Manager Keith Curle has been impressed with defender Clint Hill’s early performances – and hopes his attitude will “rub off on the changing room”.

Veteran Hill made his home debut in Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat at home to Stevenage, and put in an assured performance, despite the loss.

Blues boss Curle has called on the rest of United’s players, including 19-year-old goalkeeper Shamal George, who was at fault for both of Stevenage’s goals in midweek, to learn from the ex-Crystal Palace and Rangers man.

“One of the things Clint does is he does the simple things very, very well,” Curle said.

“Players that predominantly play at higher levels, they repeatedly do the simple things very well and they don’t think ‘that’s too simple, I’ll try something else’. No, if that’s working, they carry on doing the simple things.

“That will rub off on the changing room. It’s a learning curve for the changing room and a learning curve for Shamal, as well.

“He will be having nightmares but do you beat yourself up over it or do you respect everything we do is about doing the simple things? [You need to] get the technique right and keep on doing the simple things.”

A crowd of 3,701, which included 34 away fans, watched the midweek encounter at Brunton Park.

And Curle admitted there was “disappointment” in the changing room after the game, but felt the fans had stuck with the team well.

He said: “They are disappointed. They were playing against a decent team and there wasn’t anything in the game, bar two errors that cost us the game.

“There is a disappointment around the changing room, obviously.

“But the pleasing thing is the support the players got at the end – the supporters stayed and they clapped because they know there was nothing in the game.”

Meanwhile, reflecting further on George’s mistakes that led to Stevenage’s two goals, he said: “It’s glaringly obvious that a young man has made a mistake.

“But we are all going to make mistakes, not only on a football pitch, but in life.

"If someone can show me the start of the queue for people who haven’t made mistakes in life, I would like to join it because I know I have made a few.

“I’ve made a few howlers as well, on the pitch and off the pitch. I remember a backpass when I was at Wolves against West Brom.

“I passed the ball straight back into an empty net and thought ‘how the hell did I do that?’

“But Shamal is an honest lad and he will learn from it.”

Carlisle will look to return to winning ways this Saturday when they travel to Crawley.

The two teams are separated by one point and two places ahead of this weekend’s game.

The Sussex side, who lost 2-1 at home to Newport on Tuesday, are managed by Australia’s former Liverpool and Leeds midfielder Harry Kewell.