Carlisle boss Keith Curle told his players he would fine them £500 if they got booked for dissent in the second half against Stevenage.

After four of his players had been shown yellow cards in the first period they came into the dressing room at the break complaining about some of the decisions given in the game.

Curle said after the 2-1 win for his side that he needed his players to regain their focus after the break, and told them any silly bookings for reacting to decisions in the second period would be met with a hefty fine.

“At half-time there was plenty of talk among the players about the referee this and that, the linesman this and the linesman that, about I didn’t say this and I didn’t say that,” Curle said.

“I had to change the focus. So it was one of those, if anyone gets booked for dissent in the second half it’s £500. The game is not about the officials today it’s about what we do.

“Sometimes you get people who want to hide behind feeling sorry for themselves and behind bad luck but we’re not into that. We had to get the focus back onto where we can cause them problems.

“It was very hard fought; we knew it would be a scrap. I thought we frustrated them and they didn’t have anything to cut us open with in the first half.

“We looked like a very well organised team. At times we went a little bit deep and didn’t work their centre forwards but we managed to nullify that threat. They put balls into the box but we dealt with them well on the whole.”