Mark Hughes was adamant his Carlisle side “didn’t deserve to lose” at Harrogate on Saturday afternoon.
The Cumbrians missed the chance to climb off the bottom of Sky Bet League Two and now find themselves six points from safety after conceding in the fifth minute of stoppage time of what was a fairly drab affair.
Sam Lavelle and Terell Thomas missed decent opportunities to break the deadlock for Carlisle before substitute Stephen Wearne was denied by Harrogate goalkeeper James Belshaw deep in stoppage time.
Less than a minute later, a throw-in broke for Town winger Ellis Taylor just outside the penalty area, and his volleyed effort was deflected past Gabriel Breeze.
“We didn’t deserve that,” Hughes insisted. “Overall, I thought that we were the side that looked the more likely and we should have another point on the board.
“Did we deserve to win the game? Possibly not. But we certainly didn’t deserve to lose it – that’s the reality. Harrogate have had that slice of luck right at the end, and we haven’t.
“They play in a certain way and you have to match that so that you are allowed to play your stuff when you can. We had a number of very good chances prior to the goal that we conceded, that just never fell to the right people in the right areas.
“We’d have taken a point, and only 30 or 40 seconds prior to the goal we have nearly scored at the other end, but that’s football and you have to dust yourselves down.”
On whether his side can still escape the drop zone after their position worsened following 22nd-placed Tranmere’s win over Bromley, Hughes added: “We’re disappointed, obviously, after the last-minute goal, but I saw enough today to see that there is the energy and quality in the squad to get out of this situation. And we have got enough games.
“Sometimes, you don’t get what you deserve and you can’t let it affect you. We have got three home games coming up and we have got to start scoring goals and winning games, clearly.
“If we do that then we’ll be fine because a lot of what we do is OK. We just need that run of luck that everyone who plays football knows that you need if you want to win games.”
Victory for Harrogate saw them pull 11 points clear of the bottom two and left manager Simon Weaver delighted.
“We knew it would be a tight encounter because Carlisle are fighting for their lives and we are in a dogfight, so it’s a massive result,” he said.
“It was about not making errors, defending well and grinding it out. Fortunately, we had that one last chance to win it and that was a glorious moment for us.”
