Manager Andy Peaks was frustrated with the start to the game against Carlisle United on Saturday afternoon as his Tamworth side exited the Emirates FA Cup at Brunton Park.

The Lambs found themselves 2-0 down at half time after a double from Regan Linney. Ben Acquaye’s goal after the interval halved the deficit but the Lambs were unable to claw back anything further.

Peaks said: “Very disappointed.

“The FA Cup’s an unbelievable competition we wanted to be a part of for as long as we can. We certainly wanted to be in the draw on Monday so that’s an absolute wounder. We knew when the draw was made it was going to be a tough tie. It’s a long way to come against a good team, but ultimately, we’re out.

“I was disappointed with the start, to be honest. We know they’re vulnerable at the moment, they’ve conceded some goals and got nervousness within the group. We wanted to start well and we didn’t. That was the complete opposite to what we wanted, and we rode our luck for 25 minutes, we could’ve been further down, I know that. We weren’t at the races. Whether that was a preparation thing because it was a long journey, footballers like an excuse, but whatever the situation we didn’t start well. By hook or by crook after half an hour we got brought back into the game and I thought we were in the ascendency. We wanted to get through to half time and had a couple of good opportunities ourselves which we didn’t take and then switched off to go in at 2-0 down.”

Ben Acquaye grabbed a goal back for the Lambs just three minutes into the first half after Tom McGlinchey’s cross was met with a back post header that beat Archie Mair.

“Second half, I thought we were much better. We had a lot of chances and I thought we were going to nick one. Don’t get me wrong, we got some good blocks in and they had chances as well. We’ve said that before, if you go away from home, you’re going to have to ride your luck and get blocks in, that’s part of it. It just didn’t quite happen. I was proud second half how we came back from being 2-0 down, and they put a shift in. For me, it’s a missed opportunity.

We’ve come a long way, it’s a tough game, but you could see from that if we’d defended better early on, and limited their chances and got something out the game, but we haven’t.”