Frustrated Port Vale boss John Askey demanded more of his players after losing 1-0 to Carlisle.

The Valiants missed the chance to go ahead when Tom Pope’s penalty was saved by Paul Farman at Vale Park.

And in-form Jon Mellish bagged the only goal of the game to pick up his fourth goal in three outings.

“We expect more,” stressed Askey.

“We’ve got to be better than that, I’ve got to look at myself and the team that we put out.

“I want to see more quality on the ball, we don’t keep the ball well enough.

“We didn’t win enough second balls and it’s something you couldn’t say too many times last season.

“We need to get back to how we were last season. We didn’t play well enough, it’s as simple as that.

“We had one or two chances but that was about it.  We just didn’t have enough today. To a man we just weren’t good enough.

“It was virtually the same team that played on Tuesday so it’s not the changes.

“If we put that penalty away then it’s a different game, that sort of summed us up missing those chances.

“I don’t like to say too much about what goes on in the dressing room. The same as I wouldn’t if we’d have won.

“The time to reflect is probably on Monday when we’re back in training.

“You can obviously go in blazing and then say some things which you don’t mean.”

The Cumbrians picked up their second successive league win and boss Chris Beech said: “It was one of those performances you love as a manager.

“It’s just a shame that the fans weren’t able to be here because it’s the sort of performance they would love too.

“They love stuff like that.

“I thought we were good and dominant in the first half and created chances.

“I thought it was just going to be one of those away games where they get in front.

“It came at the penalty stage, which I thought wasn’t by the way, but Farms saves and we made sure they couldn’t tap home.

“We did amazingly as a team to make sure that wasn’t a goal and that gave us a basis to go and do what we did.

“We were very good towards the end of the game, it’s a shame we didn’t show that with a three or four goal win really.”