Paul Simpson admitted Carlisle United lacked quality and "bravery" at Rochdale – but said a measured view should be taken of their pre-season defeat.

A lacklustre Blues showing saw Simpson’s side lose 2-1 to their National League hosts.

Carlisle failed to impress throughout with sub Dan Butterworth’s goal a late consolation.

Simpson said his side were not sharp or brave enough with the ball but also said he would not get “screwed up” about losing a friendly.

“I think you do have to take a more measured view of it, without a doubt,” the Blues boss said.

“It's not what we wanted, but I've been involved in pre-seasons where you go and smash everybody in pre-season games and you can't win for toffee when you get into the season – and I've had times where you can't win a game [in pre-season] and you have a good start.

“So, I don't get too screwed up about pre-season results.

“I want to win because I think it's a good habit to have. I'm disappointed not with the result here, I'm disappointed with the performance – and, listening to what the players are saying in [the dressing room], they're disappointed with the level of performance because they've set higher standards than that in the four weeks that we've been back.

“But we've just got to dust ourselves down and we go again. We've got two weeks left, two good games to look forward to in terms of Gateshead and Stockport, and we'll see what happens after that.”

Simpson pictured after the defeat at SpotlandSimpson pictured after the defeat at Spotland (Image: Richard Parkes)

Carlisle went behind to Kairo Mitchell’s close-range finish late in the first half, then an Aaron Henry free-kick soon into the second half doubled Rochdale’s lead.

Butterworth pulled one back but United sorely lacked creativity throughout.

“I think the big thing was quality on the ball,” said Simpson. “We just lacked a little bit of sharpness in the way we showed for it.

“I've always got this thing about [us having to] work really hard to go and win the ball back, but we've got to work as hard to keep it. We just didn't have that.

“I just thought we lost a bit of bravery. Early on, we tried to pass the ball and a couple got cut out, or a couple were put out of play, and we lost that bravery to be able to do it.

“The big lesson is we've just got to stick with it. We've got to stick with the plan, not lose faith in it, and if we do that, then we'll be okay.”

United had produced a livelier showing in their previous game – the 2-2 draw at St Mirren – but were much less dynamic at the Crown Oil Arena.

“I expected a lethargic, fatigued performance at St Mirren, if I'm going to be honest with you [after our training week at St Andrews] but we didn't get it. I thought we had a really bright one.

“In this game, I thought we would have had energy, but we didn't. I thought we got energy towards the end of the game, I thought we showed a decent level of fitness, but it just was one of those games where we didn't quite find our passing boots properly, and we certainly didn't trouble their goalkeeper enough.”

Asked if United’s struggles against Jim McNulty’s Rochdale, who largely outplayed Carlisle with their passing style, had highlighted what the Blues still needed in terms of pace and penetration, the Blues boss said: “The plan was to try and get our midfielders making runs to get in beyond, but they didn't do it. We didn't get the chance to do that.

“Georgie Kelly was just coming back with his first [start of pre-season] and was misjudging his runs and getting caught offside a little bit too easily, but I just don't think we passed the ball well enough and created those chances.

“If you think of the first half, Archie Davies gets a cross in after about 30 seconds that we didn't quite get on the end of, and then we didn't get another cross going in the box for about 40-odd minutes in that half.

“So, we need to be better at getting through that middle third into the final third and getting bodies there to be able to get the quality in there.”

Butterworth made his mark after coming off the bench but Simpson admitted it was an isolated moment from his side.

“Once you've done it once, you've got to keep doing it,” he said.

“There were some signs out there from some players, but as a group, which is what we get judged on, it wasn't a day for us and it wasn't an enjoyable one.”