And he said his side will be at risk of dropping out of the play-offs if they make a habit of playing so poorly.
Savage’s side were hit by three Carlisle goals in the space of 19 minutes and, while the Forest Green boss saw improvement after the break, his team still lost 3-1 to Mark Hughes’ Cumbrians.
“I stand here and can’t defend that first half performance. It was a disgrace,” said Savage in a BBC interview.
“Individuals should have a look at themselves.
“I try to protect players, and I will.
“But I wasn’t good enough first half with my selection of players. So I’ll take accountability for that.
“They have everything. The old adage is, ‘We should get experience’. The experience last year made mistakes in the play-off semi-final.
“It’s easy to say we need experience. Maybe we’re missing a leader.
“But the easiest thing is to say we need to get a load of experience in. No. This is the way we’re going and building.
“The second half shows we can get a reaction. I thought they were brilliant in the second half. First half…some of those performances… I have never witnessed some performances like that.”
The tone was set for the hosts when Carlisle’s Luke Armstrong intercepted a pass from home keeper Harry Isted to defender Abraham Kanu, before squaring for Stephen Wearne to open the scoring. Morgan Feeney then headed another for United before David Ajiboye’s memorable solo goal made it three.
“When have we ever said to the keeper, play the ball to a centre-half, marked, with a slow pass?” added Savage.
“Harry Isted is an experienced goalkeeper. And he does that pass, to Kanu…
“The second goal is a cross, and the third is a wonder goal, but he [Ajiboye] is allowed to run through four or five players and score. Come on…”
Jay Mingi pulled one back after the break and Forest Green applied plenty of further pressure but could not break down Hughes’ resolute visitors.
“Three-nil down at half-time… no coaching courses prepare you for that team-talk,” added Savage. “But we were brilliant second half, loads of positives, and if we’d got that second goal we might have got the third.
“It’s easy to play at 3-0 down, no pressure. They managed the game well towards the end but we had numerous chances.
“It wasn’t to be. Congratulations to Carlisle, another defeat.”
Forest Green, after a third straight defeat, remain sixth in the table, now seven points adrift of third-placed Carlisle, while they have a nine-point cushion above eighth place in the play-off zone.
Yet Savage said his team will be caught if they reproduce Saturday’s first half efforts.
“We’re going to go on a journey and it might take another year. We’ve got time to do it. As long as we get in the play-offs…and now we’re looking over our shoulder, let’s be fair, Halifax and Southend are coming up,” he added.
“Perform like we did in the first half and we’ll fall out of the play-offs. Perform like we did in the second half we’ll be fine.
“If we could put 90 minutes together we could beat anybody in this league.”
