Carlisle United boss reveals when he hopes Paul Huntington will be ready for action

The Blues manager has identified the visit of Gillingham on August 27 as a target for the experienced new signing.

Simpson has said it would be wrong to throw the 34-year-old Cumbrian straight into action straight away.

But he hopes the former Preston North End man will not take long to get up to speed fitness-wise.

Simpson is hoping to arrange a friendly game soon to help Huntington and said: “Now we have a free week after Stevenage [on August 20], there’s a possibility we might try and get something in then, even if it’s to get him 60 minutes.

READ MORE: Paul Huntington: 'It means a bit more to play for Carlisle United'

“If we aren’t able to do it, we will make sure we do sessions on our training that gets him the same amount of high-speed running, and the right amount of sprinting.

“We can simulate the work he needs to do in training, although I would also say it’s much better to do in a game than in training.”

While Carlisle’s Papa John’s Trophy game against Manchester United’s Under-21s on August 30 may seem an obvious route back into first-team football for the defender, Simpson said: “I’m looking and thinking I’d like it to be before that if I’m going to be honest.

Huntington signed a one-year deal with United this week (photo: Amy Nixon)

“I’d like to think we can work with him and get him to the required level for the Gillingham game.

“At the moment, we’ve got a plan for him going to next weekend, then once you get there we can reassess it and readjust what he’s doing.

“If we do two or three days with him and we think he’s capable of doing more, we’ll maybe take him to that level.

“It’s a bit of a grey area at the moment because we don’t know where he’s at. He’s telling us what he’s doing and that he feels fit, it’s the actual getting him out on the grass and seeing how he copes with it now.”

Simpson said he had a meeting on Thursday morning with Huntington and the Blues’ fitness coach Jamie Roper to assess Huntington’s pre-season work and to work out United’s plans from here.

The Carlisle-born defender barely played any first-team football at Championship club Preston last season, but said he has been training nearly every day this summer.

“Paul is very knowledgeable as well and he’s a deep thinker who knows what he needs and what his body needs,” Simpson added.

“We’ll keep working with him and building him up into the group.

“The base fitness is there for him, he’s in really good shape and he obviously looks after himself. What we have to do is get the football fitness into him.

“It’s easier when you’re training on your own because if you know you’re running in a straight line then you’ve got a bend coming up, you can see it coming and you’re ready for it.

“When it’s a chaos session and you’ve got somebody running at you and you don’t know which way they’re going to run, and you’ve got to adjust and adapt, that’s the stuff he needs.

Simpson says he remembers watching a teenage Huntington playing for Trinity School at Brunton Park in 2004

“I’d like to think, because of his experience, that it will come back very quickly.”

Simpson, meanwhile, said he was impressed by Huntington’s attitude when they met for talks over his Carlisle move.

He said: “I didn’t know him before – I’ve come across him through his career, when he’s been playing for other teams, and I remember watching him play on Brunton Park in the English schools u18s final [for Trinity School in 2004].

“I don’t know him personally and haven’t had many conversations at all with him. But I was impressed with how he came across when I met him.

“Greg [Abbott, United’s head of recruitment] met him as well and was impressed.

“I told him, ‘I need to be clear in my mind that this isn’t just a convenient club on your doorstep and you get your slippers on and take a nice easy way to the end of your career. I need to know you’re totally committed, this is what you want, and I have an experienced player who wants to come and achieve something’.

“That’s what I got from him. He’s been really good to deal with over this last week, and then we got to a point where we were ready to talk about a deal for him.

“I’m delighted he’s in, he passed his medical on Wednesday morning, we got him signed and it’s now a case of doing the work and getting him up to a level where he’s ready to play as soon as we can without making it too soon that puts him at risk.”