Paul Simpson's reaction to Carlisle United's defeat to Exeter City

While manager Simpson accepted his side’s performance in general was far from good enough, he said better set-piece defending could have secured a point.

Instead, United failed to pick up Exeter players at an 89th minute corner as Padraig Amond headed the high-fliers’ winner.

It was a third defeat in ten games for the Cumbrians under Simpson.

The manager said: “At 0-0 we have a chance, [even though] 0-0 would have been a good result considering how poor we were.

“The biggest disappointment is then you have individual jobs to do – everybody knows what their jobs are from set plays.

“When it’s in general play, there’s grey areas because a game changes and you have people moving, the ball’s moving around. From a set play we knew what our jobs were.

“Unfortunately we didn’t do our jobs.”

Padraig Amond headed Exeter's late winner

Simpson said United failed to keep tabs on experienced frontman Amond as he found space in the box.

He added: “On Thursday we put a loop on the TV in the players’ lounge of [Exeter] from set plays. Their three goals in the last two games have come from set plays – we knew they were going to be a threat from them.

“We’ve shown them, we’ve got a board with exactly what they do, who their threats are, what their moves are going to be.

“We worked on it in training on Thursday; we had a set play game where it was about defending set plays. But you then have to be able to go and do it and unfortunately we haven’t been able to do it today.

“I think it’s probably fair to say that when I was at Morton School, or even before that at Yewdale Primary School, we were told not to ball-watch. It’s really, really simple stuff that’s lost us the game.”

Carlisle also failed to score for only the second time since Simpson returned to the helm, as their survival cushion was cut to ten points.

The gap still means the Cumbrians could secure survival if they beat Walsall on Good Friday and other results go their way.

But Simpson admitted their display at Brunton Park against Matt Taylor’s second-placed Grecians was far from good enough.

“We didn’t have any life about us. It was a poor performance from us,” he said.

“We can say they’re a good side, and I accept that – they’re second in the table for a reason. They’ve got good players and individuals, but I don’t know whether our group really believed in themselves from that first whistle.

Simpson felt his side were "leggy" against the Grecians

“We looked leggy and lacking in the belief you need to really get the spark going.

“There are books about staying at the top – staying at your levels – and we haven’t done it here.

“I totally accept there are going to be days where it just doesn’t happen, but we just didn’t look like we had the energy to be able to go and do it.

“That’s what you have to have, when you come out on a matchday.

“We’ll have to look at why, we need to try and get to the bottom of why, and make sure we don’t have many more of those days where we don’t have the energy."

READ MORE: Carlisle United 0-1 Exeter City verdict: Defeat that shows Blues how much work still lies ahead