STRIKER Jon Walters vowed to put Saturday's penalty miss behind him and said Wrexham have plenty of hard work to do in order to bounce back from the 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Carlisle United.

In the absence of injured strike partner Lee McEvilly, Walters accepted responsibility for the 90th minute spot-kick but his poorly-hit effort did not cause United keeper Anthony Williams too many problems.

"Lee and myself had talked about penalties and agreed that whoever went down would take it, but he wasn't on the pitch so I took it," said Walters afterwards.

"It happens that you miss them and part of being a good pro is forgetting about what's gone and putting it to the back of your mind. That's what I've got to do before our next game on Tuesday night."

But Walters admitted Wrexham's defeat was down to their own shortcomings. "We can say we were hard done by as far as the referee was concerned but we are going to get officials like that in this division," he added..

"We were sloppy during the game and for their goal we weren't marking properly because they had a man free at the far post. Myself and Lee and the midfield have to look at ourselves defensively and it's an area we need to improve upon."

Tomorrow's Carling Cup clash with Doncaster Rovers provides an early opportunity for the Dragons to put matters right but Walters said a successful league campaign was uppermost in everyone's mind.

"It's still only four matches gone but it's disappointing. It's a Carling Cup tie and not a league game. It's early days but we want to be up there challenging at the top of the division.

"Having said that it's May when we need to be at the top and that's all that counts."

Dragons' boss Denis Smith was plainly angered by both his team's performance and that of referee Darren Drysdale, who sent off defender Simon Spender for violent conduct in the 61st minute.

"I don't like losing but I don't think it was a particularly good performance so I'm not happy with some of the players," he said.. "But obviously other things came along to change the scoreline which is frustrating.

"We've missed chances, we've not defended as we usually do and again, possibly if I'd realised officials at this level were going to be as bad, I might not have stayed on this season.

"I don't know about the sending-off and I'll have to wait until I see the video. The referee was closer than I was but you see situations like that on a football field every game and very rarely do they end up with a sending-off. Here we have a young lad just starting his career sent off for what looked like a nothing offence."

Carlisle's winner, scored within a minute of the dismissal, merely added salt to the wounds, added Smith.

"They scored off the free kick because we were down to 10 men but I've got to look at what we do and, although we had a couple cleared off their line, it could have been 3-3 at half-time.

"I don't mind us having those chances but I'm not happy with us giving them chances. There were certain aspects of our game that were not up to scratch but I think we should have got something out of the game."

Meanwhile, defender Lee Roche and striker Lee McEvilly picked up knocks that make them doubtful for tomorrow's game.