Paul Simpson slammed what he felt was an “absolutely shocking” performance from the officials in Carlisle United’s stalemate at Walsall.

The Blues boss felt ref Declan Bourne and one of his assistants gave the worst officiating displays he had seen for a long time.

A number of questionable decisions featured in United’s 0-0 draw with the ten-man Saddlers, which saw the Cumbrians drop out of League Two’s top three.

Simpson said the officials were not the reason Carlisle failed to win, but he said: “I don’t like having a go at referees but I think that’s one of the poorest performances from a pair of officials I’ve seen for a while.

“I thought they were absolutely shocking over the whole of the game.”

Simpson also accused the officials of a lack of “respect”, adding: “I’m told that when the players tried to talk to [Bourne] he just laughed at them. I don’t think that’s acceptable.

“The fourth official told me I need to calm down otherwise I’d get into trouble – their bench were effing and blinding at him and he just accepted it.

“At no point did I swear at him, wag my finger at him or anything like that. I tried to treat him with respect, and he chucked it straight back at me, so that’s really disappointing. Those things are something I need to take up with the referees group, the PGMOL.

“It isn’t the reason we didn’t get three points today but it certainly has an effect on making a game of football flow better.

“I thought the two of the three officials were really poor but really poor for both sides. There were some really strange but simple decisions that they couldn’t get right.

“I don’t like criticising officials, I don’t think they’re as bad as everybody makes out but unfortunately two of these three today were.”

News and Star: Paul Simpson on the touchline at WalsallPaul Simpson on the touchline at Walsall (Image: Richard Parkes)

Simpson felt Carlisle should have had a penalty for a challenge on Jack Armer, while he insisted the officials allowed Walsall to get away with things during the game.

He added: “It was a very stop-start game, but I knew it was going to be that.

“We’ve watched Walsall in their games leading up to it and they like to make it chaos, they like a chaotic game, and sometimes I think you have to have a strong official if you’re going to have that.

“I don’t know how many times their players dived today and got away with it, they were going down under really minimal contact.

“I get it, I’m not criticising Walsall for it, but the goalkeeper goes down for no reason, they had a player in the middle of the pitch goes down, [Brandon] Comley, a player on the far side goes down, they’ve got [Tom] Knowles going down with cramp… players all over the place throwing themselves to the floor.

“The sad thing is, I actually think they’re better than that. I think they’ve got a good group of players here. I don’t know the reasons why they’re not up there now but they have a good group. They don’t need to do them sort of things.

“Thankfully we’ve managed to come away with a point. It’s a point I hope will be an important one.”

On the Armer incident, when the wing-back went down in the box in the first half, Carlisle’s manager said: “I’ve got the benefit of seeing a video of it, and when I saw it first hand live I don’t understand what the referee has seen.

“He tells me at half time there is no contact, no pull…it’s incredible. That was one of many decisions today.”

Walsall, meanwhile, held United off with ten men for the final half-hour after their ex-Carlisle defender Hayden White was sent off for a challenge on Armer.

“To be honest I thought it was a strong challenge,” Simpson said of that incident.

“Everybody was saying to me he [White] went over the top of the ball. I haven’t seen it back again.

“I thought the referee was really quick to give it, whether he was right or wrong I couldn’t really say at the moment. Thankfully Jack’s not too badly hurt, he’s just got marked on his shin where he got caught.”

Carlisle dropped to fourth in the table with five games to go, as they were overtaken into third by Stockport County on goal difference.