Hughes bemoans 'poor' Carlisle's missed opportunity

Carlisle United head coach Mark Hughes says his side missed a big opportunity after they were surprisingly beaten 3-1 at home by Woking.

Victory would have taken Carlisle top of the National League, but they let an early one-goal lead slip to suffer a first league loss since the end of September - a run of nine games.

They remain level on points with Rochdale and Forest Green Rovers, the two sides above them, but the Blues have an inferior goal difference, highlighting what could have been with three points at Brunton Park.

"1-0 to the good, you think you should build on that, certainly being the home team and being the team with the opportunity to go top of the league," Hughes told BBC Radio Cumbria.

"We haven't taken that opportunity and it's poor from our point-of-view in terms of our understanding of that.

"We've just got to pick ourselves up very quickly and go again. We've got some big games coming up and we'll need to be markedly better than we were tonight."

Carlisle's next game is an FA Trophy tie away to Harborough Town of the Southern League Premier Central Division, but having lost at Blackpool in the FA Cup four days ago, Hughes says that after back-to-back defeats, there may be a change of approach.

"The players need to get back working and understand what it takes to win games," he added.

"They're a good group, but tonight they let themselves down. It was a performance we didn't expect, but they'll pick themselves up and go again."