BURY boss Ryan Lowe admitted his promotion-chasing side cannot afford to keep making individual errors after labelling their 3-2 defeat at 10-man Carlisle “sickening”.

Chris Stokes’ first professional brace proved to be in vain as Hallam Hope’s late winner condemned the visitors to their third defeat on the spin in League Two.

The result meant Bury slipped out of the automatic promotion spots after Mansfield’s win against Cambridge and Lowe conceded his players only had themselves to blame.

“It’s a sickening result, a real sickening result for us,” said Lowe. “Individual errors keep costing us goals and we can’t have that if we’re going to achieve our goal this season.

“We had our fair share of chances so we’ve got no-one to blame but ourselves. I’m disappointed with our strikers for not being ruthless with the chances we had.

“We stopped running second half, we stopped making good decisions and stopped pressing up the pitch. I’m disappointed but I’ll stress this again the lads have been fantastic all season.

“We’ve got five games left to play and have to go and push for promotion now. We wanted to go and win the game and we had to go and put pressure on them.

“We conceded straight away and then you’re on the back foot from the start of the game. We need to cut out the mistakes if we’re going to get promoted.”

After conceding six goals in their last two games, the visitors found themselves behind in the first minute when Jamie Devitt coolly slotted home after just 27 seconds.

The deficit didn’t last long however as Stokes bagged his first seven minutes later after a great team move, which ended with Jordan Rossiter finding him unmarked at the back post to stab home.

Byron Moore should have put the Shakers ahead when Stokes fired a ball across goal, only for his effort to be cleared off the line, before Callum O’Hare lashed an effort just wide.

But Stokes then headed home to give the Shakers a slender lead before Carlisle were reduced to ten men when Mike Jones was shown red for two bookable offences.

Jones was given his marching orders in first-half stoppage time for tripping Rossiter on the wing after receiving an earlier yellow card for a late challenge on Ryan Cooney.

The hosts burst out of the blocks again when O’Hare turned and fired home just five minutes after the restart, before Stokes was denied a maiden hat-trick when his strike was blocked.

Shakers’ stopper Joe Murphy kept the game all square when he denied Hope from a Carlisle counter, while Caolan Lavery forced Adam Collin into two late saves down the other end.

And they came back to haunt Bury as Hope headed home late on.

“We know what needs to be done now,” Lowe added. “You don’t become a bad team overnight and we’ve got to get back on track quickly. The fans were different class again.

“They know what it’s about and stick with us through thick and thin.”

MATCH STATS

Carlisle: Collin, Miller, Liddle, Grant, Parkes, Thomas (Scougall 63), Slater (Etuhu 45), Jones, O’Hare, Hope, Devitt (Simpson 85).

Unused subs: Branthwaite, Gray, Gerrard, Kennedy.

Bury: Murphy 5, Adams 6 (McFadzean 83, 5), Cooney 5, Thompson 5, Wharton 5 (Telford 63, 5), Stokes 7, O’Connell 6, Rossiter 7, O’Shea 5, Moore 5, Maynard 6.

Unused subs: Maloney, Danns, Miller, Omotayo.

Referee: Chris Sarginson.

Attendance: 4,656 (728 visiting).