Paul Simpson says it is vital Carlisle United show calm heads after the frustrating end of their winning run.

The 1-0 defeat to Harrogate Town checked the Blues’ impressive recent form.

United remain third in League Two and manager Simpson says it is important to reflect on the reasons why they are in such a position.

He said that, whilst they must endeavour not to slip up as they did on Saturday, they can also keep things in perspective.

“You’ve just got to keep nice and calm about it,” Simpson said. “It's just an unfortunate event.

“We really wanted to win. We knew what was at stake. We knew we had an opportunity to really cement our third place in the table.

READ MORE: Fans' views on Carlisle's defeat to Harrogate

“Now we've given [fourth-placed] Northampton a bit of a leg up, and I don't know who their game in hand is against, but they've obviously got to go and win it.

“If people still do the pools coupon and things like that, they’d be looking at [our] game and putting it down as a home win. But nothing is straightforward like that.

“It's an opportunity lost and game 29 hasn't been a good one for us. We have to just go and make sure game number 30 is.”

Carlisle remain in the automatic promotion places by a point.

The focus will now turn to next Saturday’s trip to AFC Wimbledon when the Blues will aim to bounce back.

Simpson added: “I still will say that if we’d been offered third in the table after 29 games we’d have certainly snapped hands off for it.

“We’ve given ourselves a good fighting chance.

“Yes, we now know that Northampton have a game in hand, and they can go above us, but as we have found out, no game is a foregone conclusion.

“Everybody is scrapping for their lives for all different reasons, so we have to get ready to go to Wimbledon and we scrap for everything there.”