WARRINGTON Town boss Paul Carden says his players need to “roll up their sleeves” to stop themselves from going on an extended bad run.

Yellows’ 2-1 defeat at Ashton United on Boxing Day was a second in succession, and saw them drop to 14th in the Northern Premier League’s top flight.

They now face two home games either side of New Year’s Day, starting with a visit from Spennymoor tonight, Thursday, kick off 7.45pm.

Town follow that by welcoming Marine to Cantilever Park on Monday, kick off 3pm, and Carden has called for his players to rise to the occasion.

The Yellows’ boss also stressed the need to make their home ground a fortress in the second half of the season.

“It’s time for us to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and roll up our sleeves,” he said.

“We’re not getting the rub of the green at the moment, but we can’t keep using that as an excuse – especially with our aspirations.

“We’re very up and down, both individually and as a team.

“One week everyone will be an eight out of 10, but the next they’ll be back down to a five.

“Consistency is so important; we need to level out our performances so that we are all at a seven or eight out of 10 every week.

“These two games will be tough, especially Spennymoor with them being a big hitter in our league, but hopefully that will make us rise to the occasion.

“We need to make sure we take advantage of our home games. We need to turn Cantilever Park into a place teams are afraid to go.”

Town’s Boxing Day was ruined when skipper Jay McCarten was sent off for a challenge on Ashton’s Ryan Crowther, which also resulted in a penalty for the home side converted by Matt Chadwick.

Crowther doubled Ashton’s lead after the break, and Town could not force a result despite a late goal from substitute Dylan Vassallo.

Carden was critical of the decision to send off McCarten and the centre-half will now be missing for Monday’s game against Marine.

However, he also said his side should have taken advantage of the control they had over the game before the red card.

“The ref has got that one wrong – the away dugout is close to where the incident was and Jay clearly gets the ball,” he said.

“From the position the ref was in, he should have seen Jay take the ball but he hasn’t. The moment he sprinted over to his linesman there was only going to be one outcome.

“It was probably the most controlled start we’ve had to a game, but it seems to be a common theme over the past few weeks.

“We’re making small mistakes that are leading up to these game-changing decisions. We need to be doing more to take the lead when we’re in dominant positions like that.”

Vassallo came on in the second half, and Carden was pleased with the impact he had.

“It’s clear to see the ability he has technically and we’ve seen that in training plenty of times,” he said.

“We want to see more of him grabbing hold of things and dictating them like we know he’s capable of doing, whether that’s in training or in games.

“He showed that at Ashton and he took his goal extremely well.”

Meanwhile Carden has brought in defender Evan Gumbs on loan from former club Tranmere Rovers.