We spoke to manager Paul Simpson following today’s friendly against Stockport.
“It was much brighter and sharper, and I thought it was a proper game today. It's nice to be on our own pitch.
“I thought there were a lot of good things, particularly first-half. I was really pleased with the way we went about it. Second-half, we just got into some little bad habits that we just need to try and iron out.
“It won't do them any harm to have that type of performance and to take into the next week of training, building up towards the first game of the season.
“I think all of the pre-season games have been realistic. The daft thing is, we've been in for six weeks now training and we've had two really bad days out of those six weeks.
“So that's why I'm not going to get too down about it. I accept that we have had two bad performances, but the rest of the time they've trained really well, we've applied ourselves well in the games. I thought we applied ourselves really well today.
“There's some good signs there, but it's still very early. We're still trying to build those relationships between the different units, it will take a bit of time, but I thought there were some real positives today.
“I’m delighted that Luke's got a goal and delighted that Dan's got himself his first goal. I thought he showed some really bright touches and real life about him. Hopefully, he'll carry on and the pair of them will take confidence and we can move forward.
“Dan’s movement was very, very good. I mean, it'd have been an incredible start for his Carlisle career if he'd scored with that first touch, but he did everything right.
“He tried to go through the keeper's legs, but he just read it. He's probably finished the hardest one of all, but it was a good finish, so I'm pleased for him.”
“I thought Charlie was better today,” he continued. “He's been a bit of a slow burner, but I fully expect somebody with Charlie's experience and knowledge to come to life when the season starts.
“There were some good signs with him and Dan today, even with him and Luke when Luke came on as well, although they played a little bit too far apart in the second-half and wanted them a bit closer. There were some good things today that we can build on.”
Dylan McGeouch had to be replaced in the first-half, and the gaffer explained: “It’s a real disappointment to lose Dylan.
“He's just got a bit of a groin strain; he went in to block a tackle and just felt a little twinge. So, we'll wait and see how bad that is, but it definitely puts him in doubt for next weekend.
“We had a few other bumps and bruises because there were some tackles going in, but I think everybody else is ok and hopefully we'll have the rest available for next weekend.”
Charlie Wyke was captain again this afternoon, and we asked Simmo if a final decision had been made on who will wear the armband this season: “I've made my decision, but we'll discuss it next week.
“I haven't spoken to the players about it yet, so we'll have those conversations next week and then we'll go from there.”
Speaking on the lads’ workload, he added: "When we got all the physical data of what Dan's done with Bournemouth, we were a bit concerned about giving him more than 45 because he hasn't done a hell of a lot of high-speed running and sprinting, so it was always 45 for him.
“I only wanted Charlie to do 60-odd minutes today to look after him. Josh Vela just went under on his knee a little bit, so it wasn't a problem, but I wasn't prepared to take a risk with him. Archie was just starting to get a little bit of cramp, so again we've got an able person to come on in Jack Ellis, so we made that change.
“It was more about just getting as many of them 90 minutes as we possibly could, trying to keep a bit of a consistency, particularly about the back five, to keep that right and hopefully we'll get everybody through this week and have them all available for next week.”
"There was some good defending.
“I thought we showed some real good legs about us, and we read the game well. Aaron and Terrell certainly give us that reading of the game and give us good legs. I thought Mellish was just what Jon Mellish does, where he goes on his marauding runs, but defended well.
“I thought as a team we defended well, just at the end I thought we got a little bit sloppy and started jumping out of our slots and leaving spaces.
“The goal comes from us playing a square pass, when in fact it was a backwards pass where we didn't need to do it, and again, I think we probably did that about four times in the game, a couple in the first-half.
“My big thing is to look forward and play forward and don't put ourselves under pressure and those little balls give us a problem and that's where their goal came from.
Cameron Harper and Archie Davies made their mark this afternoon, sending in some brilliant crosses, whilst also being on set-piece duty.
"I thought the delivery was excellent, my only disappointment is that we didn't score from one, but again we've got a long throw with Ben Barclay and we get the goal from that, so these are things, and I said to the players before the game, I don't actually care if we score 20-odd goals a season from set plays, you have to make them count.
“If we've got people who can deliver it and we've got some big units in there with the likes of Terrell and Aaron Hayden and Charlie Wyke and Georgie Kelly and Sam Lavelle, we've got people who can go and get on the end of them, and we have to make the most of it.
Speaking on Taylor Charters’ absence, the boss said: “He felt his hamstring, he didn't feel it go, he just said it felt a bit weird towards the end of the Gateshead game.
“I think it was more fatigue, we had him assessed over the last few days, he did some work on Thursday, but then he was still a little bit tight on Friday and we just said there was no point risking it, he thinks from what he said to me before the game, he'll be okay to train Monday but we're at that stage where we're not prepared to take risks with players and especially with Taylor's history of hamstring strains, we're not prepared to do it so hopefully it's not too bad, hopefully it was just fatigue and he'll be okay to carry on next week.
The Blues take on Gillingham next weekend in their opening game of the Sky Bet League Two season after capping off pre-season with a win on home soil.
"We've had six weeks of pre-season, two disappointing days with the Rochdale and the Gateshead performances, but the rest of the time I've been really pleased.
“To get 1,800 for a pre-season friendly is good going, I'm delighted for them, and I think they saw there were some real good signs today, now we've got to have a good week and prepare properly for the Gillingham game, which will be a real tough test for us.”
