Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey apologised to supporters after what he called an "embarrassing" and "horrendous” 5-2 defeat to Carlisle United.

The struggling Red Devils were on the receiving end of a 5-2 home thrashing at the hands of the Blues.

And Lindsey went to town on his team’s failings in a post-match interview, when he said Carlisle simply wanted it more than Crawley.

“Horrendous,” he said. “Really poor. I just want to apologise to the fans who paid to watch that.

“You can talk about tactics and formations, until you’re blue in the face. But we didn’t show much desire and passion to get anything from the game.

“In terms of determination, running – the running stats will show that – they wanted it more than we did which I can’t and won’t accept.

READ MORE: Our big-match verdict on Carlisle's thrashing of Crawley

“Apart from the goals, they ran harder than us, dropped on every second ball, won every ball at the top of the pitch. Joe Garner’s 5ft 9-10in and won every single header. Unacceptable.

“All of them were soft goals in my opinion. We let them in far too easy. They seemed to skip round us far too easy on the halfway line for the first one, put a cross in and we’re not marking at the back post.

“It’s too easy to score against us at the moment.”

United scored four goals in 23 first-half minutes and added another in the second half.

It rendered Crawley’s two second-half goals as meagre consolations, as the Sussex outfit remained second bottom in League Two.

Lindsey added: “I felt there were goals in the game at the other end. Even at 4-0 at half-time, I felt we would score goals and we could have got potentially more than we got.

“There were some choice words said at half-time, and we made a change quite early on, we changed the shape.

“We seemed to get a little bit more control in their half, but the goals are embarrassing.

“We kept going at the top of the pitch but it was too little, too late.”

Captain Dom Telford, who scored Crawley’s second goal, echoed his manager’s dismay at how things unfolded against Paul Simpson’s rampant Cumbrians.

“Embarrassing,” the striker said. “There’s no point sugar-coating it. We were nowhere near good enough at all. I just feel sorry for the fans who paid to come and watch us.

“It really hurts. I felt the first five or ten minutes we actually started ok. But they took their chances, and we didn’t stand up to it.

“Some of the goals we conceded weren’t good enough. That’s not on. Everyone has to take responsibility.

“In the first half they won first contacts, second contacts, and it wasn’t good enough.”