MARK Beesley cut a dejected figure after his Warrington Town side were knocked out of the FA Trophy by Blyth Spartans on Saturday.

A brace of late goals saw the Northumbrians progress to the third round with a 3-1 victory at Cantilever Park, with Cedric Main edging them ahead before winning the injury-time penalty that Nicky Deverdics converted to seal victory.

Town had recovered from trailing at half time as an own goal from Harrison Clark cancelled out Mikael Ndjoli’s first-half opener, but they exit the competition at the first hurdle.

While they can now solely prioritise on-field survival in the National League North, exiting the FA Trophy means the club miss out on bonus prize money which would have boosted their ground improvement fund.

And with an injury to striker Jordan Buckley thrown into the mix, Beesley admits his side’s afternoon “could not have gone much worse.”

“It’s very disappointing. We needed to get through today and we didn’t,” he said.

“I didn’t think there was much in the game but we gave a really poor goal away.

“We stepped onto them in the second half and caused them problems, we should have had a penalty but we just don’t get them – it just seems to be that way at the minute.

“It’s another really poor goal to give away to go to 2-1. We weren’t switched on or focused enough – we were ball-watching and they got through us.

“We’ve had good chances again, but we’ve given poor goals away again.

“There’s a lot that’s happened in that game that we’re not happy with and we need to address it quickly.

“Everybody understands the situation the club is in, which is why we were desperate to go through.

“It’s a blow – of course the league is important but for me, the Trophy is as important so it’s very disappointing.

“I’m disappointed in the manner in which we’ve gone out even though on another day, we probably win.

“We’ve got an injury and we’re out of the Trophy with a home defeat – it probably couldn’t have gone much worse.”

Beesley took a chance on rotating his attacking options for the game as Josh Amis, Connor Woods and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts were all rested to the bench.

That allowed Buckley, who scored a late winner as a substitute during last week’s win over Rushall Olympic, to make his first start of the season but a groin injury saw him hobble off just after the half-hour mark.

As such, skipper Amis was required before half-time, with Buckley-Ricketts and Woods then introduced before the hour mark.

While Beesley defended his decision to make changes, he admits what happened has firmed up how key the rested trio are to his side.

“Everyone is chomping at the bit to play,” he said.

“Connor and Isaac have played a lot of football and were showing signs of fatigue.

“We couldn’t afford for them to get injured, the same for Josh who is still just coming back.

“We needed to rotate a little bit but it didn’t end up happening.

“The three of them made a difference when they came on, which shows me they need to be playing every game at the moment.”