WARRINGTON Town did it the hard way, but manager Paul Carden is pleased to be through to the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy.

The Yellows knocked out Ashton United 4-2 on penalties as last night's replay ended 2-2 after extra time, with Jamie McDonald bagging Town's brace.

“A win on penalties is one that you’d take because of the feeling that it brings," said Carden.

“But from being 2-0 up and it going to penalties I was obviously disappointed.

“I was disappointed with the goals we conceded because they were individual mistakes from players that don’t normally make mistakes.

“It can happen. But from being comfortably in front we made mistakes that got them level.

“Then I thought, not in the first period of extra time which was a stalemate but in the second, we were well on top and looked like we wanted to win.

“They took a striker off and a centre half off, while we put two forwards on, that kind of tells you the mindset of each team."

Tony McMillan was the hero of the hour, saving the second United penalty in the shoot-out as well as one in normal time.

“I felt confident going into penalties," said Carden.

"We know Tony is quality and we’ve got some technically good players who can strike a ball well, but penalties are a lottery.

"Thankfully we came out on the right side of it and I think we deserved to.”

Perhaps the Yellows should have got the job done on Saturday though when a 1-1 result led to the replay.

“Yes, they had one shot on Saturday and we had a load of chances," said Carden.

"But I said to the lads after that game, don’t go away and stop playing because we didn't get the result on that occasion.

"Because if we play like that, creating chances, we’ll win a lot of games.

"I said to Jamie McDonald that it can be miscontact on the ball which means you don’t finish.

"But don’t do anything to change that, just keep doing it because you’ll get the ball and passes in your fvour and you’ll score goals. And he did last night.”