Carlisle United manager reacts to Blackpool defeat

The Blues conceded inside the first minute and that proved enough for their play-off chasing visitors.

The 1-0 defeat was a record equalling 28th loss of the league season for the relegation-bound Cumbrians.

Manager Simpson was relieved it was only 1-0 at half-time but, in a better second half showing, conceded that Carlisle still did not do enough.

“It was an horrendous start to the game, a really poor goal to give away,” he said of Karamoko Dembele’s 35-second opener.

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“In the first half we struggled with the wind and the way they played.

“As negative as this sounds I was delighted to get in at 1-0, because they caused a hell of a lot of problems with the way they played.

“Their two centre-backs split wide and player out, and we couldn’t chuck anybody else forward because we couldn’t leave ourselves vulnerable at the back because of the way the wind was – balls were going over the top, and [Shayne] Lavery is a handful, Dembele is a good footballer…it caused us a problem.

United owners Patty and Tom Piatak were at the game on their latest visit from Florida (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“At half time when we changed it around, and had the wind with us, we were much better, more front foot, able to get closer to them, but we just didn’t have the quality in the final third to be able to cause an effect.”

The defeat meant United have taken one point from their last nine home games with the Blues having not won at Brunton Park since New Year’s Day.

It also cost the Cumbrians the chance of back-to-back wins for the first time in the latter stages of a season of struggle.

“It’s 17 or 18 games we’ve lost by the single goal, and we’re not able to get that single goal ourselves on enough occasions,” added Simpson.

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“It’s blatantly obvious that we’re lacking – it’s something we have to improve on.

“Credit to the players for hanging in there, and in the second half their defender cleared one off the line from Luke Armstrong, which was a brilliant bit of defending.

“We felt if we could have got a bit more control second half, in the way we passed the ball, we could have got something out of it. But it wasn’t to be.”

It was an afternoon when United again failed to serve their two January striker signings Armstrong and Georgie Kelly, and Simpson said: “There were no real clear-cut chances. If you’ve got two strikers like that you’ve got to be able to feed them.”