Mike Williamson says ‘lack of conviction’ led to Carlisle’s loss to Chesterfield

Carlisle head coach Mike Williamson felt that “a lack of conviction” led to his side’s 2-0 defeat at home to Chesterfield.

Goals from Dilan Markanday and Will Grigg sealed the points for the visitors, but the Cumbrians had plenty of chances to get on the scoresheet themselves

The Blues remain bottom of Sky Bet League Two after their 11th defeat of the season, but Williamson felt that the performance was good.

“For the majority of the game, I felt the game was open and we were involved,” he said. “In terms of possession, box entries and expected goals we did quite well, but ultimately a lack of conviction and getting caught on the break cost us.

“The result hurts and the demeanour of our last 30 minutes. However, when you look at the margins, it was tighter than the scoreline suggests.”

Prior to this game, Carlisle were unbeaten across their last four league games and had only conceded two goals in that run, but the hosts looked shaky at the back, which Williamson thinks is a result of errors without the ball.

“In the first half we had a couple of good attacking situations and then we didn’t capitalise,” he added.

“On the flip side we’ve made a couple of bad decisions out of possession and that’s where we got punished, that just sums up where we are at the minute.”

Chesterfield were well worth the points and kept a sixth league clean sheet of the season, which pleased centre-half Harvey Araujo, who is on loan from Fulham.

He said: “It’s been a great week for us. Three wins and another clean sheet, which is great for us as a defence and as a team.

“Today we played against a team who are desperately looking for a win, so we knew they were going to fight for it. Our main aim when we came here was just to carry on what we’ve been doing and we’re very happy that we did that.

“It’s a different challenge compared to the other games, it’s tougher here, the fans are loud. I felt like we adapted really well here and that’s why we got the three points.”

The Spireites, who are now sixth in the table, had a couple of injury problems throughout the game, but Araujo was pleased with how the team responded.

“I feel like the injuries didn’t change too much in the game because we are a squad. If one of us has an individual setback, we bounce back stronger as a team.

“Everyone’s feeling happy about where we are, but we’re just taking things game by game. If we win games, like we have been recently, we can get to where we want to be at the end of the season.”