Paul Simpson 'living my best life' back at Carlisle United

Simpson underlined his commitment to the task of improving United’s fortunes when he spoke at the Blues’ player awards night.

The 56-year-old made it clear how happy he was to be living back in Carlisle and managing United.

And he said these are only steps along a journey which he hopes will deliver better things for the Brunton Park club.

I came back here 15 months ago, and I’ve got to tell you, I’m living my best life at the moment. I’m absolutely loving it,” he said.

“I think it’s a great place to be. I’m back at home with my family, I’ve got one of the best things that ever happened with my granddaughter Lottie being born…

“But I think we’ve only scratched the surface. We’ve got so much more we can achieve and that the club can get to.

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“My thing to you is let’s stick together, keep building it and hopefully keep me here for a few more years to come.”

Paul Simpson at Sunday's awards night (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Simpson’s words followed chief executive Nigel Clibbens’ speech where he said he hopes the manager would be at United for “a very, very long time”.

Simpson is one year into a three-year deal, with Carlisle likely to finish this campaign in the League Two play-offs – having been relegation candidates when he returned to Brunton Park in February last year.

The United boss used his awards night speech to pay tribute to a number of people.

He also underlined his appreciation to Carlisle’s “phenomenal” supporters – adding that he wished he had not given airtime to a minority of critics in recent interviews.

“I was a bit disappointed the other week – being stupid as I am I made a comment about getting some stick off people and letters in the post, people on the training ground moaning,” he said.

“They’re such a small minority that they don’t even warrant being talked about. I messed up by even giving them the space.

“The majority have been absolutely brilliant. So positive.”

Simpson set out his thanks to Carlisle’s players as they look to nail a play-off place this weekend and keep a promotion challenge alive.

Simpson said he does not hold out much hope of overturning Jon Mellish's suspension, but we will try (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“The players all came back in on June 22 last year – their work ethic and the way they’ve gone about it has been absolutely magnificent,” he said.

“It’s still not over. We’ve still got so much more to go and we’ve got so much more to try and achieve. That’s because of the work they’ve done.

“I want a game 47, 48 and even 49 where hopefully we’ll have an even better ovation around the pitch for the supporters to see. What a fantastic place that would be.”

Simpson also paid tribute to a number of people off the field at United, including his own backroom staff, the club’s day-to-day staff, the media team, commercial team Debbie Huddart and Kerry Evans who organised Sunday night’s event at the Garden at Eden, and the players’ families.

He also spoke optimistically about United’s challenge of getting over the line as they prepare for next Monday’s final game at Sutton United.

Suggesting runs of form now effectively go out of the window, he added: “Can we go and perform on a match-to-match basis and find a way to win, which is something I say to the players all the time?

“Whether we get the red card [to Jon Mellish] overturned – on last week’s experience I’m not holding my breath, but we will try – whoever is selected, let’s hope we can go and do it properly.”