Paul Simpson says he plans to “ignore” Keith Curle today – just like he did when he was a team-mate.

Simpson joked that he paid no attention to Curle’s vocal outbursts when they played for the same Wolves team in the late 90s.

And while the Carlisle United boss expects his Hartlepool rival to adopt a similar style on the touchline today, Simmo will stay focused on the Blues.

Speaking about his time playing alongside Pools’ former United boss, Simpson said: “He was a captain, a leader of the team – he led on the discipline side of it, on the grass, and for Wolves he was an excellent captain.

READ MORE: When Simmo and Curle were goalscoring team-mates

In fact, everywhere he’s been in his career – Manchester City, Wimbledon – he was a leader in the way he went about it.

“He was very aggressive in the way he deals with things.

“I listened to him on the touchline on Tuesday [at Hartlepool’s 2-1 win over Doncaster Rovers], I was sat about five rows back, and he hasn’t changed in terms of that aggression to everybody.

“To be honest, as a player I just used to ignore him anyway! So I’ll be ignoring him [in this game] and trying to focus on us.

“I’m quite sure Keith will have his team fired up for this game – he will want to make sure he comes out on top against his old club.

“But it’s about us and making sure we are right.”