Carlisle United boss slams ‘pathetic’ Leyton Orient FA Cup loss

Asked by the News & Star to elaborate on his “mental weakness” comment, Simpson said: “We wait for something to go against us

before we play, so we’re chasing and the pressure’s off a little bit.

“Then we get back in it and there’s an expectation to keep going, and they don’t deal with that very well.

“They have the ability to be strong mentally, but it has to come out.

“There’s a bravery. I always think about myself as a player – I wasn’t brave in terms of going and tackling and heading, going

crunching into tackles, but I was brave to want to get on the ball.

“When we’re in that sort of position, we’re not brave to get on the ball, and the decision-making is a little bit loose.

“We can’t afford to do that. We’ve got to show a bravery. I always have a thing that if you’re going to go down, you go down kicking and

screaming, and I think we’ve gone down really pathetically today.

“From getting ourselves back into it at 1-1 and looking in a really good shape, I think we’ve taken our foot off it and not been able to go

and carry on being as ruthless as we were.”

Simpson was disappointed by the manner of the two goals that saw Orient clinch the tie after the break.

• Leyton Orient v Carlisle United – as it happened

“We started the second half much brighter and much more positive, we actually passed the ball to each other instead of giving it away

cheaply and got ourselves level with a really good goal – but then they probably had a couple of minutes of pressure once it was 1-1 and

we went under,” he added.

“We didn’t work hard enough to stop the cross, exactly like I talked about at Cambridge last week, and Corey [Whelan] has got to be

aware of the lad [Drinan] coming in behind him and defend the goals.

“We’re defending outside the white posts and if you do that you’re going to give yourself a problem.

“For the third goal…I keep saying it but the ball has gone long up to Ryan Edmondson and we have to compete better.

“We’ve lost the first contact, the ball gets hooked on and Corey has been outmuscled by the striker and they were clean through. It’s

really disappointing and we need to address it very quickly.”

Simpson added that it was “blatantly obvious” that Carlisle need to improve the squad given their “dire” situation, and he remained

focused on doing so in January, hopefully armed with an improved budget due to the impending Piataks’ takeover.

United’s boss, though, said he had failed in attempts recently to tempt some free agents to Brunton Park.