Paul Simpson reacts to Carlisle United's defeat at Doncaster Rovers

The Blues conceded after five minutes at the Eco-Power Stadium.

And Simpson felt his side did not get to grips with things for long enough in the 2-1 setback on New Year’s Day.

He said: “I know there have been a few times this season when we’ve recovered, and in this game we nearly recovered from two down.

“But you just can’t go a goal down against teams, especially when they’ve got good individual players.

“We never got to grips. We didn’t start the game well. We kept miscontrolling the ball, passing it to them, giving it straight back to them.

“That’s not what we’ve been like. We’ve been better than that.

“There’s lots of disappointing things out of today. The result is one, and the level of performance is the reason why we didn’t get the result.”

READ MORE: Simmo on striker's injury in Doncaster defeat

Joel Senior endured a bad start on his return to the side for the first time in nearly a year, as his slip allowed James Maxwell to open the scoring for Donny.

The defender improved as the game went on, while Simpson pinpointed other aspects of the goal for criticism – including keeper Tomas Holy’s role.

“We could have stopped it a few times and I don’t think the keeper can be beaten there, it’s as simple as that. He shouldn’t be beaten like that. It should be saved,” Simpson said.

“There was no communication. There’s a throw-in on the far side, we’ve set up ok, we’ve got a marker and screener in front, but I just think there was a few times where there was a lack of communication to tell players there was somebody running behind them.

“We allowed George Miller to get the ball into the far post, and yeah, Joel should have dealt with it better, and maybe in a couple of games’ time he’ll deal with that instinctively.

“But there was a rustiness, and maybe even a nervousness which is absolutely understandable with what he’s been through.

“What I’d like to see is when a player makes a mistake like that, is somebody rescues him. Unfortunately today nobody did.”

Kyle Hurst hits Doncaster's winner (Image: Richard Parkes)

A second goal by Kyle Hurst after the break left Carlisle with too much to do, and Simpson said: “We’re chasing the game at that point, but it was a bit too easy for them to get out on this side in front of the dugouts.

“Miller’s made a run off, Tomas has tried to see it out and unfortunately the defenders have gone back to the goalline because Tomas was out and the ball’s gone in front of them and they weren’t able to do it.

“There’s lots of mistakes. But in all goals there’s mistakes. The goals aside, we haven’t dealt with the game well enough for enough to be able to warrant saying we deserved something out of it.”

United earned late hope through Kristian Dennis’s 14th of the season, and came close to a last-gasp leveller through Morgan Feeney.

Simpson added: “We showed a desire towards the end, but you just can’t start games like we did – that’s the top and bottom of it, we have to accept that.”

READ MORE: Big match verdict on Doncaster 2 Carlisle 1

Carlisle’s boss, who lost Jack Stretton to a first-half injury with Tobi Sho-Silva taking his place, made changes in the second half, with Jayden Harris replacing Jordan Gibson at the break, and Jamie Devitt coming on in the last ten minutes.

Asked if there was a case for Devitt being involved sooner, Simpson said: “When you’re making substitutions, you have to think where they’re going to affect the game.

“Everybody will have an opinion, and I can’t worry what other people’s opinions are, I have to do what I think’s the right thing.

“Me and Gav [Skelton, assistant manager] were discussing it, and at the time we felt as though there was an opportunity with what we had there, because of Jayden with his legs, Callum was doing a decent job screening, Moxon was doing a good job, Jon Mellish was showing energy out here in the midfield, so it was a case of where do you put Jamie Devitt on?

“We made a decision [in the end] just to try something different. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure even if it was going to make us better, I just had to try something different by putting Mox in there and taking Callum off. The truth is I didn’t think Callum deserved to come off.

“Everybody has an opinion, don’t they? If we’d got something out of the game it would have been the right thing. Whatever I did today wasn’t the right thing because we’ve lost.”

United remain fourth in the table, with Simpson’s attentions now to turn to the transfer market, with Carlisle hoping to make signings before their next game against Newport County in two weeks’ time.

Reflecting on their return of six points from nine over the festive period, the manager added: “The players wanted nine out of nine but let’s not take anything away from Doncaster. They have a good group of players here and the front three caused us some real problems.

“Maybe it was one game too many for us in this little run, and hopefully we’ll benefit from the next two weeks and come back fresher for it.”