Mike Williamson says he will not “catastrophise” Carlisle United’s defeat at AFC Wimbledon – and has strong belief the Blues will improve.

United slumped to the bottom of League Two after their 4-0 defeat in south London on Saturday.

It has seen fears grow about the Blues’ ability to hold onto their EFL status.

New head coach Williamson is now charged with delivering significant improvement that can lift Carlisle up the League Two table and ease some of those fears in the process.

Asked if the job he has inherited appears harder than he initially felt, in light of the showing in the capital, Williamson said: “No, I don't think so.

“I think it's a really bad performance and you can’t get away from the bad result, but I'm not going to catastrophise it.

“The fact is the club knows it's in a transitional period. It wants to change the way it operates on and off the field.

“There's so many good things happening off the field and we're in a really bad moment on the field.

“So the people that we've got that support the club and the desire to improve, and the resources that we've got, I've got no doubt we'll get out of it.”

Carlisle are now preparing for a home clash with Harrogate Town which also sees a £10 ticket promotion.

The Cumbrians are 24th in the table on goal difference and the pressure is on to produce something better at Brunton Park this coming weekend.

Williamson, meanwhile, suggested his particular team selections on Saturday were not the reason United failed against the Dons.

He made two changes, with defender Ben Barclay coming in for Terell Thomas who was on international duty, and Dominic Sadi taking the place of Luke Armstrong.

Jack Robinson was among the players introduced from the bench at WimbledonJack Robinson was among the players introduced from the bench at Wimbledon (Image: Richard Parkes)

The head coach said: “When you're losing first and second balls and you're not on that front foot, you're reacting to the things that are going on. So regardless of personnel, it would have made no difference.

“I thought in the second half we made a couple of subs and we calmed things down but that's the nature of it when you're 4-0 down, it's a different dynamic.

“Dom has been brilliant and Luke is always going to give you everything he's got, and of course they came on and gave everything.

“We wanted to be able to use a platform of  [Charlie Wyke] and have the technical players because we knew how hard it was going to be, and as the game opened up we could bring some more energy on at the time and win the game – but it didn’t work that way.”

For the second game running, meanwhile, Williamson has introduced substitute Jack Robinson on the right.

The ex-Middlesbrough man is normally a left-sided player and Williamson was asked why Robinson was preferred in that role over, for instance, the right-sided Jack Ellis.

He said: “We make decisions based off what we think at the time. We will reflect back and we'll analyse that.

“[The idea was] Robbo coming on with a bit of physicality and experience.

“There were a few lads that are carrying things out there, so it was hard. Obviously, making early changes is difficult, but there's a few boys carrying things that are playing through issues.

“But we won't make any excuses.”

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