Paul Simpson delighted with Jordan Gibson’s response to midweek display

Posted Sunday, March 20, 2022 by PA

Paul Simpson says making Jordan Gibson watch clips of his performance in midweek helped him achieve a starring role in Carlisle’s Cumbrian derby win at Barrow.

Goals from midfielder Gibson and Kristian Dennis fired in-form United into a 2-0 lead with 18 minutes left.

And while captain Ollie Banks then netted a 13th goal of the campaign, the Bluebirds couldn’t build on away trips to Rochdale and Scunthorpe that yielded four precious points in the battle for survival.

Carlisle’s latest triumph – in front of Barrow’s biggest home league crowd (4,658) since Boxing Day 1969 – sees them climb 12 points clear of the relegation places.

The Holker Street outfit, who would have moved ahead of United with a first league victory over their rivals for 62 years, are six points above the bottom two.

Despite reasonable away form, Barrow haven’t won in the league at home since beating Swindon on December 11.

Carlisle boss Simpson, who has masterminded a run of 15 points out of a possible 18, said: “I am so pleased for Gibbo because I think he has some real ability.

“The other night (in the defeat to Newport) he didn’t have a good night. I showed him the clips of what he did and he actually said ‘Wow, that’s a horrible watch’.

“But he responded in a good way.”

On his side’s current run Simpson added: “I want us to finish as high up as we can. I don’t want us just to stay up. We are not in football just to stay up in divisions.

“It has always been my attitude to win as many games as possible and there are still 27 points to play for.”

Simpson’s only disappointment was an early first-half knee injury to Callum Guy that saw his skipper finish the day on crutches.

Barrow boss Mark Cooper pulled no punches after another depressing home result.

“We wasted the first half,” he said. “We weren’t anywhere near where we needed to be. We should have come flying out of the traps.

“Instead, we played a lot of square passes and back passes. That wasn’t the game plan.

“The plan was to play it up to Aaron Amadi-Holloway and then get the bits. But we decided to play some risky passes, let them press us and give them the impetus.

“It is a local derby; just run about for the fans. If we are going to get beat, let’s run about and show some pride for the fans.

“That’s what we did in the second half. We put them under a bit of pressure, put a few balls in the box and caused them some problems.

“We had a free header that hit the bar, a ball that rolled across the line and no one tapped it in and then a chance eight yards out the centre forward missed and handled it.

“That’s been the story of our season.”