Paul Simpson dressing room insight indicates why Carlisle United are destined for League Two: View | OneFootball

It really does feel like Carlisle United have hit rock-bottom this season after their 4-0 loss against Cambridge United.

There was a bit of a feeling among some Carlisle fans that the losses to the likes of Bolton Wanderers and Portsmouth weren't too bad because they aren't the teams to be measuring the club against. But, after two poor defeats to Leyton Orient, who came up with the Blues at the start of this season, and Cambridge, it's clear to see that Paul Simpson's side just aren't up to the League One standard.

Carlisle are comfortably bottom of the league. They are six points behind Fleetwood in 23rd place, and, considering their goal difference, they would have to outscore the four teams above them by 14 points in the remaining games of the season in order to stay up. They have just 20 points through the first 32 games of the season, so the likelihood of them picking up another 14 points more than the other sides in the same number of games is very unlikely.

Not only have the performances been a shambles, but the mood in the dressing room seems to be catching up to that level of misery too.

Paul Simpson questions Carlisle players' commitment

The manager said, after the embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Cambridge, that one of the players who was on the bench, who didn't make it onto the pitch at the weekend, claimed they weren't fit enough to do the usual running that unused, or barely used, subs do at the end of matches.

He said on the club's YouTube channel, in the post-match interview: "Whether everybody is doing everything they possibly can to be the best professionals, l don't really know at the moment. We had a situation at the end of the game where we have got a player who is wanting to play, is fit to play and is fit to be on the bench and then when they do the top-up runs afterwards, he says he is not fit to do that.

"I am asking questions as to whether these players want to be involved."

Carlisle are a relegation-bound team

You wouldn't need to listen to the boss' comments after the defeat to know that Carlisle's eventual destination for the 2024/25 season is set to be League Two. They looked totally outclassed and outworked by a team that is barely even at mid-table level in the third division of English football. But the post-match comments just confirmed the direction in which the Blues are heading.

Back when Simpson first came back to the club, they were in a relegation battle, but the consequences were much more serious. If they get relegated this season, they have new owners who want to invest a lot of money into the club, and they have signed some players who should give them a better chance to get back up to their current level quickly.

Relegation in the 2021/22 season could have spelled the end of the club. They were working on a small budget, and going down to the National League could have led to them falling like an anchor off the side of a ship down the football pyramid. Simpson came into what was a very poor environment where players were underperforming and the whole mood around the club was bad.

But, as soon as he came in, there was a feeling of belief, and that could be seen in the players as well as the fans. People in that squad, like Omari Patrick, Dynel Simeu, Mark Howard and others, gave fans a reason to believe that survival was possible. There was a clear togetherness, and that inspired the fans. That doesn't exist in the current team.

There are obvious issues within the dressing room that will only be sorted in the summer. These problems, when a team is already in such a deep hole with an obvious lack of quality to help them stay up, spell relegation. At least it may not be a fatal blow for the club, as it could have been a few seasons ago, but there wasn't an inevitability about how bad the rest of the season was going to be back then. It certainly feels that way now.