Carlisle boss Paul Simpson described Jokull Andresson’s red card “amateurish” after the goalkeeper’s mistake led to a 2-0 defeat at Wycombe.
Believing he was alone in the penalty area after a routine save, Andresson dropped the ball to his feet but was immediately dispossessed by Wycombe striker Sam Vokes, lurking behind him.
Andresson brought Vokes down and also handled the ball outside the box, leaving referee Scott Tallis with an easy decision to show him red in the 29th minute.
Luke Leahy’s penalty, after Gareth McCleary was taken down just before half-time, and Vokes’ well-taken strike saw Wycombe prevail and left Simpson furious at full-time.
He said: “I think we brought this [the loss] on ourselves. We can’t blame anyone else. It’s about us. The sending off is just amateurish. Just absolutely amateurish, I’m afraid.
“The referee has obviously seen the situation and felt he’s needed to send him off.
“You then look at the penalty decision and our player got the ball but, by the letter of the law, he’s gone through the back of him and there’s nothing he can really do about it.
“We’ve gifted them situations. If we’re more professional, those things don’t happen, we don’t give them those opportunities.
“I think in the first half we were really poor. Forget those incidents, we were poor in not being front-footed and I think we needed to be aggressive in the way we defended but we weren’t.
“I got to say, though, in the second half, the attitude was absolutely first class. We probably should have got ourselves back into it with the opportunities we had.”
Wycombe manager Matt Bloomfield was pleased with his team’s performance and praised their maturity in facing 10 men for most of the game.
“Any win brings a really pleasing afternoon.
“This is a tough league, we’ve already seen that this season, and we knew the continuity they kept from their team last season and the way they’re built would make it difficult for us.
“I was pleased with the variety we showed in our display, especially against 11.
“Obviously, the game is going to change against 10. But we were really good, even if there were elements to improve.
“It’s one of football cliches that it’s never easy against 10 men. [In the second half], they reorganised and showed a real attacking intent.
“Fair play to Carlisle, they could have made our day uncomfortable, but we worked hard to get the win. We stuck to our task and it’s just a shame we couldn’t take more of our chances.”
