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" Every point is important and we knew it was going to be a real scrap today, we knew the way that these lot play, it’s very very difficult to play against, it might not be some people’s cup of tea but they are very effective at it and they cause you a lot of problems. We knew today was going to have to be a case of just rolling the sleeves up and working our socks off to get something out of this today.
" We felt the system that we put out there would have been good enough to go and get us chances, we knew we could create chances and I think especially in the first half we created some real good openings and we let ourselves down with the final pass or we were a little bit unlucky when Zigor hit the post but we had chances that we could have gone ahead but overall I’m delighted with the point.
" I’ve had to have a re-think about the way we approach some games because when we got relegated we went through the second half of the season having to win games, we needed wins, draws were no good to us, it’s not that situation now and we have to just think about some games and we may approach things maybe being a little bit negative but I’m not ashamed to say that, we had to come here and get something and if we can start getting our home form right and go away from home and work like we did today to get a point then things won’t be too bad for us.
" We knew it was going to have to be everybody just defending and doing their jobs and breaking forward as quickly as we could to join Karl Hawley up there who I thought worked his socks off today, he got battered from pillar to post and never really got any help from the officials but he stuck at it and then the lads who came on had to all come in and work their bit as well and defensively as a team we’ve earned that point today and it’s a big point for us. "
On the superb Anthony Williams save in the first-half Simpson commented : " There’s all sorts of ifs and buts if it had gone in but it didn’t, he’s there to do his job, it was a magnificent save, he came and took crosses for us, he came and made other saves and I’m not trying to be unfair to goalkeepers but they are called upon to do a job and he did his job for us as did everybody else in front of him as well so it was a good all round team performance. "
" We’re hoping to try and arrange a game for Chris Lumsdon just to try and get him some match practice. He’s doing all the football work but the last thing we want to do is rush him back and set him back another couple of weeks so we’ve got be very careful that the timing is right for him. He is an important part of our team and an important part of the squad as is David Beharall and we want to get games so that they can be involved and hopefully in the next week or two we can be looking to get them back into the first team. "
Speaking about Chris Billy and "Paddock Opinion" Simmo said : " I have to say I criticise Chris myself in games, I thought today he’s worked so hard, he’s came and defended, he’s been popping up in the box. We gave him a little bit more licence today to get forward today to try and support Karl Hawley and I thought he did and he was excellent today and hopefully he’ll start building.
" I think the problem that Chris has had is that he missed a lot of pre-season and we threw him straight back in because we needed him in there because he is a real strong player for us and you know maybe I’m a little bit to blame because I chucked him in early and the demands of playing all the games were maybe a bit too much for him but he’ll get stronger as we go on and I was delighted with him along with everybody else today. "
On the subject of two home defeats from three league games Simpson commented : " I think that football in general has changed, I think it is difficult for all teams to play at home. Teams come to an away fixture and set about a system to make it as difficult as possible and we’ve put ourselves under pressure because we haven’t taken chances in our home fixtures.
" Against Barnet we had chances to make it 2-0 and maybe even 3-0 and in the last home game we had chances to put ourselves ahead and we missed them and we had 16 shots off target I believe in Saturday’s game and that’s got to be addressed, that’s something that we’ve got to look at and we’ve got to make a system for us that suits us and gives us a chance to get our results at home but if we keep creating chances, if the players keep getting into the areas with the chances we will score goals and we’ve just got to keep plugging away, not lose faith in ourselves and in each other and hopefully it will come quickly."
With the transfer window closing on Wednesday Simmo’s thought on any new signings were : " I haven’t got any news at all, I’ve got phone calls to make when I get away from here (Sincil Bank). There are things which I’m hoping to get sorted out but we’ll just have to wait and see. Too many times I’ve given hints and I’ve been a little bit naïve, I won’t be making any hints, I just hope that come Wednesday when the deadline closes that there will be at least one new addition to the squad but I’ve said along if they don’t come in we’ve just got to get on with it and we’ll wait and we’ll keep looking around until January but I am very hopeful that something will happen.
Lincoln manager Keith Alexander said: "I thought we dominated for 90 minutes without creating any clear-cut chances.
"I was disappointed to only get a point at home when we had 80 per cent of the game.
"We kept a clean sheet and now we have gone four games unbeaten and have got a nice little run going.
"Carlisle came looking for a point and that's what they got. I picked an attacking side, but we didn't create enough quality chances.
"It was difficult for us to break them down and we had a lot of support but we weren't getting the shots and crosses in."