Simmo Speaks About The Northampton Game

Last updated : 11 March 2006 By Thetashkentterror
Simmo speaks
United manager Paul Simpson spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey on Friday evening as he gave his thoughts on the away win at Northampton which takes Carlisle three points clear at the top of the table :

" It’s been a fantastic week, Tuesday night obviously and getting ourselves to Cardiff, I have to say that I was a little bit concerned about tonight’s game because I think they are a very, very good side. I was worried about what state the lads were in but I must be daft to worry about them. The character they have shown, the fitness levels, even the ability in the second-half, we’ve passed the ball, we’ve worked them and we’ve really knocked the stuffing out of them.

" I think it would be fair to say that we went in at 1-0 up at half-time and it was probably against the run of play, they murdered us. We knew that was going to be the case though, it was very, very windy in the first-half and we knew that we would have to be strong and defend and that was what we did. It’s three goals, it’s a clean sheet and it was a massive win tonight.

" We were more clinical than they were, maybe we defended a lot better, Keiren (Westwood) was more assured in his handling then they were in the second-half. I have to say though that I don’t really care what we talk about for them, it was about us tonight, it was about us being strong, mentally, physically, all of the things that we have said all season. Being ruthless with our opportunities, it was a great first goal from Karl (Hawley), albeit through one of their mistakes, but he was in the right place. Then a wonder goal from Michael Bridges to put us two up and then Danny Livesey is a sniffer and he stuck the third one away to really knock the final nail in. It’s a big win though, a big, big win.

" I’ve said all along that I don’t think you can concern yourself with what is going on around, I think you’ve got to just concentrate on yourself. Tomorrow I’ve got football all day, I’ve got a youth team game at 11am up at Frenchfields, then I’ve got Carlisle City in the Cumberland Cup in the afternoon so it’ll all be taken care of with football, I won’t get time to think about anything else. I’ll definitely enjoy this weekend though. "



" Winning the quarterly League Managers Association award is a fantastic honour for myself, I’m delighted. As I said the last time when I got the manager of the month that I got the award and I had the trophy to take home and stick on my cabinet but it’s the players and all the staff who deserve the recognition. This is another award that we’re bringing into the football club because we are doing things right, I’m delighted with it because it is right through the country and I think Sir Alex (Ferguson) was third or fourth in it. So I’m delighted with what the players and everybody at the football club has done to get this award for me.

" I thought that this was going to be one of our toughest games of the season, obviously everybody knows that if we had lost it then Northampton would have gone top, we drop down and it gets the stuffing knocked out of us. We also knew though, thinking positively, that if we got a win here then it would make everybody sit up and take notice and it would stick us five points clear of fourth place. We are aiming to achieve a gap between us and the play-off places, tonight will go a long way to helping us.

" I said after Tuesday that when that (LDV) final comes around on April the 2nd that I want to still be top of the league. If we are and if we’ve done it right in this game, we’ve Darlington and then the Boston game, and there is a possibility that the Lincoln game is going to have to be before Cardiff as well. There are three more games that I want done right and if we’re still top then I really will enjoy Cardiff.

" All the lads want to play in the team, we’ve got players scrapping to get in and I had to break the news to Simon Grand that he wasn’t going to start tonight and he was disappointed but he’s the first to congratulate the players at the end. We’ve got fantastic spirit, character, fitness and real togetherness in there that hopefully will carry us through to the end.

" The supporters were magnificent, they’ve sung, they’ve shouted, they’ve danced the Disco dance or whatever it is they do and we’ve given them something to shout about. Now we’ve got to all stick together again, it’s next game Darlington away, we’ve let ourselves down against Darlington in the past in my time here and we don’t want that next weekend. We need to keep battling, keep working, keep moving on and hopefully stay top. "