Carlisle United boss: Why Crawley Town are in false position

Simpson believes this weekend’s opponents are better than the table suggests.

And he has called for a “front foot and aggressive” approach from his high-flying side against Scott Lindsey’s strugglers this weekend.

Crawley are in the relegation zone but have four games in hand on third-placed Hartlepool United, who are a point above them.

Blues manager Simpson said: “I look at Crawley and think they’re in a bit of a false position.

“Or, it could possibly be a really false position as they have three or four games in hand on the teams around them and could climb that table.

“We’ve got to make sure we do it properly. I’ve watched their recent games this week, and they play some good football.

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“They’re trying to play a really positive style of football, they’ve got a good mix of experience and some good young players.

“If we’re not right, and we give them a bit of a leg up, they can show they’re good players and we’ve got to make sure we don’t allow that to happen.

“We have to be absolutely spot-on from the first whistle, front foot, aggressive, do the physical side of it, and I always feel if you do that side right the technical stuff comes out as well.”

Crawley – beaten 1-0 on the opening day at Brunton Park – have slid into the drop zone after a spell of just one win in nine games.

Simpson says Crawley invested double what Carlisle could afford in striker Dom Telford (Image: PA)

They are on their third boss of the season after ex-Swindon man Lindsey’s recent appointment, following the short-term tenure of Matt Etherington and the earlier reign of Kevin Betsy.

The Sussex outfit, owned by cryptocurrency group WAGMI United, have struggled despite some major summer signings such as former Newport County marksman Dom Telford, who has nine goals so far this season.

Ex-Carlisle loan frontman Ashley Nadesan, who has six goals, is another obvious threat in their ranks, though in midfield they have lost Brighton & Hove Albion loanee Teddy Jenks to a season-ending hamstring injury while Ben Gladwin is a doubt for tomorrow.

“They have good experience at the back as well with [Dion] Conroy and [Joel] Lynch, they have good midfielders,” said Simpson.

“The forward players with Nadesan and Telford, who scored a bagful of goals last year…it shows where they are in terms of what sort of a go they’ve had.

“We can’t come anywhere near the sort of money they’re paying for people like Telford – way over double what we can afford to pay.

“It hasn’t worked – they’re now on their third manager of the season, so there’s obviously some rash decisions been made, whether they were right or wrong it’s not for me to say.

“We have to just focus on ourselves this week, and make sure we’re right.

“I’m not really concerning myself with them. I’ll talk to the players about what we expect them to do and how we think we can combat that, but I’m concerning myself with us.

“If we go about it in a professional way like we did last weekend, maybe be better in possession and more clinical, I’m quite sure we can cause Crawley problems.”