Carlisle United boss on 'mentality' coach and new physio

Mark Francis returned to work with United earlier this week with a focus on the team’s mentality.

He is a founder of the Uspire Group which provides leadership, performance and motivational coaching.

He has worked with the Blues on a number of occasions in the last two years.

“I felt as though he added some benefit to us last season [even though] he only came in maybe two or three times last year, and it’s the same this year,” said Simpson.

“We have a Carlisle United fan who basically sponsors him, who wrote to me when I first came back in and asked if I wanted to use him.

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“At the time I said no because I said I wanted it to be about football for those last 15 games [of the 2021/22 season], but then I took him up on his offer for the following season, when the end result was that we got promoted.

“It’s not something I think you need every single week but it’s a change of voice, somebody who’s fresh to it. I think he brings that to us.

Francis worked with Carlisle's players before the aborted trip to Burton (Image: Richard Parkes)

“Unfortunately this season it hasn’t worked in terms of our results but I’m hoping there’s still time for us to get some results.”

Simpson said Francis spoke to players on Monday ahead of the aborted trip to Burton Albion.

“It wasn’t because of the last couple of results, it was booked November-December time for him to come in at this particular time because he was back in the country,” said Simpson.

“It was trying to get that shift in mentality – that [message to] ‘be brave, go and have an intent to go and score, go and be really positive and try and get a positive result’.”

Another backroom addition

Simpson, meanwhile, says United are closing in on another backroom staff appointment.

Carlisle are poised to bring in another senior physio to work with head physio Chris Brunskill.

“We’ve made the decision who we’re having – they’re currently working at a club and they’re serving their notice,” said Simpson.

“In terms of a start date it’s up in the air at the moment. We’re hoping we’re going to get them in before the end of the season but it may be one of the different things we’re trying to put together to build for the future.

“I think it’s going to be another pair of hands, and it gives the opportunity for us to have a stronger medical team.

“At the moment we’ve got Chris, and we have two interns at the moment who are in to help, which isn’t ideal, because you want fully qualified people to be in doing the job. It’s just a case of sharing the workload out.”

Chris Brunskill, right, will soon be helped by another physio at United (Image: Richard Parkes)

Simpson has expanded his backroom team considerably in recent times, with recent additions including first-team coach Billy Barr and analyst Glenn Boden.

That followed the earlier arrivals of head of performance Jake Simpson and strength and conditioning coach Adam Kwiecien.

“One of the things I noticed in pre-season when we went to St Andrews, and Mansfield were there, and we were watching Dundee United working…[I felt] we had a skeleton staff.

“In comparison to other teams we’ve hardly got any staff at all.

“There’s more of a load on [the] staff [that you have]. We’ve all just got on with it and everybody just accepts it.

“We’re now in a position where we can work with a bigger staff which will hopefully benefit us moving forward.”