Head coach John Yems spoke of his relief at getting a win after a last-minute strike from Nick Tsaroulla gave Crawley their first league victory in four games.

Tom Nichols put the Reds in front with his first goal in six months, but Jon Mellish looked to have salvaged a point for the Cumbrians before Tsaroulla had the final say.

It was Crawley’s first win over Carlisle for nine years, ending a run of 15 games, and Yems felt it had been coming.

He said: “We’ve been knocking on the door in the last few games and although either side could have won, we were smiled upon and we nicked it.

“We’ve had the worst injury list since I’ve been here but we won’t give in. It’s such a relief to get a result.”

Yems was critical of Tsaroulla for giving the ball away for Carlisle’s equaliser but felt he won the game with a terrific strike from the edge of the area.

“It was a great finish,” Yems said. “He is still learning the game but has lots of character and he thoroughly deserved it.

“Credit to all the lads, it’s nice to win but we’re far from the finished article. There is quite a bit of improvement to come.”

Chris Beech felt Carlisle let themselves down with their first-half showing, but was pleased with the response thereafter.

He said: “We wasted the first-half opportunity to put a stamp on the game, but the first half wasn’t great from both teams.

“I was pleased with the response but you want the response to have a value.

“Good passing led to our equaliser and Crawley started to panic a bit.

“But I wasn’t happy with people in respect of the winning goal, and we must make sure next time we respond better in that situation.”

Beech was left dismayed that his team’s fightback ultimately counted for nothing on their longest trip of the campaign.

He added: “It was disappointing that having got back into the game we didn’t take something – it should have been worth something but it wasn’t.”