Carlisle United boss on Burton and Cambridge preparation

The Blues manager says he and his staff put the accent on the mental side of the game before Tuesday’s aborted trip.

Simpson and his squad are now preparing for a home clash with Cambridge United on Saturday.

That is now their next chance to start their unlikely survival push after Tuesday’s washout at the Pirelli Stadium.

Carlisle’s gap to safety increased to 12 points on Tuesday night thanks to results elsewhere.

But Simpson has maintained the focus must remain on his own team’s need for wins before concerning themselves with others.

“It’s still the same in that there's 15 games to go,” said Simpson.

“When we talked about the small margins that have affected us this season that affects your position in the table, we talked about the challenge to go and push yourself a little bit more in terms of what you do.

“And I was hoping I was going to see some positive results from that on Tuesday.

• Simmo's reaction to late Burton call-off

“That couldn’t happen, so we've got to hope that the preparation’s right now for Saturday.

“We had a really good preparation [for Burton]. We did some work with the players on the mentality side of it, and on challenging each other.”

Cambridge - beaten at Portsmouth on Tuesday after taking the lead - are Carlisle's next opponents (Image: PA)

United now take on a Cambridge side who sit 17th after back-to-back defeats – with Carlisle hoping to arrest their own six-game losing run.

“It’s the next one now, and we’ve got a great game, added Simpson, who was planning to make changes to his side on Tuesday.

“We looked at these two games this week as a real good opportunity to try and get our season going.

“I was happy with it going into [Burton], I had picked a side that I was looking forward to seeing go and play.

“I wanted us to go and build on what we did in the first half last Saturday against Portsmouth. We're now going to have to wait until this weekend.”