Football can be a cruel game, particularly when you are at the wrong end of the table.
A battling performance from the Cumbrians should have seen them take their first point in five games, only to lose to an 88th minute winner from Quakers substitute Paul Beavers.
Over the 90 minutes they had done enough to earn at least a point and with a little more composure in the last third of the field had sufficient opportunity to win it.
Manager Ian Atkins was left fuming, after a match he felt the players let slip away. He said:" It was the same again and I am getting fed up of saying it. They score with virtually their only shot on target and we had ample opportunities to have won it. We should have been one up in forty seconds, hit a post later in the half and again got in good areas but the last third is where it is lacking at the moment and we need to show a lot more quality to kill people off. There is still some naivety in the side and we caused ourselves problems in the last fifteen minutes giving too many unnecessary free-kicks away. The goal came from one of these free-kicks and we need to show better discipline, it's pathetic basically. We left them with a spare man in the box and that was poor organisation. I thought John Ingles did well and he will organise better, but as a squad we have to be much stronger. Chesterfield apart, we should have got something out of the five defeats, but I can't keep saying it. We want to play the miracle ball all the time instead of just keeping it simple. Maybe this is to do with having monthly contract players, who are always trying to prove themselves. If this is a factor it will need to be addressed. It's now ten games gone and the honeymoon period is over. I'm not accepting that we can control games like that for long periods and not come out with anything. Whether the current players have got it in them to do it, I will have to look at and we will have to be brave enough to go and get people and take them on longer contracts."
The Cumbrians should have taken the lead in the first minute when Scott Dobie failed to convert a one on one with the keeper, allowing Quakers Andy Collett to make a good block.
Play swung to the other end where Mark Angell's shot was turned round the post by Luke Weaver.
On 24 minutes Stuart Elliott's quickly taken thirty yard free-kick shaved the post after catching Weaver on the wrong side of goal.
Two minutes later a swift Carlisle counter attack saw Dobie get into space down the right only to pull his cross behind Stevens and Tracey who had got away from their markers.
On 32 minutes Ian Stevens was unlucky to see his goalbound effort turned onto the post by Collett.
Carlisle continued to press early in the second half and Martin Gray cleared off the line for the home side in the 51st from a Stuart Whitehead header.
A minute later a good run and cross from Tony Hemming was volleyed narrowly wide by Richard Tracey.
As the game wore on Carlisle lost discipline giving numerous unnecessary free-kicks away with substitutes Carl Heggs and Stefan Lemarchand being booked within two minutes of each other.
With the away side being forced to defend deeper the winner came on 88 minutes following another free-kick given away on the right. Elliott's free-kick fell to the unmarked Beavers who rifled his shot into the bottom corner.
The Cumbrians now face another difficult trip to Cheltenham on Friday night, in desperate need of a shot of confidence.
Darlington: Collett; Liddle, Reed, Aspin, Himsworth (Walklate 69), Gray, Nogan, Elliott, Angell (Hjorth 45), Hodgson (Beavers 63). Subs unused: Kilty, Fincho.
Scorers: Beavers (88).
Bookings: Gray (58-foul), Beavers (81-foul), Nogan (83-ungentlemanly conduct).
Carlisle United: Weaver; Birch, Whitehead, Ingles, Winstanley, Hemmings (Lee 90); Darby, Carss; Dobie, Stevens (Lemarchand 82), Tracey (Heggs 73). Subs unused: Johnson, Prokas.
Scorers: None
Bookings: Tracey (34-foul), Heggs (84-foul), Lemarchand (86-foul), Winstanley (90-foul)
Attendance: 4,316
Referee: M. Riley (Leeds)
