'Stick together' - Carlisle United manager's appeal to fans

United are seeking their first win of the campaign at home to Shrewsbury Town this afternoon (Brunton Park, 3pm).

And manager Simpson said their early-season challenges underline the need for unity between team and fans.

“It’s easier to stick together when you’re winning games and getting Wembley appearances and all that sort of stuff,” said Simpson.

“Now’s the challenge.

“This is where we’re asking for that family feeling. If something goes wrong with your kids, you don’t just throw them out, you stick by them and back them.

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“This is where I’m asking everybody just to stick with us, just to give us a chance.

“We know we’ve underachieved, we know it’s a challenge, but give us a chance.”

Carlisle, with two points and two goals from their first five league games, today take on a Shrewsbury side set to include ex-Blues captain Morgan Feeney and Carlisle-born striker Ryan Bowman.

Shrewsbury are the opponents at Brunton Park today (Image: Ben Holmes)

Visiting boss Matt Taylor has spoken about the role United’s crowd played in their promotion last season.

Simpson - whose deadline-day signing Joshua Kayode did not join in time to be involved today - says the Blues have been well backed so far in 2023/24 and hopes that will remain the case despite any frustrations over Carlisle’s wait for a win.

“I don’t do social media but people tell me about it, and I know there’s rumblings going on,” he said.

“There’s a little bit of discontent, perhaps disillusionment and all of this sort of stuff, but we’ve worked really hard to get here.

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“Let’s stick together, stay with it, and let’s hope the players have got something in them to go out and get a performance that gets that result we all want.”

Our rallying cry for United in 2023/24 (Image: News & Star)

Simpson says clear minds are needed in order to get that all-important first win on the board.

“That’s what we need to do,” he added.

“We’ve got 41 games left and we’ve got a lot of football that still has to be played.

“We know there have been times in all of the games where we’ve let ourselves down, and there have been individual mistakes, and we haven’t been finishing things off when we’ve created opportunities.

“We can’t let that get to us because the next game is now the most important one and it’s the one that we can do something about.

“Let’s get our heads cleared, our minds on what we need to do and let’s look forward to a brilliant day.”