Worksop Town 2 Warrington Rylands 1, match report

And it was a defeat which leaves them with work to do to secure home advantage in their Northern Premier League Premier Division play-off semi-final.

Blues were in action for the first time since the sacking of manager Sam Wilson just three days after he was appointed permanently after it emerged he had served a five-year prison sentence having been convicted of rape in 2015.

Senior players Dean Furman and Mark Duffy took charge for the trip to Worksop Town, who kept their own hopes of joining Rylands in the play-offs alive with a 2-1 victory thanks to Paul Green’s injury-time winner.

Dean Furman and Mark Duffy took charge of Rylands at Worksop (Image: Mark Percy)

Sam Burns had levelled for Rylands just four minutes after Jordan Burrow had opened the scoring for the Tigers, but the visitors succumbed to their first away league defeat of the season in their 22nd and final road game.

There may now be at least one more in the play-offs after the loss dropped them to fourth in the table, with a second or third-place finish guaranteeing home advantage in the semi-finals.

With one game remaining – at home to Ilkeston Town next weekend – Rylands cannot catch Macclesfield in second but they need to better Marine’s result next week to leapfrog them.

Sam Burns celebrates equalising for Rylands (Image: Mark Percy)