PAUL Carden credited his Warrington Town side for recovering from an “appalling” first half to secure a stunning win over Buxton.

Dom Reid’s injury-time winner sparked joyous scenes at Cantilever Park, as Yellows ground out a 2-1 victory in a game in which they were second-best for long periods.

Reid’s goal came just a few minutes after Jack Dunn had cancelled out Alex Brown’s early opener from the penalty spot.

READ > Yellows put on a late, late show to stun Buxton

Carden slammed his side’s display before half-time but praised the lift in tempo and intensity after the interval as well as the impact of Reid, Connor McCarthy and Josh Amis from the bench.

“I’m obviously delighted to win and the last-minute winner makes it sweeter. It does your ticker no favours,” he said.

“We were appalling in the first half to a man. We didn’t have a player who performed.

“I was glad to get to half time as it was in my head after 20 minutes to make changes.

“Some people were saying the week off would kill our momentum, and clearly it did because of how flat we started the game.

“They scored a poor goal. We haven’t stopped the cross or dealt with it at the back post.

“The guy who scored was probably their smallest player and he was the left-back, which makes it very disappointing.

“In the second half, we came out with a purpose about us. We had a tempo and intensity and had them penned in their half for long spells.

“They are a dangerous side with good players. Dean was a handful, Hardy was a threat and they were big and organised.

“We could have made a lot of changes at half time, but it was a case of giving the lads time. We had to make a change because we didn’t look like scoring.

“All of a sudden, we picked up and looked more purposeful. We’ve hard to work hard for that win because they were stubborn and had a lot of know-how.

“It was a tough win and that makes it an even better win.”