AT half-time of the Warrington derby, Jody Banim was probably the happiest he has been as Warrington Rylands manager.

For he had watched his team systematically pick apart their cross-town neighbours and deservedly lead thanks to Ajay Leitch-Smith’s arrowed early finish.

In truth, they should have been further ahead by the time Town made tactical adjustments the hosts simply did not respond to.

Once Jordan Buckley’s double had turned the game on its head, the home side failed to create anything of note in the 30 minutes of play that followed and Banim was left scratching his head.

With the vast majority of their goals having left the club in the shape of leading scorers Callum Dolan and Kane Drummond, it is clear where they must now focus their energies.

"I think we’ve thrown it away," Banim said.

"It was the best we’ve probably played all season in that first half – if we’d have scored five it wouldn’t have been an exaggeration because I thought we were very, very good.

"We’ve lost Kane Drummond and Cal Dolan and haven’t really replaced them in those forward areas and it’s showed.

"They’ve got Jordan Buckley in there and players like him finish the chances we’re creating.

"We asked them to keep doing what they were doing but fair play to them – they came out and had a go.

"I could see after five minutes of the second half that we weren’t at the same levels and the goals are really poor and avoidable.

“They didn’t really open us up. They were just putting balls down the sides of us which we were doing in the first half but we stopped doing it.

“We were energetic, we were winning a lot of first and second contacts and created lots of really good chances, so it’s bitterly disappointing.

“We’ve got to take the positives in that we were outstanding in the first half, but we’ve dropped off it and it’s cost us.

“The game should be over at half time, but 1-0 is a precarious scoreline.

“When you’re a goal in front but constantly missing chances, it only takes that one lapse as we saw.

“I can’t really put my finger on the second half but from first glance, we were half a yard off it.”

Having put together a promising run either side of Christmas, it is now back-to-back home defeats for Blues to hinder their play-off ambitions.

They are now five points behind their neighbours and the top five as a whole having dropped to ninth, with away trips coming up against Marske United on Saturday and Bamber Bridge on Tuesday.

Banim says they must not let this result impact their morale as “feeling sorry for themselves” will only result in more disappointment.

“We can only focus on next Saturday and going to Marske,” he said.

“We’ve had setbacks this season since I’ve been here and we’ve managed to respond and string two or three wins together, so we’re going to have to do that again.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves as the games are coming thick and fast. If we do, we’ll be on the end of another one next week.

“We’ve got good games coming up but we have to focus on Saturday first.”