MANAGER John Coleman admitted he had work to do to get Stanley firing again in time for Tuesday night's FA Cup replay against Notts County.
Despite travelling to Carlisle on the back of a four-match unbeaten run, Coleman felt Saturday's 1-0 defeat was coming.
The Reds have a chance to bounce straight back as they host Notts, who beat Coventry 1-0 on Saturday.
That maintained the Magpies' unbeaten away record in League One so Coleman knows Stanley must improve on Saturday's performance, when they didn't quite click in attack.
“I'm disappointed,” he said. “Sometimes as a manager you just smell it and I smelt it all week, to be honest.
“Carlisle deserved to win the game, they were better than us in every department.
“The only crumb of comfort is that you could see how far we've come when it's like winning the World Cup when they beat us, 'little Accy', 1-0 at home.
“We're starting to earn more respect from teams but we're better than that. That’s two games now where we haven’t really troubled their keeper.
“We had one chance at the end with Sean Maguire’s header and maybe Shay McCartan should do better in the first half but we haven’t created enough opportunities against a team whose been leaking goals for fun.”
The Reds' boss added: "We have this propensity to wait for the ideal opportunity to shoot, and then when we explore all the avenues that dont come then we have ridiculous shots over the bar and that's something we're going to have to work on.”
While Coleman felt his players under-performed, he accepts he and his assistant Jimmy Bell must also look at their contribution during the week.
They will have to make at least two changes to the starting line-up against Notts with Maguire and fellow loanee John O'Sullivan being ineligible. The winners host Yeovil in the second round.
“We've got a very good midfield engine room which got overpowered, and you've got to hold your hands up to Carlisle,” said Coleman.
“They made all the right noises in the week, they were very bullish and they've backed it up with a performance.
“I don't mind getting beat by a team I know is better than us , “ he added. “On the day, Carlisle were, but pound-for-pound I don't think they are.
“When we don't really show up – and it's happened a couple of times now - it's very frustrating.
“The first thing you do as a manager is look close to home, which is myself and Jimmy.
“We have to analyse what we did in the week. We'll be very self-critical and we'll take the blame because what we decided to do in the week hasn't worked and we haven't prepared them properly, even though we thought we had.
"We'll have to look at our own methods and maybe our selection as well and get it right for Tuesday.”
