PAUL Carden thought Warrington Town looked “more like themselves” against Lancaster City despite being held to a 2-2 draw.

Yellows played for more than an hour with 10 men after Steve Jennings was sent off for violent conduct after 27 minutes.

That came just two minutes after Ben Garrity headed Yellows into a 2-1 lead, which they held until Robert Wilson levelled for the Dolly Blues two minutes from full time.

Town’s winless run now stretched to four games but Carden was encouraged by the performance his side put in with their backs to the wall.

“The big thing about the performance was that we looked more like us,” he said.

“We deserved to win. I thought we were the better side.

“We had more chances even with 10 men and to be honest, I couldn’t see them scoring but the lad has hit a worldie volley into the top corner.

“Sometimes you go through spells when even when you work as hard as we have done tonight, you still don’t get your rewards.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves because we won’t get anything. We’ve got to take the positives out of it because there were a lot of them.

“We’ve been on the front foot, passed the ball well and controlled the game even when we had a man sent off.

“We’ve had chances at 2-1 to put the game to bed, but it just seems to be the way it’s going at the moment.”

Jennings was dismissed when referee David Croft spotted a kick out at grounded Lancaster midfielder Paul Dawson.

While admitting he had “no complaints” about the decision to reduce his side to 10 men, Carden was critical of Croft for allowing Dawson himself to remain on the field.

The midfielder flattened Garrity with a late, high challenge in the game’s early stages but escaped with a yellow card before hitting the wonderful free kick that cancelled out Dave Raven’s opening goal.

Dawson then hacked down Alex Byrne in midfield but Croft decided against sending him off.

Lancaster were eventually reduced to 10 men when skipper Simon Wills was sent off for a second booking, but it appeared to be Sam Bailey who committed the foul that led to the decision.

“To get two lads mixed up for their red card shows the standard,” he said.

“Jenno hasn’t touched the lad but he’s kicked out. I’ve no complaints.

“It’s daft for someone of his experience. He’s gutted and he knows he’s let us down “I told the ref at half time that I had no complaints about our red but I couldn’t understand how their number six (Dawson) was still on the pitch.

“In the first half, he could have been sent off twice.

“He could have gone for the first tackle on Ben Garrity, then he fouls Al Byrne and kicks out at Al Byrne and nothing happens.

“The linesman said he wants to keep 11 on the pitch.

“That’s everyone’s intention but if you don’t deserve to be on the pitch, you shouldn’t be on the pitch “I’ve never seen a referee have so many touches of the ball. He had more touches than some players on the pitch because his positioning was terrible.

“We can talk about him all day – he hasn’t hit the free kick although he’s given it cheaply and the volley, I don’t think the kid could have hit it any sweeter.”