MARK Beesley admits Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at home to Southport was “hurtful” for his Warrington Town side.

A victory in their third home fixture in a row would have lifted Yellows into the National League North play-off places, but instead they were on the wrong end of a convincing scoreline.

> Town 0 Southport 3 - full verdict

Having fallen 2-0 down at half-time following goals from experienced frontmen Richie Bennett and Marcus Carver, Town found themselves with too much to do before substitute Adam Anson sealed the victory late on.

Post-match, Beesley rued the concession of two preventable goals to give the Sandgrounders something to hold onto, which they did with relative comfort and the Town boss says his players must take the disappointment on the chin.

“It’s a difficult one,” he said.

“To be beaten 3-0 at home in a derby game is hurtful.

“We experienced the joys in the reverse fixture, so we’ve got to take this on the chin and learn from it.

“We’ve given two poor goals away which gave them a real leg-up – there was a bit of inexperience there from Kacper (Pasiek), which he will learn from and we’ll help him do that.

“I would also say they are two great finishes, especially the second one.

“To be honest, I still thought we played some really good stuff. It’s difficult when teams have something to hold onto and they get behind the ball, but we still created some really good opportunities.

“They weren’t clear chances, but they’re still opportunities and we need to be better in that area. It’s the final pass or shot or the belief to get people in the box.

“In the second half before it went to 3-0, the keeper makes a great save from Josh (Amis) and we have one cleared off the line, but it wasn’t our day today.”

Beesley also expressed concern that Town once again conceded from a set-piece, with Southport’s third goal arriving via a poked finish from Anson after a corner fell into his path.

It is an area he is keen to see his side tidy up for the nine games that remain of their season.

“It's three times in four or five games now where we’ve conceded from set pieces, when we’d had a really good spell of not doing,” he said.

“We need to look at that – we’ll look at our set-up and try and understand why it’s happening.

“We need to be better at that because we’ve been priding ourselves on not giving silly set-piece goals away.”

Town now have a free weekend before returning to action with a trip to Farsley Celtic next Tuesday.

As a result of their remarkable campaign thus far, they sit just two points outside of the play-off places and while that gap may have grown by the time they next play, Beesley is determined not to allow their campaign to fizzle out.

“The lads were on the floor in the dressing room so we had to remind them, if we’d have won that game we’d have gone sixth in this league,” he said.

“If anyone would have said to us in August that you could have gone sixth with 10 games to go, we’d have snapped your hand off or told you you were dreaming.

“We’ve come this far, there’s nine games to go and there’s still lots for us to play for so we’ve got to keep pushing because you never know where it could take you.

“We’ve got to brush up on things and be better because we don’t want those nine games to mean nothing.

“We’ve got to take the disappointment of tonight because it happens, and we’ve got to give credit to Southport.

“They had something to hold onto and defended really well, so fair play to them.”