Arouna Koné and Steven Pienaar were subjected to alleged racist abuse as Everton beat Carlisle 3-0 in Sunday’s FA Cup tie. The matter is being investigated by Cumbria police.

Supt Justin Bibby of North Cumbria Police said: “Nothing has been witnessed by police or stewards but we are investigating a report and will be working with the club to ascertain what happened. I have urged [the] person that tweeted the report to contact us.”

Although the game was played in a generally excellent spirit and a sporting Cumbrian crowd would later offer Ross Barkley a standing ovation when the England forward was substituted, a shadow was cast immediately after Koné opened the scoring in the second minute.

As he, Pienaar and Aaron Lennon, who had created the goal, celebrated, a minority group in the crowd directed alleged racist insults at Koné and Pienaar. The players complained to Lee Mason, the referee, and he briefed both managers and the fourth official. Shortly afterwards the stadium PA underlined that racist behaviour would not be tolerated.

Keith Curle, Carlisle’s manager, one of a minority of black and mixed-race managers working in the Football League, was disappointed to see such a big day for his League Two club blemished. After Brunton Park and the surrounding area had been, as he put it, “decimated” by December’s floods, this was supposed to be all about Cumbrians’ famous generosity of spirit.

“The referee came over after the first goal and said some comments were made,” Curle said. “He said two of their players heard some comments and spoke to the referee. He got a message to the fourth official and an announcement was made. We made it clear racism is not tolerated at this club and inside this stadium.

“We set boundaries at this club. It’s not what we want inside Brunton Park. Its not what we want inside football or inside society. The club will make all efforts with stewards and CCTV to identify the culprits and the relevant punishments will be adhered to.”

Roberto Martínez was anxious not to overplay the incident or that it should be taken out of context. “What happened is when we scored the goal, Arouna Koné and Steven Pienaar were celebrating,” said Everton’s manager. “A very small minority in the back of the stand behind the goal made some racial remarks. As you know, there is no sort of room for that type of behaviour but I must stress it was a very small minority. I want to believe it was just an emotional reaction to the disappointment of conceding a goal.

“I thought the way the referee handled it and the whole ground handled it, they stopped at that moment.

“It wasn’t an exercise of using the game to abuse racially any of the players. It was handled in the right manner, even though you should never see incidents like that. It was handled very well by Lee Mason. It was a one-off incident. The crowd itself stopped that little minority to behave in that manner.

“We will help the police and we will help Carlisle and we will help everyone to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, not just in football but in life. I thought the way we handled it, the referee and the announcement was a real sign of respect and it stopped the wrong doing.”