Could Carlisle United relaunch reserve team at Brunton Park?

The Blues boss says a B Team or an Under-21 side is part of his plan once he has added more players to his squad.

Simpson feels it will benefit the Blues to have a more structured set-up for players on the fringes of the first team.

But he says such a group would play games at times that are most suitable to the club rather than be at the mercy of a fixture list.

“It’s something we are considering and talking about,” said Simpson, asked at this week’s fans’ forum about the prospect of bringing back a reserve team.

“I don’t know at what point the reserve team got stopped between me leaving in 2006 and coming back.

“But I think it is important – whether it’s a reserve team, a B Team or an Under-21 team with the ability to play over-age players, I think it’s a really good idea.

“I’m not sure if I think it’s a good idea to be in a structured league. It’s good to be able to pick and choose the time when you need games.

Paul Simpson playing for Carlisle United's reserves in 2004 during his first spell as manager (Image: Jonathan Becker)

“If we were in a league at the moment, and we currently have 15 outfield players fit and available, I probably wouldn’t be taking a chance with any of them.

“Last week was a real blessing that the [Central League Cup] game against Barrow was postponed, because we would have really struggled.

“It would have been a bit unfair to put the youth team boys in a game where Barrow would likely have had a stronger team and it wouldn’t have been a good education for them to get a bit of a kicking off some senior players, which happens.

“I want to try and form some sort of team. We’ve discussed this. I do hope to have a bigger pool of players available for the second half of the season and we need a facility to keep them match fit. That will come from playing games.

“We get inundated with emails from clubs wanting to play a friendly fixture but we’re having to turn them down because we haven’t got enough players…

“We will look at something moving further forward.”

Simpson said the idea of introducing a proper second string team would also depend in part on United growing their facilities.

He said the Blues would currently be limited in where such a side would train.

“If we have a B Team, a 21s team, whatever it’s going to be called, we have one pitch to train on at the moment and we’re struggling,” he said.

“The other day we were training up at Gretna and [as well as the players in the main session], we had six players doing the latter stages [of their rehab] and Jake [Simpson, head of performance] had to run them up the side of the tarmac at Gretna to get some work in them.

“We need facilities where we have more than one pitch, which also leads on to needing another coach to be able to take it.

“But it’s definitely something we are looking into and thinking about further down the line.”