‘We didn’t compete’ - Keith Curle’s damning verdict on Hartlepool United’s disappointing defeat to Carlisle United

After taking a 1-0 lead into the break, Pools fell to a disappointing second-half collapse with goals from Owen Moxon and a brace from Omari Patrick securing the visitors all three points and a position in the play-offs to end the day.

Post-match, Curle believed his side simply didn’t ‘compete’ with Carlisle on the day after a disappointing showing in-front of a boisterous home support.

Curle said: “We didn’t compete as a unit today. I think we were lucky to go in 1-0 up.

“In the second-half we needed to be reliable, consistent and dependable in our decision making and our performances - and we weren’t.”

Patrick’s late strike, his second of the afternoon, condemned Pools to their sixth defeat of the season and the first under Curle during his four games in the Pools dugout as interim manager.

The defeat leaves Hartlepool just a point above the relegation zone and Curle wants to see marked improvement from his players in future games.

“I can take defeat.” Curle said post-match. “I’ve been in a lot of professional games and you have to lose but today, I don’t think we lost in the right way. I don’t think we were competitive.

“The elation of Tuesday night didn’t carry on into today.

“Players have got to learn and understand that there is a minimum requirement to have a progression in your career - you can’t be an inconsistent performer.

“You have to be reliable, consistent, dependable and you want that tagged on your name, today, we didn’t have enough players that turned up.

“Whether it’s because a five-and-a-half or six thousand crowd was too much for them, whether it was the occasion or that they’d given too much on Tuesday night.

“You ask the players, no, they wanted to win. But again it’s that difference between ‘wanting’ and ‘needing’.

“If you need a win you do what needs to be done, but today we didn’t have enough players that did what needed to be done.”

Hartlepool’s next match is against Harrogate Town, the side that sit directly below them in the League Two table.