WARRINGTON Rylands were subjected to a brutal hammering in their opening game of the new Northern Premier League Premier Division season.

Blues were thrashed 4-0 by Radcliffe at Gorsey Lane on Saturday afternoon, with all four of the visitors’ goals coming in the first half.

However, manager Michael Clegg admits he was "scratching his head" as to how his side found themselves in such a position at the break.

"Football is a very strange game," he said.

"Fair play to Radcliffe – they’re going to go on and have a great season, but we didn’t make them work for those four goals.

"I was shellshocked to be honest and I didn’t really know what to say at half time because we were 4-0 down but we’d created a hell of a lot of opportunities.

"We’ve had a perfectly good goal ruled out to make it 1-1 and then we’ve had a good penalty shout turned down at 1-0.

"As it was, we find ourselves going in at 4-0 down and I’m scratching my head. It’s four weak goals and the game is done then.

"We’re deflated - we didn’t see it coming as we’d been so defensively sound in pre-season.

"We’re really upset we’ve not managed to get ourselves a few goals today but credit to their keeper, who has made some top-drawer saves."

Check out Clegg's full post-match interview below

Jude Oyibo put Boro ahead after just two minutes before doubling the lead just shy of the half-hour mark.

Radcliffe then added two more goals in the last five minutes of the half, with Josh Hancock and Jordan Hulme on the scoresheet.

There was at least no further damage after the break for Clegg’s men, who must now pick themselves up for a trip to Stafford Rangers on Tuesday night.

"We can’t sulk – we’ve got to turn it around quickly for Tuesday," the Bluess boss said.

"There won’t be any drastic changes because for large parts of the game, I thought we were very good.

"We’ll stay together – we don’t get too high or too low."

Rylands: Pilling, Smith, Swaby-Neavin, Regan, Butler, Furman (Hough), Hardcastle, Neild, Piggott (Bakkor), Touray, Sidibeh (Maieco). Subs not used: Uche, Baillie

Full report to follow