Paul Simpson's contact with Gareth Southgate during World Cup

Carlisle United’s boss and the national team manager know each other from their respective time working in the FA.

And Simpson, who led England to Under-20s World Cup success back in 2017, says he is delighted Southgate and the Three Lions got off to a positive start in the current tournament.

They face the USA today having thrashed Iran 6-2 in Monday’s opener.

“I’ve had some text messages with him [Southgate], but at no point would I ever give him advice,” said Simpson, replying to BBC Radio Cumbria at his latest press conference.

“The only thing I got back from him was, ‘It was a nice start’ – that was all he text me back after the game.

“I’m really pleased for him, because he’s taken some flak over the last few months.

“You look at his record, and he’s had the most wins out of any England manager.

“I accept he’s played a few more games than Sir Alf Ramsey did to get his wins, but his record speaks for itself – he creates the right environment, the right culture, and the players are very good as well, that’s the biggest part; they’re prepared to go and do the business, and hopefully they carry on doing that.”

England face the USA in their second group game at 7pm UK time.

England training ahead of tonight's game against the USA (Image: PA)

Simpson, meanwhile, described England's start to the tournament as "perfect", adding: "I don’t think Gareth would have even dreamed of scoring six in that first World Cup game.

"When you’re in these tournaments, you want to get a win to start off, you don’t care how you get it. If you lose that first game, it makes it very nervy going into the second.

"I think you can see with someof the results coming out, Croatia getting a draw in their first game, Argentina losing against the Saudis..shock results can come in these early stages.

"You normally find as the tournament develops, the top teams get stronger and stronger. We started really well, with some really good attacking play, but I suppose look at what Gareth said after the game – we can be better because we shouldn’t have conceded two goals.

"Hopefully it’s a little bit of a wake-up, firstly in that you can’t take your eye off the ball, and let your standards drop - and you also can’t take VAR for granted.

"I’ve already seen some ridiculous decisions from VAR so far in this World Cup. If that had been 1-1 and that [late Iran penalty] gets given and you lose the game, all hell breaks loose.

"Thankfully it was on the back end of us scoring six and it didn’t really count for anything. Hopefully it’s the first of many wins and we can keep moving forward

Carlisle’s manager, meanwhile, has spoken of his frustration at the timing of the World Cup, feeling it takes some of the attention away from ongoing domestic competitions such as the FA Cup.

United face Walsall in tomorrow’s second round.

Simpson said: “It’s really disappointing that the World Cup is going on during our season, but there are better people than me who have debated the rights and wrongs of that.

“This is a good weekend for us and we’ve got to make it an even better weekend by getting a good result.”

United’s boss, meanwhile, says he is not drawing on his own World Cup experience to guide his club through a domestic cup.

“Players don’t want to keep hearing coaches harp on about what they did on the past,” he said. “Players want to know how Walsall will play, how we think we’re going to beat them and what we’re doing now to make sure we’re ready. They want to hear about their strengths and weaknesses.

“They don’t really care about how we beat Venezuela [with England] in 2017. It’s completely irrelevant.

“Those sorts of things, they’re my memories, they’re for me. It’s about us going and making some history for ourselves.

“If we can get a result on Saturday we can then wait and see what round three brings. We have an opportunity to go and write some of our own history for Carlisle United.”