CARLISLE United manager Paul Simpson has said that he is 'massively disappointed' with the Blues EFL Trophy defeat against Accrington Stanley. 

Simpson's side looked to open their 23/24 EFL Trophy account with a victory against John Coleman's Stanley at the Wham Stadium, but a late Corey Whelan own-goal would sink the Blues in Lancashire.

Despite the result, the Carlisle boss did point out some positives from the clash but detailed why he believed his side came up short.

"In the first half, without a doubt, really pleased with what we showed but I am massively disappointed that we have lost the game," He said.

"We had opportunities first half and we just haven't been clinical.

"We have played some really good football and the bigger concern for me is how we went about it second half.

"It makes me ask the question of whether or not they were able to carry on doing it over a 90-minute period because they gave the ball away too cheap, we were a little bit sloppy in possession and we lost too many duels.

"We hardly troubled the goalkeeper, Ryan Edmondson's shot at the end was the only time we really tested the keeper, and that concerns me.

Simpson also spoke candidly about his player's fitness and ability to maintain their footballing levels across the full 90 minutes and pledged to work harder off the field to achieve these results.

He said: "We created the opportunities, you have to finish them, it is as simple as that and that is what has let us down first half, and then second half there was a lot of stuff which let us down.

"They can always say they are not used to the pace of this sort of game, maybe we are going to half to work them harder, maybe we need to increase of levels of work to get them fitter.

"I think when you look at the mistakes we made, that's like a bit of tiredness of mind and body and unfortunately it costs you a game because you have to go for 90 minutes.