Warrington Rylands manager on loss to Matlock Town

Blues slipped to a 4-2 loss in Derbyshire, meaning both of Banim’s games in charge have finished with the same scoreline.

That was despite taking the lead thanks to Callum Dolan’s penalty and Ryan Brooke’s equalising goal after half time to take the score to 2-2.

Callum Dolan puts Rylands ahead from the penalty spot. Picture by Mark Percy (Image: Mark Percy)

Banim questioned his side’s concentration in conceding Matlock’s equalising goal – scored by Kallan Murphy – on the stroke of half time.

While admitting the hosts’ victory was merited, he also called into question the positioning of the assistant referee in ruling Ioan Evans’ header to put Matlock 3-2 up – a goal that came just two minutes after Brooke had equalised – had crossed the line.

“They were very physical and very fit,” Banim told Rylands’ official Twitter page.

“They put a lot of crosses into our box which we didn’t really deal with for three of the goals.

“With the first goal, we’ve just not seen the game out. It happened against Hyde on Tuesday – we’re 2-1 up two or three minutes into injury time and we’ve just got to see it out until half time and clear our lines.

“We’ve allowed them to sustain attacks and that’s the disappointing thing.

“We’ve got ourselves back into the game at 2-2 but again, the third goal is another cross that we don’t deal with.

Ryan Brooke wheels away after levelling the scores. Picture by Mark Percy (Image: Mark Percy)

“I’m a long way away from it but the linesman has made a decision while 20 yards from the byline.

“For me, you can’t give that decision. Unless he’s in line with the ball, he can’t see whether that’s gone over the line but I don’t want to shy away from the fact Matlock deserved to win the game.

“We spoke at half time about coming out with energy and purpose and not giving away anything silly for the first 10-15 minutes, but they ran over us physically.

“We were a bit weak physically – this league is all about winning second balls and we didn’t do enough of that.

“It’s something we have to look at. We’ve conceded 12 goals in our last three games and they are all very preventable.”

Reece Kendall had put Matlock 2-1 up on the hour mark before Alex Byrne’s chipped effort secured the points inside the final 10 minutes.

Blues are back in action tomorrow as they host Marske United in a clash between two of the Northern Premier League Premier Division’s highest-scoring sides.

Although not all sides have played the same amount of games, nobody has scored more goals than Rylands’ 15 this season while Marske have hit the net 14 times in their seven matches.

However, it is keeping the back door closed that has been Rylands’ Achilles heel – they have conceded 16 times, a tally only beaten by second-bottom Belper Town (23).

“Hopefully we’ll get a team out there on Tuesday that is solid enough to keep a clean sheet because we will always score goals,” Banim said.

“We looked a threat when we got the ball into Cal Dolan and Kane Drummond.

“We looked good going forward but it’s the small moments where we’re not defending as well as we could do when balls are coming in.”