Carlisle's failure to keep the ball when in possession proved costly as goals from Kevin Hill and Alex Russell sealed the victory for the Gulls.

A consolation for Carlisle was their first goal of the season from last seasons top scorer Ian Stevens.

Manager Roddy Collins slammed his players after the game and said: " It was an embarrassing performance. We were a disaster in the first half and still shouldn't have been in the game at half time. We were switched off and they just overran us completely. To go in one all at half time was a god send; it gave us a second bite of the cherry. We got amongst them a little better in the second half but Mark Winstanley's red card didn't help, but that's no excuse because we shouldn't have been in the game after the first half. We just had to hang on to what we had but didn't perform well enough to get anything out of the game."

Torquay only had to wait seven minutes to take the lead when Alex Russell played a short free kick to Chris Brandon, who rattled Luke Weaver's post from 25 yards, the loose ball breaking nicely for Kevin Hill to volley home.

David Graham then headed over from a Brandon cross before Carlisle's first serious threat with Stuart Whitehead heading over Stuart Elliott's right wing corner.

With Torquay dominating, a Russell flick on was headed wide by David Woozley followed by an Eifion Williams volley over the bar.

Against the run of play Carlisle got themselves back into the game four minutes from the break following a one on one save by home keeper Kevin Dearden on Stevens. From the resulting Elliott corner Dearden failed to make his catch and Steve Tully had to clear off the line only for Stevens to slot home the rebound from close range.

The home side should have regained the lead in injury time but Williams put his free header wide from a Tully cross..

A minute into the second half David Graham's pace outstripped Peter Murphy only for Weaver to block the strikers shot with his feet.

Any chance the Cumbrians had of salvaging a point began to evaporate with Winstanley's sending off, for a second yellow card, and disappeared altogether on 74 minutes.

Another good run from Graham down the right held off a Whitehead challenge and Weaver came out smartly to block the shot. Unfortunately for the Cumbrians, Russell proved to be the most alert, slotting home the rebound in clinical fashion.

In injury time Carlisle could have undeservedly equalised when Elliott's long ball from midfield found Lee Maddison clear, only for the full back to slice wide from 10 yards.

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Sent Off