Paul Simpson has welcomed the return of Omari Patrick and Morgan Feeney from the injury list at Carlisle United.
The duo bolstered Simpson’s options against Crewe Alexandra on Saturday following hamstring injuries.
Patrick was a second-half sub and while Feeney did not get on during the 0-0 draw, the key pair’s comeback is a boost after a string of injuries in the United squad.
“It certainly gives you options [on the bench], and that isn’t me being disrespectful to Ryan Carr and Jack Ellis – sometimes you just want to see experience on there, and we want the players on the bench to give us options,” Simpson said.
“I consider Morgan and Omari to be starters, so when they are on the bench they’re definitely in mind to help to change things up for us.
“We just need some more to be pushing and maybe giving me a stronger hint that I can freshen it up when it needs it.
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“I didn’t feel Omari and Morgan were fully ready to start the game, but they gave me good options. And now they’ll get another week of training into their legs.”
Simpson said he had also decided against bringing the pair straight back into the side because of how well others had performed in the previous game at Grimsby Town, when United won 2-1.
“I felt the team from midweek deserved that opportunity again,” he said.
“I’m not saying I was right, because looking at them we probably needed a bit more energy [against Crewe]. I just didn’t want to take a chance, risk it.
“If I’d left one of the forward players, either Jack Stretton or Kristian Dennis out, you lose them straight away. If I’d left Corey Whelan, or Jon Mellish or Paul Huntington out for Morgan, you lose them straight away, because they’ve done really, really well.
“They deserved another opportunity. I just have to think about whether or not there was enough freshness about it.
“I’m maybe not very good at rotating a group of players, it’s not something I’ve often had to do.
“But we’ve taken a point out of a game that we could quite easily have lost if things had gone against us. We’re sat ninth in the table after 11 games. Let’s be thankful of that.”
Simpson said he had tried a number of options at his disposal in the second half to try and spark something.
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United were without a number of other potential attacking game changers to injury, such as Ryan Edmondson, Tobi Sho-Silva, Sonny Hilton and Jamie Devitt.
“To be honest, we do have game changers,” Simpson said. “Jay Harris can change games with his energy and legs to get up and down, Omari can change things.
“Whatever we did just didn’t happen. Over recent weeks I’ve changed and gone 4-3-3, putting Mells in [midfield], that didn’t happen. Somebody like Mellish who can run like the wind and carries on running, he didn’t do it today.
“We can go through everybody. Jack Armer and Fin Back have been really positive, they were a little bit on the back foot. Owen Moxon’s passing has been outstanding so far, it wasn’t quite at it today. Jordan Gibson looked a little bit leggy and a little bit off it. Denno and Jack looked shattered.
“I could go through the whole team. When you’ve got that many players who are not quite at it…I talk about six or seven players winning individual battles to win games. We’ve probably only had one who’s won an individual battle and we haven’t lost it, and that’s a bonus point for us.”
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