PAUL Carden heaped praise upon his Warrington Town side despite the agonising nature of their 1-1 FA Trophy draw with Ebbsfleet United.

Gerard Kinsella had put Yellows in front with seven minutes remaining at Stonebridge Road, but Sean Shields equalised in injury time to save the National League side from embarassment.

Report: Ebbsfleet 1 Yellows 1

As it happened: Ebbsfleet 1 Yellows 1

The tie will now be decided by a replay at Cantilever Park on Tuesday, but Carden says the hosts did not deserve that opportunity.

"To a man, we were brilliant today," he said.

"If they are honest with themselves, they didn’t deserve that equaliser.

"They’ve thrown the big centre-half up front and smashed long balls up. They’ve got a flick on, the lad’s got in round the back of us and it’s a good finish to be fair.

"They didn’t have too many shots that reached Ben (Ascroft) before that, which is credit to us and how we’ve played.

"We’ve used the ball well, but we had a good shape about us. When we had the ball, we used it well and caused them a lot of problems.

"It was about managing the game, and we managed it brilliantly until the 93rd minute.

"We had an opportunity to run the ball into the corner and kill the game but we went across the pitch. From that, they launch it forward and score.

"We’d have taken a replay before the game, it’s just the manner of it that’s disappointing.

"We scored a great goal and we deserved to win today.

"We’ll see how much they want it on Tuesday night now up north in Warrington."

Town lost goalkeeper Tony McMillan to a calf injury in the warm-up, with youngster Ascroft drafted in as a late replacement.

Carden said McMillan's injury was not worth the risk and that he had "no qualms" about bringing Ascroft, who has only played for the side once previously, into the team.

"Tony felt his calf a little bit on Wednesday," he said.

"This afternoon when he started warming up, he just said he felt a sharp pain in the back of his calf.

"While this was a big game for us, it’s not season-defining so I didn’t want to jeopardise him being out for six or eight weeks.

"Ben dealt with everything he had to. I’ve no qualms about playing Ben because I know how assured he is.

"It was a blow with Tony as he would have wanted to play, but that’s why it’s important to have two good goalkeepers available."

Warrington were backed by a good number of travelling fans and Carden was full of praise for the atmosphere they created.

He said the team were now looking to "give them something to really celebrate" in Tuesday's replay.

"The fans were brilliant. I’m just sorry they’re going home having to buy another ticket for Tuesday," he said.

"All credit to them, they’ve come down in numbers and we heard them from minute one.

"They sang non-stop and hopefully on Tuesday night, we can give them something to really celebrate."