Paul Simpson has pulled no punches since his Carlisle United side lost their relegation battle with Cheltenham on Saturday.
He takes his Blues to Fleetwood for a Boxing Day ‘six pointer’ knowing that United must make big improvements.
Simpson said: ““They’re all big games but let’s be honest, if we perform like we did against Cheltenham then it doesn’t matter who we play, we’re not going to get anything.
“We need to massively improve. The disappointing thing, was they all seemed to have a spring in their step after the Northampton game. To then perform like we did against Cheltenham is hugely disappointing. We’re going to have to have a long serious look at ourselves.
“The players got Christmas Day off, and the plan was always to give them a day with their families. I’ve been at clubs where you get them in and you’re completely wasting your time.
“They’ll have work to do at home. The truth is, on a second recovery day which is what Christmas Day was, they do very little anyway.
“We were in on Christmas Eve to check how everybody was and we prepared as we were always going to. They’ll do what’s expected at home, they have to log it on a fitness app, and we get it so we can see whether they’ve done it.
“I’ve got no doubts about them as professionals, no doubt they’ll be doing it. This is about recovering, and about improving our level of performance from the Cheltenham game.
“We won’t get a lot of time to do any work on the training pitch, but we did some really good work on the training pitch last week, and the week before. The fact we’re not going to get any time, I don’t think that will make any difference.
“Everybody knew in terms of players and staff that Cheltenham wasn’t good enough and we need to improve. I find it hard to believe we can be as poor as that in our next game, but the challenge is to make sure we’re not.”
