It wasn’t a good game: Paul Simpson frustrated as Carlisle held by Sutton

Posted Sunday, December 04, 2022 by PA

Carlisle boss Paul Simpson was brutally honest in his assessment after his side’s 1-1 draw with Sutton United.

The visitors came from behind to clinch a point as Will Randall cancelled out Ryan Edmondson’s opener on the stroke of half-time at Brunton Park.

Simpson felt a share of the spoils was fair but was less impressed with the performance overall.

“Looking at the game it was definitely a fair result,” said Simpson. “I don’t think either team deserved to win it on that evidence.

“It wasn’t a very good game of football. It was very stop-start. We have to accept that it’s a point and move on.

“You’ve got to finish the half off. It didn’t change the team talk because I wasn’t particularly happy with what happened in the first half anyway, even if we’d have gone in at half-time 1-0 up.

“It’s not a great time to concede and it gives Sutton something to hang on to.

“Over the 94 minutes I think it’s clear to say that they deserved a point out of it. It’s frustrating we didn’t manage to create more chances. We didn’t play particularly well.

“It’s a point and we move on. I don’t believe in the saying ‘two points lost’ because we’ve got one more point than we started with. We just have to keep going.”

Sutton boss Matt Gray was more upbeat after seeing his side pick up another point on their travels.

“You’d take a point wherever you go on the road,” said Gray. “Especially against a side who have started the season really well and are in and around the play-offs.

“We know it’s a tough place to come and they’ve got some good players. It was a deserved point on the road, most definitely.

“I was disappointed to see them go ahead because it was a really dominant first-half performance. I was pleased with what we were doing, passing the ball, switching it and opening them up.

“We were maybe lacking that little bit of quality to carve something really clear-cut out.

“Out of nothing, I think they had one counter attack and it’s a corner we should be dealing better with.

“It was a little bit unlike us, but I’m really pleased with the response and to get the goal back before half-time and to go in level was the least we deserved.

“It changes the half-time team talk. We started the second half well but the game went a bit flat after that.”