It appears that United’s injury woes are set to continue with news that both Fin Back and Morgan Feeney have confirmed hamstring problems which could keep them out for up to four months and four weeks respectively.
“It’s just not great news for either of them,” manager Paul Simpson said. “Morgan’s will be about three or four weeks that he’ll be out.
“It’s a rupture on a previous hamstring strain which is what makes it a bit longer. If it was a normal one without the previous scar you’d be looking at ten days, but we think it’s going to be a longer spell for him.
“Fin’s is worse. He’s been for a second scan today and, as it stands, we’re looking at three or four months for him. That isn’t great news, I’m really disappointed for him, but we have to wait to hear about this latest scan and we can take it from there.
“We do have fingers crossed that it might be better for from that, but let’s not second guess.”
On the absence of midfielder Callum Guy from the teamsheet, he added: “He has tonsilitis and an ear infection, so he hasn’t trained all week.
“I’d like to think with the way antibiotics are, which he’s been on since Wednesday, that he’ll be fine by the time we get back to work on Monday.
“We had to take Corey [Whelan] off and he actually got a kick in the first half on his foot, and that had swollen up a bit.
“When Tomas came to clear the ball he caught him in the same place. I’m hoping it’s just a knock and it’ll be fine, but we’ll just have to see how it settles.
“The only real plus we can take from the game is that we got Ben Barclay back. Both him and Jamie Devitt, along with some others, should get a game on Tuesday of some kind and that’ll be good for them and us.”
A major talking point from the afternoon was the coming together after the final whistle had blown, over in front of the visiting fans.
“I honestly don’t know what happened,” the Carlisle boss told us. “Hayden White was causing a problem with Jon Mellish over on the far side, that’s the first thing I saw, but we sorted that and everybody was walking off.
“I’m told that Earing was winding up our fans and Jamie Devitt said to him, look, you’ve won the game, just get off the pitch. Show a bit of respect.
“Somebody came from behind and all I know is that Jamie has a black eye, he’s been punched, but I don’t know what else has gone on.
“I didn’t think there was any need for it, they’d won the game, but they haven’t won with respect in my opinion.
“There were some stupid things getting shouted down the corridor and to be fair to Michael Flynn he’s brought a couple of players to apologise for it.
“I don’t believe that’s the right way to go about things, and I think they were disrespectful at the end of the game. We were disappointed, obviously, but the one thing I would say is let’s not let that overshadow what Walsall did.
“Because of the way they finished the game they deserve to be in the next round. They’ve beaten us because of a ridiculous first mistake and us not being clinical enough with our opportunity when we’ve gone forward.
“We have to take it on the chin and we now have to use the disappointment from this to move forward. We can’t do anything about it, we’re out of the cup, so it’s about the two home fixtures that are coming up.
“Three out of the next four are at home and we have to make sure we do them properly. We can’t let this disappointment affect us beyond feeling frustrated today.”
“I don’t think the referee showed any cards from that situation,” he continued. “I think he carried on at the end of the game in the same way he did for other 90 odd minutes.
“He hadn’t got a clue what was going on. I’ll be honest, I don’t know what was happening at that point. I do know that Jamie has the black eye.
“I asked him about it and he doesn’t know what happened after he’d spoken to their lad. Somebody came and sort of ragdolled him, then belted him. He hasn’t got a clue who it was, and then unfortunately all hell broke loose after that.
“I can’t tell you any more because I really don’t know what else happened. The referee was stood there but, like I say, he didn’t seem to have a clue what was going on for the whole of the afternoon.
“I don’t think it’s right for players to wind up opposition fans, I think that’s wrong, it’s something that’s disrespectful. I don’t think it’s the right way to win in the right way in my opinion.
“We have to deal with that. It looks as if it’s a bit of anger and sour grapes but all I know is there’s only one player that’s got a black eye and that’s Jamie Devitt.”
On whether or not he’d taken the opportunity to speak to the referee, he said: “I’m not going to go and speak to them. The fourth official spoke to our staff with a total lack of respect.
“I’ve got real respect for officials, a massive amount of respect, I know it’s a really tough job. The fourth official today was a disgrace in the way he spoke to our staff. I don’t like that.
“I do respect them, but I don’t think he’s shown any respect for us. I don’t know his name, don’t know who he is. His behaviour was totally unacceptable. I know for a fact the referee heard it, he’s told a member of staff he heard it, and it wasn’t right. I hope something gets done about it.
“I won’t be following it up, because it sounds like sour grapes. We deserved to lose because of the way we finished that game. I don’t want to take anything from Walsall - they deserve to be in the draw for the next round.
“We’ve given them a real helping hand to get there, we’ve done them a massive favour. All we can do now is dust ourselves down and move on from it.”