Williamson admits Blues 'lost focus' in last-gasp Crewe defeat
Mike Williamson admits Carlisle United “lost focus” in the devastating period of added time that turned victory into defeat at Crewe Alexandra.
The Blues were 2-1 up and on course for an impressive away win by the 92-minute mark.
But six minutes later they were counting the cost of a late collapse as the Railwaymen won 3-2 to leave Carlisle four points adrift of safety at the bottom of League Two.
The dramatic defeat on New Year’s Day was the latest blow to the struggling Blues in the 2024/25 campaign.
Head coach Williamson said of the finale: “It’s just cruel and unforgiving, but no excuses.
“We ran out of steam, I think, physically – after the last performance, and for 93 minutes here in what the lads gave.
“We lost focus and didn't do the simple jobs that they'd been doing for 90 minutes and we got punished.”
United twice led at the Mornflake Stadium through goals from Jack Ellis – his first for the club – and substitute Kadeem Harris.
But Crewe, who had cancelled out Ellis’ first-half opener through Chris Long, hit back again as Omar Bogle made it 2-2 in the 93rd minute and then fellow sub Jack Lankester headed home in the 98th.
It had, until then, been a bright Carlisle display but their sub-standard game management in the dying moments proved costly.
Mike Williamson applauds United's travelling fans after the Crewe defeat (Image: Richard Parkes)
“We were the better team for the first half, competed really well in the second half, went toe-to-toe with a top team, who’ve got strength in depth,” added head coach Williamson.
“Then I think concentration and fatigue gets the better of us. We try and see the game out in a hopeful nature rather than a confident nature.
“But that's where we're at, and it was really disappointing, but we have to just recover and go again.”
Striker Bogle proved influential in the closing stages for Crewe. Asked if he had considered introducing Aaron Hayden from the bench to add further aerial strength to his defence late on, Williamson said: “We thought the back three were dealing with everything for 90 minutes – we had the lead, and I thought Ben [Barclay], Sam [Lavelle] and Jon [Mellish] dealt with it really well.
“We limited their opportunities, and we thought we'd be able to see the game out.
“It's difficult when you come on as a centre-half late in a game, so we thought we'd just try and make the changes we did and see the game out, but it wasn't meant to be.”
United’s defeat, combined with points secured by rivals in the survival battle, made it a bad day for the Cumbrians, who face another huge away day on Saturday at Tranmere Rovers.
On coping with the psychological blow of losing a game in such a manner, Williamson added: “I think we've just got to take the positives of how good we played for the majority of the game.
“The nature of where we are every game takes a real concerted effort emotionally to get in the right frame of mind, because we know how important it is.
“Obviously, it just increases the importance of the next game, but we'll make sure that we're right, and we will turn up and we match the effort that we saw against Accrington [Sunday’s 2-1 win] and against Crewe, and make sure we see it out.
“The boys know that doing the fundamentals well for 97, 98 minutes, as it was today, is important. We didn't see it through.
“The nature of the goals is frustrating and disappointing, but we can only watch it back and make sure that we try and rectify it in training.
“It’s a quick turnaround, two days [between now and Tranmere] but we’ll have to do that.”
