Paul Simpson delight as Carlisle win caps ‘b

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2022 by PA

Carlisle manager Paul Simpson could not hide his delight after capping off a week which saw him become a grandfather by taking his team into the second round of the FA Cup with 2-1 win over Tranmere.

Jordan Gibson and substitute Jayden Harris scored either side of half-time as the Cumbrians successfully followed up their League Two victory against Rovers from last weekend.

“It’s been a brilliant week,” Simpson said.

“I know I look far too young to be a grandad but I am so chuffed with that, and when things like that (the birth of his grandchild) happen, football has to take second place.

“But it’s football head back on today, thankfully we’ve got a win, we’re into the second round of the FA Cup – which is so, so important for us as a football club – and hopefully the draw’s going to be kind.”

Tranmere came close to taking an early lead as Kane Hemmings’ shot from inside the box was saved by Tomas Holy.

Carlisle were much the better team for the remainder of the first half and nearly broke the deadlock in the 17th minute, when Jon Mellish’s attempt went just wide after Gibson’s effort was blocked.

They did go in front on the half-hour mark, with Gibson firing home after Ross Doohan fumbled Tobi Sho-Silva’s shot into his path.

Tranmere thought they’d equalised shortly after the restart after Dynel Simeu beat Holy to the ball in the air and headed in, but it was disallowed for a foul.

Harris replaced Sho-Silva on the hour mark and doubled Carlisle’s advantage six minutes later with his first goal for the club, taking the ball past Doohan and squeezing it over the line having been played through by Taylor Charters.

Neill Byrne halved the deficit with a header in the 82nd minute – four minutes after coming on the pitch – but Tranmere were unable to find the leveller.

“I thought at 2-0 we did look comfortable and then we lost our way and they actually got a bit of an impetus as well,” Simpson added.

“The goal gives them a lift and they threw everything at us, but we’ve headed, we’ve kicked, we’ve defended.

“Tomas made a save early on and, let’s be fair, we’ve had a little bit of luck as well because I’m not sure it was worthy of disallowing the goal.”

Tranmere boss Micky Mellon was disappointed with his side’s display.

“It was a really poor first half,” the Scot said.

“We were way off it with pretty much most or all of what we had to do.

“In the second half we rallied a little bit.

“We should have had a goal to make it an equaliser.

“We kind of huffed and puffed but let the game run away from us.

“We gave away a cheap second goal but we just never got going.”