Boss Ian Evatt has welcomed the two-week window in Wanderers’ League One campaign after their momentum stalled on the back of a second home league defeat of the season.
After back-to-back wins, injury-stretched Wanderers couldn’t make it three in eight days as Carlisle United marked only their second visit to the Toughsheet Community Stadium with a 3-1 victory.
The Whites remain in the top six and now have a fortnight before facing Northampton Town when captain Ricardo Santos, vice-captain Gethin Jones and midfielder Paris Maghoma should be first back from the current absentees to offer some welcome reinforcements.
“As we always do, we take the heat because it’s justified and we’ll come back, regroup and work hard,” said Evatt.
“This (international) window has come at the right time to get players back. We just have to do what we can to refresh and make sure our full focus is on winning our next game against Northampton.
“We’re two points short from where we want to be of two points a game. It’s just the manner of today that’s disappointing. The players have given everything so far this week but today they fell short.
“When we fall short, we have to regroup and go again and that’s what we’ll do.”
Wanderers led through a Jon Mellish own-goal but were pegged back before the break through a debatable Carlisle penalty – their second in 10 minutes.
The Cumbrians then went ahead through a deflected strike before Jordan Gibson completed a hat-trick in injury-time when he broke away when Whites’ keeper Nathan Baxter went up for a stoppage-time corner to slot home.
“We looked off it. We lacked that zip, energy and everything we did was slow and lethargic,” admitted Evatt.
“It looked like we lacked any freshness and it’s a really disappointing result, there’s no question about that.
“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot a few times today. I don’t believe either are penalties but I’m not going to stand here and blame the referee. It is what it is and we didn’t do enough. For us, there was too many under par and it was probably a game too far.
“We still had big moments. Dion should score at the start of the second half, and we had one or two other moments, but for whatever reason we just weren’t ourselves and weren’t good with the ball as we can be - so it’s a harsh lesson.”
Watch the manager's full post-match interview on Wanderers TV