Paul Simpson accused Carlisle United’s players of mental weakness and “going down pathetically” in their FA Cup defeat at Leyton Orient.

The Blues boss gave his latest critical assessment of a poor United showing as they lost 3-1 at Brisbane Road.

Joe Garner’s goal gave Carlisle brief hope in the second half but they were soon picked off by Richie Wellens’ side.

The first round display did little to allay fears about United’s League One fate and Simpson said: “There’s a bit of a mental weakness there unfortunately that isn’t brave enough to stay on the game and stay on it.

“We’ve got to look at it and address it and do something about it.

“I spoke first in the dressing room but the players have said a lot to each other which will stay in there.

“They have to make demands of each other and make huge demands of yourself. If you can’t mentally deal with it then it will find you out, and at the moment we’re finding it tough to mentally deal with what’s going on.

“We have to find a solution as quick as we possibly can.”

Joe Pigott’s 11th-minute penalty put Orient ahead, with Simpson feeling there had been a foul by a home player before Sam Lavelle was penalised for a high challenge on Dan Happe.

The Carlisle boss, though, did not dwell on that and accepted his side were comfortably beaten, Garner’s 50th-minute equaliser followed by two goals from home subs Aaron Drinan and Ruel Sotiriou.

Asked by the News & Star to elaborate on his “mental weakness” comment, Simpson said: “We wait for something to go against us before we play, so we’re chasing and the pressure’s off a little bit.

“Then we get back in it and there’s an expectation to keep going, and they don’t deal with that very well.

“They have the ability to be strong mentally, but it has to come out.

“There’s a bravery. I always think about myself as a player – I wasn’t brave in terms of going and tackling and heading, going crunching into tackles, but I was brave to want to get on the ball.

“When we’re in that sort of position, we’re not brave to get on the ball, and the decision-making is a little bit loose.

News and Star: Dan Butterworth and Jack Robinson, right, attack in vain at Brisbane RoadDan Butterworth and Jack Robinson, right, attack in vain at Brisbane Road (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“We can’t afford to do that. We’ve got to show a bravery. I always have a thing that if you’re going to go down, you go down kicking and screaming, and I think we’ve gone down really pathetically today.

“From getting ourselves back into it at 1-1 and looking in a really good shape, I think we’ve taken our foot off it and not been able to go and carry on being as ruthless as we were.”

Simpson was disappointed by the manner of the two goals that saw Orient clinch the tie after the break.

“We started the second half much brighter and much more positive, we actually passed the ball to each other instead of giving it away cheaply and got ourselves level with a really good goal – but then they probably had a couple of minutes of pressure once it was 1-1 and we went under,” he added.

“We didn’t work hard enough to stop the cross, exactly like I talked about at Cambridge last week, and Corey [Whelan] has got to be aware of the lad [Drinan] coming in behind him and defend the goals.

“We’re defending outside the white posts and if you do that you’re going to give yourself a problem.

“For the third goal…I keep saying it but the ball has gone long up to Ryan Edmondson and we have to compete better.

“We’ve lost the first contact, the ball gets hooked on and Corey has been outmuscled by the striker and they were clean through. It’s really disappointing and we need to address it very quickly.”

Simpson added that it was “blatantly obvious” that Carlisle need to improve the squad given their "dire" situation, and he remained focused on doing so in January, hopefully armed with an improved budget due to the impending Piataks’ takeover.

United’s boss, though, said he had failed in attempts recently to tempt some free agents to Brunton Park.