Carlisle manager appalled by ‘disgusting’ comments aimed at him from Bradford fans

Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson says he has been left appalled by ‘disgusting’ comments aimed at him from Bradford City fans.

His side played out a 0-0 draw against their top seven rival after their Saturday draw with Stevenage.

However, it retained their five-point lead over Mark Hughes’ Bantams and moved them into third place above Northampton.

League Two‘s top scorer Andy Cook, who started his career at Carlisle, almost broke the deadlock for Bradford in the second half when seeing a shot that was deflected off of the bar.

City dominated the second period, but, the visitors very nearly snatched a winner with the last kick. Jordan Gibson, a former Bradford player striking the inside of a post.

A disappointing admission after the game however saw Paul Simpson claim he was subject to abuse from a small group of young fans who were behind the dugout.

He claims that what was said to him was simply unacceptable and he also reported the matter to a steward during a goalless draw.

Although he chose no to go into detail about the abuse aimed at him, he wanted to highlight it in his post-match interview. Watch more of what e had to say below…

🤬 “They’re just disgusting people when they come to a football game to do that…”

Paul Simpson says he was the target of some “unacceptable ” abuse by a group of Bradford fans behind the dugout last night #cufc #bcafc @newsandstarhttps://t.co/Gga15PNFXM

— Jon Colman (@joncolman) March 22, 2023

“The majority of them [here] are fantastic fans, but there were some idiots sat behind me who were saying things to me that were unacceptable,” he said, as per News & Star.

“I don’t agree with it. I can be called a City reject, I don’t mind all of that, but when they start saying other things I do think it’s out of order.

“I actually complained to a steward about it, because I’m not prepared to take that from people.

“These [Bradford] are fantastic supporters, but when you get young kids sat behind the dugouts with potty mouths, it’s not acceptable.”

When asked if he could explain what was said, he went on: “I don’t even want to give them the credit for it.

“They were just silly little kids, and I told the steward about it. Nothing happened about it.

“The referee asked if I wanted to make a complaint, because they’d made it in their notes, I said, ‘No, no need, I’ve said it’.

“They carried on in the second half, not as bad as the first half… [but] for me there’s no place for it.

“They’re just disgusting people when they come to a football game to do that.

“Come and support your team, don’t worry about things like that. It’s a shame, because these have a magnificent fanbase.

“This support they get is outstanding, and it gets spoiled by four little childish people.”

“They were absolutely outstanding,” he added those in the away end. “An absolute credit to the football club, they are.

“The players put on a performance to keep them with us. It would have been so nice to go over and celebrate three points but it wasn’t to be.”

Bradford boss Mark Hughes said: “Our commitment was good.

“Everybody played their part. We changed formation a few times and the lads who came on were great.

“They had an impact on the game. It is what we need. We did everything we could, but we were up against a good side.

“In the second half, we dominated, and it was a good result from my point of view.

“I thought we were totally dominant, they found it very difficult to score.”

The 59-year-old felt his side were unlucky in attacking areas – insisting City “had done everything right” – and urged the Bantams to continue causing a threat creatively.

“Sometimes, it just needs to drop for you.

“You need that luck, and you need to create your own luck at the same time.

“When you have done everything right leading up to the shot, you need the ball to drop for you.

“We wanted to take more points off them. We wanted to damage them and draw them closer to us in the table.

“We were unable to do that, but we put another point on the board.

“Now, we have a good run of games coming up and we need maximum points from them.”

Here’s what social media users said as the Carlisle manager expresses how appalled he was by “disgusting” comments aimed at him from Bradford fans…

@tracy_sturgess: Thought Simmo was getting some abuse, saw him go over to talk to the steward. Nothing wrong with banter but some people don’t no when to stop

@BCAFCBH: And that’s our family stand 😂

@sibenjim: A very reasonable and balanced assessment by Simpson

@DanHors83: Very fair from Simpson

@craigga147: Great game to be fair. Draw about right. Two good teams going for it.