Greg Abbott's Carlisle United have now won their last two league games

Carlisle United boss Greg Abbott felt his team made heavy weather of Tuesday night's 3-2 home win over Hartlepool.

The Cumbrians recovered from conceding an early goal to lead 3-1, only for a late Andy Monkhouse strike for Pool, which set up a tense finale.

"We have contrived to shoot ourselves in the foot again and were left with a really awkward four or five minutes to play out," Abbott told BBC Cumbria.

"It was a bit too close for comfort in the end, but I can't be too critical."

Abbott added: "The players are pulling up trees in terms of their effort and commitment.

"But, as a management staff, we'd just like to be able to relax and say we're going to win a game from a 3-1 position, without it getting nervy late on."

Maybe it's an indicator of how far we've come and how much we've improved, that we're not happy we haven't won more convincingly Greg Abbott

The win moves the Cumbrians up to 12th in League One, level on points with Pools.

United had a number of chances to extend their lead, with Scott Dobie and Vincent Pericard going close. And Abbott admitted that they have to be more ruthless in front of goal.

"Maybe it's an indicator of how far we've come and how much we've improved that we're not happy we haven't won more convincingly," he added.

"When you're down to a one-goal lead, you're offering teams a chance to come and nick points.

"We've done that too many times in my time here and it's something we need to put to bed."

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