Paul Simpson explains why key players missed out for Carlisle United against Newport

Jamie Devitt was absent with the hamstring injury which could see him out for anything from two to six weeks.

Jon Mellish, meanwhile, was left out of the starting line-up because of a family matter which meant he had not been certain to arrive at Brunton Park in time.

Manager Simpson made two further changes in a bid to “freshen up” the side, as United went down to a 2-1 defeat.

Explaining the selections, he said: “The first one was Dev, he’s had a scan and I don’t know the outcome or the extent of the hamstring injury yet.

“It’s either going to be a couple of weeks or six weeks, depending.

“That was one that was forced. Jon Mellish had a little bit of an issue with his partner, who is expecting, and we were a bit concerned.

“He was telling us that he wanted to be involved, he wanted to play, but it was touch and go whether or not he’d get here for 6.30pm. I had to make the call early on that one and I told him I couldn’t start him but he’d be on the bench.

“As far as I’m concerned, family is your most important [thing] in your life and Mells had to be with his partner.

“Thankfully everything seems ok, and he made it for the game.”

Simpson brought in Brennan Dickenson for Devitt and Rod McDonald for Mellish, the duo making their first starts for six weeks.

Rod McDonald was one of four players called into the side last night

Two other changes saw starts for Tobi Sho-Silva and Mitchell Roberts at the expense of Kristian Dennis and Jack Armer.

“Mitch Roberts has trained really well since I’ve been here and I felt he might give us a bit of energy on the left hand side,” Simpson said.

“He didn’t quite get up and down, and there were times when he looked positive and like he could be a threat, but I felt I needed to change it and try and get an extra forward on.

“Kristian Dennis has worked his socks off with very little reward and I thought Tobi, with his physical strength and pace, might give them problems.

“It didn’t quite happen for Tobi up there, but Denno is fine, he’s ok. Hopefully we’ll have everybody fit and ready to go for the weekend.”

Simpson admitted that four changes were more than he would have ideally liked to make, having named the same XI for his previous four games in charge.

“I thought three was enough,” he said.

“I’d made my decision on freshening it up, told the players I was going to do that.

“It’s unfortunate but I can’t criticise anybody. We’ve just got to deal with it and go again.

“I wanted a bit of freshness, a bit of energy. Unfortunately it wasn’t just the changes that caused us to have the issue; I thought as a full XI we weren’t quite at it first half and that’s why you get done.

“It was just one of those nights where we didn’t hit the standards we have done over the last four weeks.

“But, as I’ve said, there are loads of positives we can take from the way we ended the game.” 

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