Carlisle United manager's reaction to Bristol Rovers defeat

The Blues fell to an eighth straight defeat as the hosts came from behind to win 2-1.

United’s manager felt his team’s display regained some “respect” after the previous weekend’s shocker against Cambridge United.

But Simpson accepted the home side had still shown some key elements that his own relegation-bound side had lacked.

“I definitely did [see some positive signs],” Simpson told the News & Star. “But it's the same story, though, isn't it?

“We're getting into the final third, and then we're letting ourselves down when we get there.

“I thought it was a great goal from Josh Vela, a great finish. I was really pleased with how he played today, pleased with Harrison Neal again, I thought Taylor Charters came in and did alright.

“We've got to find something from our players to give ourselves a chance of getting a result.

Jon Mellish shows his frustration as a chance goes begging (Image: Richard Parkes)

“It’s a case of dealing with the quality at this level [when it comes to Rovers’ equaliser], because I think it's a great bit of skill from Jevani Brown.

“I don't agree that Sam Lavelle should have done something different, which has been thrown at me from the radio [in his post-match interview with BBC Radio Cumbria] – I don't agree with that.

"He [Lavelle] has tried to get tight in thinking that he's going to get hold of it, and he's in a position to be able to compete, but it’s a great bit of skill, you can't legislate that, you can't predict that's going to happen.

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“And then it's a class finish from Chris Martin, who has been doing that all his career. So we’ve been done with some quality, and we've not had that sort of quality when we've got into those areas.”

United went on to concede the decisive goal early in the second half when Sinclair swept home on the counter-attack. It left the rock-bottom Cumbrians 14 points adrift of safety in League One with 13 games to go.

“Again, it's one of those things where we should have made a foul on the halfway line,” said Simpson of the hosts' winner.

“Like [Luke] Thomas did on us. So everybody else is doing it, we're just getting caught out with a little bit of naivety, and a little bit of nicety.

Sam Lavelle fires a late chance wide for Carlisle (Image: Richard Parkes)

“And then, similar to last week, we've got to send players down the line when you're in that position, and trust yourself to go one v one, and we've allowed him to come inside. And it's a good finish.”

Carlisle, who remain on their worst losing run for 21 years, will train today in preparation for Tuesday’s rearranged trip to Burton Albion as they continue looking for a way out of their dreadful form.

“We all know the predicament, we all know we're in trouble, serious trouble,” added Simpson.

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“But we can't change that, we can't change what's gone in this first round of games.

“We've just got to go and make sure we finish [as well as we can] and get some respect back – play for pride, play as hard as we possibly can.

“And see if we can get a little bit of luck that turns it into it into a result for ourselves.

“We know that we have to win games, we've got to try and find a way to win games. At the moment, I'll take a draw just to stop the rot.

“I went with four forward players in the hope that we'd be able to get goals and then the midfielders could join in. We talked about the full-backs being positive and joining in and getting forward in the hope that when we're attacking, we can attack with five or six and the other four [can] try and keep that security.

“I thought for long periods it worked really well. But again, we've just been done by some real quality. That's means we take nothing from the game.”