PAUL Carden says Tuesday’s 3-0 victory over Tamworth was among the best performances his Warrington Town side have delivered since he arrived at the club.

Jamie McDonald, twice, and Tony Gray got on the scoresheet as Yellows swept aside their National League North visitors in the FA Trophy third qualifying round replay at Cantilever Park.

Report: Yellows 3 Tamworth 0

Carden says he saw enough signs in Saturday’s 2-2 draw in the initial tie at the Lamb Ground to know his side were capable of pulling off an upset in the replay.

“It’s definitely up there. To a man, we’ve thoroughly deserved to beat them tonight,” he said.

“I thought we earned the replay from Saturday with the way we played in the second half because they were hanging on at times.

“I said to the lads before the game, if we keep a clean sheet we will win the game.

“I knew we were going to hurt them going forward with Jamie (McDonald), Tony (Gray) and Dylan (Vassallo), with Sean Williams’ passing from midfield.

“Some of the stuff we played in the first half earned us the right to have those scary moments in the second half.

“We deserved the lead and deserved to be in front convincingly.”

The only sour note to the evening was the loss of McDonald and skipper Jay McCarten, who both had to be substituted due to injury.

Both will be assessed ahead of Saturday’s Evo-Stik Premier Division trip to Shaw Lane, but the Yellows boss was disappointed with the nature of McDonald’s injury.

He believes referee Simon Mather should have afforded his top scorer more protection and also queried his decision to allow Lambs defender Jack Lane to stay on the field, despite appearing to deny McDonald a clear goal-scoring opportunity just after half-time.

“I would have thought Jamie is just a surface injury,” he said.

“It’s nothing muscular, the challenge has just come right down the back of his calf and Achilles.

“It was a naughty challenge and I really didn’t like it.

“Their number five came right down the back about Jamie McDonald as well which should have been punished.

“All they wanted to do after he scored twice was kick him and it was disappointing the referee never dealt with it.

“They should have had a man sent off, it’s a stone wall red card. How the referee hasn’t sent him off when he brings Jamie down is beyond me.

“Jay has twisted his back and his side. We’ll have to see how he is in the next couple of days.”