Paul Simpson has urged Carlisle United’s fans to FORGET about Shrewsbury Town’s returning ex-Blues and said: Just focus on us.
Former United captain Morgan Feeney will face his former club while Carlisle-born striker Ryan Bowman also returns to Brunton Park.
The manner of Feeney’s departure led to criticism from some fans, who felt the defender should have been more open with the Blues about his intentions.
Asked about the prospect of that being a factor in Saturday’s atmosphere, though, Blues manager Simpson said: “I hope not. Morgan has been a really good servant for the club.
“What I would say is I don’t care about Morgan Feeney this weekend, or Ryan Bowman – two really good servants for the club. I want our supporters just to forget about them.
“Just try and focus on us this weekend, concentrate on supporting us.
“Then, if we’ve got the right result at the end of the game, they can applaud them for what they did for our club.”
Feeney turned down a new deal at Carlisle this summer in favour of joining the Shrews.
At the time Simpson said he was disappointed not to have been informed about Shrewsbury’s move so that United could have tried to compete with their offer.
He also questioned comments made by the ex-skipper when he said Shrewsbury’s “ambition” matched his own.
But Simpson, speaking ahead of Saturday’s reunion, stressed: “Morgan, in my time, was a great servant. I really enjoyed working with him. I enjoyed working with him in the England U19s too.
“He’s a good character – a character I wanted to keep. He chose to go, that’s his decision.
"I’m sure he’s not regretting it, but I want our supporters just to focus on us this weekend.
“Forget about them, and everything else – just come and support us properly and hopefully we stick together.”
Former United youth product Bowman scored the winner on Shrewsbury’s last visit to Brunton Park – a 2-1 victory in the FA Cup second round back in December 2021.
Matt Taylor’s squad are 11th after three wins and two defeats from their opening five league games.
“They’ve got a good squad,” said Simpson of a club he managed from 2008-10.
“They’re a football club that have cemented a place in League One, it’s going to be another tough challenge for us.
“But it’s a great game to look forward to. There’s an opportunity for us here, if we go about our jobs properly and consistently over the 90-105, whatever we have to play, if we can get a better level of consistency than we’ve had so far, I think we’ve got more than enough to get a result.”
United are hoping to end their own wait for a win this weekend, and Simpson added: “I don’t care how we do it.
“If it’s luck or through good play, good fortune, who cares.
“We’ve just got to get something that gives us a lift, gives everybody that belief, gets the ball rolling for us, gets the monkey off our back in terms of ‘you haven’t won a game’ and people can stop bleating about that.
“We’ve just got to do everything we can that gets the performance, gets us some luck, gets us a result at the end.”
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