Manager James Beattie questioned the Reds’ desire following Tuesday night’s 3-1 defeat by Carlisle in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy first round.

Stanley started well and took a deserved lead, just as they did in the league at Bury on Saturday.

But again they allowed the opponents to come from behind and win, and Beattie was disappointed with his side’s second-half showing.

“We’ve been talking about starting better and we have done in recent games,” he said.

“The performance at Bury was excellent and we wanted to build on that. We didn’t manage to do that but the start was very good again.

“We managed to get ourselves in front but we were a bit off the pace in the second half.

“Carlisle wanted it a bit more than us in the second half, which is disappointing.”

The Cumbrians sacked their manager on Monday but Beattie felt their comeback following the opener from Marcus Carver (left) was more down to Stanley than any kind of reaction to Graham Kavanagh’s sacking.

“They started off like a team that got beat 5-0 on Saturday and had just lost their manager, and we got the early-ish goal” he said.

“But I think we allowed them the confidence to then start popping the ball around.

“From them scoring their first goal they looked like a different team.

“It was a bit of a mix-up in defence, which allowed them to get in. Their confidence grew from that moment and it was us that allowed it to grow.”