WITH Kirkby Lonsdale struggling to replicate their home form on the road, club captain Matt Hughes has blamed complacency for his side’s latest away defeat at lowly Carlisle.

The Underley Park club outscored their Cumbrian rivals courtesy of tries from Alan Robinson and Matt Belshaw only for the boot of Glen Weightman to prove decisive.

So for the second time this season Hughes and Co. slipped to a narrow loss against Carlisle, with the skipper claiming the attitude within the Kirkby ranks may have been short of the mark.

“It was a close game but we didn’t play well to be honest,” he said. “We lost out very unfortunately in the home game when we should have won convincingly.

“We got there on Saturday and with the weather we didn’t know if it was going to be on or not as the referee hadn’t made a decision.

“And I think we turned up with the wrong attitude and it was all a bit of a non-starter really. We went with a full squad and perhaps there was a general feeling we were going to walk it.

“But all fairness to Carlisle, they turned up on the day and put everything into it. There are no complaints on our side apart from a bit of complacency.”

Kirkby have still only won one away game this season which is completely at odds with their home form which reads five wins on the spin.

And while Hughes cannot really put his finger on the reasons for this contrasting set of results, he once again suggests it is all in the mind.

“The preparation is the same home and away so it’s our attitude I think,” he added.

“When we go to the teams around or below us we go there expecting to get a win which is at odds to when we go to the likes of Wirral and Birkenhead Park.

“And on these occasions we don’t seem to give ourselves a hope but end up getting losing bonus points and nearly beating them. I think it’s just an attitude thing.”