WARRINGTON Rylands have crashed out of the FA Trophy at the first hurdle.

Michael Clegg's side fell to a heavy 4-0 defeat at lower-ranked Avro on Friday evening to exit the competition at the third qualifying round stage.

The Oldham-based side hit the front on the stroke of half time through Joe Rathbone's strike, and things went even further downhill for Blues after the break.

Kyle Hawley doubled the hosts' lead just after the interval before Liam Ellis and Ben Wharton struck late on to complete an impressive win for the side who currently sit third in the Northern Premier League West Division - one tier below Rylands in the footballing pyramid.

A night to forget for Clegg's men was completed in injury time when skipper James Neild was shown a straight red card.

"We were beaten by the better side, by the hungrier side," Clegg said post-match.

"There’s absolutely no excuses – the lads knew what they were coming into.

"We changed it and went with a different shape – we can make all the excuses in the world but if someone runs harder than you, wants it more and makes it a scrappy, horrible game, they’re going to win.

"That’s taking nothing away from Avro – we were beaten by the better team from minute one to minute 90.

"I wish them well because they’re a great bunch of people, but I would have thought we would have given a better account of ourselves.

"They deserved to go in leading and then the second goal is poor as well. We were poor from start to finish, but they made us poor.

"They outworked us and wanted it more and at this level of football, if that’s how you come and apply yourself you’re going to get beaten.

"We came here to win the game, but we’ve been battered and we deserved every single bit of it."

Rylands are back in NPL Premier Division action on Tuesday when they welcome Workington to Gorsey Lane.

Warrington Rylands: Pilling, Smith, Swaby-Neavin, Regan, Wilson, Hough (Sidibeh), Baillie (Butler), Neild, Piggott, Bakkor, Maieco (Hardcastle). Subs not used: Kyffin, Hurst