Simmo admits Blues are ‘in a bit of a rut’ after Stockport defeat

Paul Simpson and his players applaud the big travelling support after the game <i>(Image: Richard Parkes)</i>” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/araeIFoZCkUhrRTbNzs.sg–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTYzOQ–/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/ Q0kZaL3C_XLk8.iGGHNyaw–~B/aD00MTM7dz02MjA7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/news_and_star_893/9c9f0fc37e3ab315ed73d8302e0dce07″ data-src=”https://s.yimg/res araeIFoZCkUhrRTbNzs.sg–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTYzOQ–/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/Q0kZaL3C_XLk8.iGGHNyaw–~B/aD00MTM7dz02MjA7YXBwaWQ9emedia/enf://com.zens.zens.zens/enf://com.zens.enf/ /news_and_star_893/9c9f0fc37e3ab315ed73d8302e0dce07″/></p>
<p>Paul Simpson and his players applaud the big traveling support after the game (Image: Richard Parkes)</p>
<p>Paul Simpson admits Carlisle United must work hard to get out of “a bit of a rut” following three straight defeats.</p>
<p>The Blues were convincingly beaten by Stockport County last night.</p>
<p>Their 2-0 defeat followed losses to Barrow and Leyton Orient in league and cup.</p>
<p>Simpson said his injury-hit side were well below their best for long spells at Edgeley Park.</p>
<p>And on their run of defeats, he added: “Sadly, we’re just in a little bit of a rut at the moment and we’ve got to dig deep and get ourselves out of it.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to keep each other right, keep together and get ourselves through this.</p>
<p>“We haven’t become a bad side overnight, but we probably weren’t as good a side as everybody started talking about because we’d had a good start to the season.</p>
<p>“We’ve just got to keep working hard, keep building and making sure we keep improving.  It’s a sticky situation we have to dig ourselves out of.”</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> Big match verdict on Carlisle’s defeat at Stockport</p>
<p>Goals in either half from Myles Hippolyte and Kyle Wootton saw Dave Challinor’s side to victory.</p>
<p>It meant disappointment for 1,116 traveling fans.</p>
<p>It also came on a night when United had to deal with yet another injury, Paul Huntington missing out with a thigh problem – while Jordan Gibson will now miss Saturday’s trip to Tranmere Rovers after picking up his fifth booking of the campaign.</p>
<p>United were particularly poor in the first half, and Simpson said: “We didn’t retain the pass, and we were a goal down and 20-odd minutes into the game when we strung three passes together and got a throw-in or corner in that bottom corner.</p>
<p>“You can’t take that long to get a foothold in the game.  That’s really disappointing.</p>
<p>“I just think the whole crux of it is we haven’t played anywhere near the levels we’re capable of.</p>
<p>“If you do that at this level, against a poor side you’d struggle.  thesis [Stockport] are a good side – they will be one of the top teams this season in my opinion.</p>
<p>“They’ve got a really strong squad of players, they’ve got the resources to be able to make it even stronger come January which they probably will.  We’re having to just scrap along at the moment, because of the lack of availability of players which has cost us.</p>
<p>Story continues</p>
<p>“It’s looked like we were a depleted side tonight.”</p>
<p>Simpson was also critical of the way Carlisle conceded both goals as County broke to punish his side.</p>
<p>“If you give the ball away cheaply then you are going to be out of shape,” he said.</p>
<p>“We’ve got players going over wanting to get it and they’re losing a bit of discipline about it, and with the second goal, we’ve got everybody over on the far side and we try a backheel in the corner instead of just retaining the ball.</p>
<p>“The thing they’ve done better than us is that they pressed much better than we did in the first half – I thought we were ok with that in the second half – and they just ran a bit harder than we did</p>
<p>“They haven’t had to do anything really clever, but they’ve done us.</p>
<p>“I [also] think it just showed that when we’ve got these injuries we are a little bit short of numbers.</p>
<p>“I know injuries are part and parcel of it and we have to deal with it, but we’ve just got far too many at the moment, along with the suspension.  We looked a little bit lost tonight.</p>
<p>“I thought when Jack Stretton came on in the second half we had some moments where we passed the ball better and looked more dangerous and we got some decent opportunities.</p>
<p>“They didn’t fall for us and we weren’t able to get anything out of it.  The truth is that we didn’t deserve anything.”</p>
<p>Simpson was keen to pay tribute to the big traveling support.</p>
<p>“It’s magnificent. That’s why I took the players over there for the huddle [after the game]because the changing rooms are very small here,” he said.</p>
<p>“I wanted to get my message to them before we got inside. I did that, then I said to them that they had to make sure they turned round to thank [the fans].</p>
<p>“They came here, they stuck with us, they made a noise and they kept encouraging us. They even stayed at the end even though we didn’t give them a hell of a lot to cheer about.</p>
<p>“We gave them a bit more in the second half but I’m really disappointed that we’ve given them nothing to take up the road.”</p>
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