'Excellent performance' - Simpson praises Blues in draw away to Lincoln City

Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson was full of praise for his side following their 1-1 draw away to Lincoln City.

The Blues earned their fourth draw and seventh point of the season in the draw away to The Imps.

Simpson was slightly disappointed his side did not earn all three points although he was pleased with how his side performed against an established League One side.

Speaking to the Carlisle United website Paul Simpson said: "I thought it was an excellent performance from start to finish. We saw different types of performances, we played some good football and we defended well.

“I have to say, some of the decisions are hard to explain. It’s just a penalty in the first half. Their director of football actually said to me coming off the pitch that it’s an absolute stonewall penalty, so I just don’t get it.

“We can’t say we would go two up with a penalty but we should’ve had an opportunity to be trying for it, and that’s been taken away from us.”

“The goal we conceded, that’s disappointing. It was a momentary lapse where we didn’t go out and press, and get close to the ball, so they equalised and that’s our own fault."

Simpson believes that although he was disappointed with how his side conceded he was pleased with how his side performed throughout the rest of the match.

He said: "Collectively we didn’t do our jobs properly at that moment when for the rest of the game I thought we stayed compact and compressed their play very well.

“In that one moment we didn’t do that part of the job properly. This isn’t an easy place to come and they’ve had three league games here now, which they’ve won 3-0, so it’s good to see us play like we did.

“I’m really proud of the players, they’ve all put a shift in, and it was one of those days where we started well and kept building on it. It’s just disappointing we didn’t get the three points.”

Luke Plange got his first goal of the season during the first half and manager Simpson was pleased to see his striker finding the back of the net.

He said: "I’m delighted for Luke Plange to get a goal because he’s been building towards that.

"We’ve had Sean Maguire and Joe Garner getting goals, so we’ve got to keep going, building on these last three games that are now unbeaten, and hope we take it into our home game next weekend.”

There were 645 Carlisle United fans who made the trip to Lincoln. Simpson wanted to take time to praise the supporters who travelled to watch his side.

He said: "From the start when I came out I knew it was going to be excellent from them. It would’ve been even better if we’d given them a win.

“That’s our only disappointment. They were noisy, magnificent, and we can’t thank them enough.”

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