Carlisle boss John Ward disagreed with his players who believed Port Vale's late penalty should not have been awarded after their 1-1 draw.The United players protested furiously with referee Karl Evans, who pointed to the spot after Peter Murphy manhandled Kyle Perry.

Vale skipper Paul Harsley made no mistake to secure his team a point and deny Carlisle - who went ahead through Joe Garner's 14th goal of the season - their first away win for three-and-a-half months.

But Ward said: "I've got no complaints. My view of the incident was from the same angle as the referee and I thought it was a foul. I'm afraid it was poor play from us. I couldn't really see Vale scoring from free play and we've allowed the referee to make that decision.

"The players feel hard done to and they are very disappointed. They feel as though they have lost, but I have to take the positives and we are a point better off than we were before kick-off.

"It also ended a run of five successive away defeats, which everyone keeps reminding me about, and that will hopefully do us some good. People will say Vale are struggling, but no-one has a divine right to beat anyone else and after 46 games we will finish where we deserve to finish."

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