Paul Simpson has revealed to supporters his plans and priorities for Carlisle United’s new adventure in League One.
The Blues boss, speaking to the club’s website, said: “Your first aim always has to be to achieve the number of points you need for safety and for staying in the division.
“Part of what I do in the summer is to look at the last five or six seasons in the division that we’re in to see what points were needed on average for safety, for a play-off place, for an automatic spot and to be crowned as champions.
“What I’ve found for League One is that they’re all higher than they were for us last season.
“In League Two I ended up being two points out on my prediction for safety, three points out from what was needed for the last play-off place and one point out from my predicted total for the champions.”
“Whatever the actual points total ends up being, the sooner you get close to it the better,” he continued. “Once you’re there, whenever that is, you can start to look at the next one, and then the next one.
“That’s what we did last season, and by getting to safety as quickly as we did it meant we could start to target the top seven places.
“But your main aim and focus has to be, at worst, staying in the league. It’s about taking small steps to build on what we’ve achieved so far.
“We can’t and shouldn’t start trumpeting bold statements about making it to the Championship within the next two seasons because that comes back to bite you.
“We’ve been building gradually, we’re probably ahead of where we thought we would be right now, so let’s keep building, progressing and moving forward.
“That isn’t me being pessimistic, by the way. That’s me being realistic. I have a graph on my notice board in my office for the season ahead, and first and foremost it’s about staying above the red line as we go through the season.
“It’s not so much about working out how many points you need each month, or anything like that, it’s more about consistency.
“Most teams will have rocky patches during every season, so having that graph is a good way to keep your eye on the bigger picture. If we do lose two, three or four in a row, hopefully the graph shows that there have also been good spells.
“That helps me to stay calm, and if I’m calm that helps the players to stay calm. Collectively we’re then able to deal with everything in a much better way.”
