Carlisle United manager: Players' welfare is at risk

The Carlisle United manager spoke out about his concerns after the Blues’ opening League One game against Fleetwood.

The 1-1 draw finally ended after 13 extra minutes at the end of the 90.

It comes amid a clampdown on time-wasting and moves aimed at increasing the amount of ball-in-play time.

Simpson said more injuries are a likely consequence while he said Carlisle will also have to tailor their training to adapt to the situation.

“We’ve just spoken about player welfare in the office, but with the extra added time there has been no attention paid to player welfare,” he said after the game.

“There’s going to be more injuries because of the extension on time and because we’re going to have to put more demands on players in training to make sure they’re fitter and robust enough to deal with the extra time.

“We’re going to put players’ welfare at risk.”

It was announced last week that match officials would adopt a new approach to time-keeping, including a more accurate measurement of time lost during stoppages.

After United’s first game under the system, Simpson said: “It’s showing we’re going to have to be fitter and we’re going to have to train for longer.

• Jon Colman's big match verdict on Carlisle United 1-1 Fleetwood Town

“We’re going to have to make them more resilient.

“When I asked the fourth [official] at the end of the first half he said he had eight [minutes] because of the amount of corners and free-kicks, but they were going to put five up.

“Then at the end of the second half we get 11 minutes, but there’s an injury and a stoppage so it goes to 13.

Paul Simpson (Image: Ben Holmes)

“They [referees] have been told they’ve got to do it so it isn’t their fault.”

Simpson also criticised the way he says he was threatened with a yellow card for showing “emotion” at one stage in the game.

“There was a situation in the first half where Jon Mellish got brought down in the box,” he said. “I didn’t realise it was offside but I jumped up appealing for a penalty, and I was told that could be a yellow card because of the way I jumped up and appealed for a penalty.

“It’s a game which is full of emotion which is the beauty of football, and we’re going to kill it.

“I think VAR takes emotion out of the game because you’re scared to celebrate in case it gets pulled back, and thankfully we don’t have to worry about that.

“I think the job of the referees and fourth officials is being made really difficult. They are having to worry about really picky things.

“I totally get that we need to clean the game up and stop time-wasting, play-acting and being confrontational towards officials. We have to do that, but I think we are nullifying any emotion that any member of staff or players have during the game.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a pleasant game when all that is taken away.”

Simpson said officials are under “strict orders” with Howard Webb, the boss of refereeing body PGMOL, “insisting” on the new measures.

• Carlisle United v Fleetwood Town - as it happened

“I think they’re not really considering the welfare of the players in what they’re doing,” he added.

Simpson was otherwise pleased with United’s opening afternoon back in League One.

He was delighted with the way his team applied themselves against a good Fleetwood side and felt Carlisle created good enough chances to have won the game.

“It was a hell of a game, a really entertaining game of football,” the Blues boss said. “Two teams going at it and magnificent support behind us.

“I’m reasonably happy with a point out of it but on reflection, and this is an early reflection, we’ve had the chances to win the game.

“But overall I’m really pleased to get our first point and it’s given us something to take confidence from and build from.”

Owen Moxon’s sublime free-kick gave Carlisle the lead before Brendan Wiredu volleyed Fleetwood level.

Both sides had chances to win it while Simpson was adamant Carlisle were denied a “stonewall” penalty for a second-half challenge on Jon Mellish.

He also felt United needed to be more “clinical”.

Overall, though, he was impressed with United’s team spirit in the club’s first third-tier game for nine years.

Paul Simpson watches Paul Huntington win a header (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“That’s what gets you through,” he said. “That togetherness is what got us something last season. We’ve got to do it again.

“We probably even have to be better than last year. We’ve got to be even more together, because last year we had rumblings from some players because they were disappointed they weren’t in, or weren’t playing in the right areas, all of that sort of stuff.

“We’ve got a togetherness about this group that we have to make sure we keep.

“You have to keep doing [the good things] we did,” he added. “On the flipside, we allowed them to get a little bit of control for the couple of minutes leading up to their goal.

“You’ve got to understand the state of games, and get yourself compact and stay together, and we just went away from it a little bit in that spell where they got the goal.

“Every goal there’s mistakes but there are two or three little individual things that we need to do better. But we’re always learning. As long as we learn and improve on it we’ll be ok.”