suited Mansfield more than United, and they took advantage and punished us.

Two games this week that are both winnable but I would be more than happy with four points.

If we can get those points, we can start to look comfortable in the table and give all the new lads time to gel and kick on from there.

Craig Mattinson

Saturday, 2.50pm, feeling very optimistic. Saturday 5pm, feeling worried. That’s the life of a Blues fan.

Mansfield totally did a job on us in the first 45 minutes, with their woeful time-wasting and lack of sportsmanship, which was aided by an awful display of refereeing.

I cannot understand why any manager would want their team to conduct themselves that way. Then, two defensive lapses finished the game by half-time.

In the second half, they went to five at the back and we never looked like breaking them down, with the game drifting away and neither goalkeeper making a save of note.

David MacLachlan

I knew it wasn’t going to be our day when I noticed the resemblance of Mansfield’s keeper to another shot-stopper of yesteryear. One Peter Mellor, a name that sends a shudder down the spine of Carlisle supporters of a certain age.

There was no shortage of effort from the players but they never looked likely to break down a cynical Mansfield who, aided and abetted by the most incompetent referee I have ever seen, sucked the life out of the game.

We’ve got to find a way to overcome this kind of football.

If Harry McKirdy had taken his great chance in the first half, things might have been different.

Bruce Vander

A second league defeat in three but there’s no need to panic.

Much of what Pressley is doing with this squad is positive and, on another day, the result could have been different. The first half was all Carlisle but for a great goal and a refereeing decision that confused everyone, except Mansfield’s Maynard.

The second half was a damp squib. Lessons have to be learned, and more work has to be done on shape and tactics to ensure that United have a plan against robust, structured and frustrating opposition.

There’s plenty of fire power in the locker, now let’s unleash it.

Michelle Hall

The second-half of the game on Saturday was irrelevant. The first 45 minutes saw the Mansfield players spend a lot of their time laying on the pitch and fooling the referee into some strange decisions which, ultimately, saw the visitors leave with the three points.

The match statistics showed what could have been, with Carlisle having the majority of possession and shots on goal.

I don’t think we have a bad team - individual players are proving to be valuable but it feels like they haven’t yet gelled together.

More consistency is needed if Carlisle are to climb up the table.