MARK Duffy has admitted his disappointment after his Warrington Rylands side could not translate a positive pre-season into a winning start to competitive action.

Blues were beaten 1-0 by newly-promoted Hebburn Town in their Northern Premier League Premier Division opener on Saturday, with Olly Martin’s first-half goal proving enough for the Hornets to secure victory.

Rylands were further hampered by Liam Morris’ sending-off before half time as they lost their opening-day fixture for the third season in a row.

That came after a summer in which they won five of their seven friendly matches, and Duffy admitted his side lacked “attitude and energy” in a first half that proved costly.

“It was certainly a disappointing first half,” he told Rylands’ official YouTube channel.

“We were slow out of the traps, we weren’t good enough on the ball and it gave them belief that the victory was there for them today.

“We had a chat with the lads at the end and told them if you don’t show attitude and energy, the likelihood is you’re going to lose the game.

“We were much better in the second half and caused some problems for them – we had one big opportunity towards the end.

“It’s the first game of the season – obviously we wanted to take our pre-season form into the game but on the whole, it’s a disappointing day.”

Morris, who was one of eight players making their competitive debuts for the Gorsey Lane outfit on the day, saw his afternoon brought to a premature end when he was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Hebburn’s veteran midfielder Liam Noble.

And Duffy says it is an incident Morris will have to take lessons from although he was happy with how his side responded to going down to 10 men.

“It's his first time at this level and he’s come up against Liam Noble who’s a very experienced player,” he said.

“He’s done him a kipper really – he’s kicked him then he’s had a kick back in reaction but the ref has seen it.

“That’s something Liam’s going to have to learn – you can’t give those opportunities to people. That’s part and parcel of football.

“We were down to 10 men for 70 minutes but I thought we did really well with that – we changed shape a few times trying to get an extra body at the top end of the pitch and we were waiting for that one big opportunity, which we got towards the end.

“We’ve got to lick our wounds and take the loss on the chin.”

Thankfully for Rylands, their chance to bounce straight back comes quickly with their first home game of the new season on Tuesday night, with Ashton United the visitors to Gorsey Lane.

And Duffy is clear about what he wants to see from his players in that game.

“I just want us to play the way we have been in pre-season, which is front-footed, aggressive football,” he said.

“I want us to penetrate when we can, get down the channels and show real energy and quality.

“The disappointing thing is that we’ve shown that through pre-season. I don’t know whether it’s to do with the long travel but we looked a bit leggy in the first half, but that’s just the way it is.

“In that little period when we’re leggy, you’ve got to dig in and make good decisions with and without the ball. We didn’t make enough of the right decisions.

“We’re not going to go away from what we are and what we’ve created as a group.

“We’re an honest, hard-working group of players who want to play a style of football that is a little bit expansive at times, but we’re trying to create pressure for our front line to get round or through teams.

“There’s loads of learning for us – it’s a group full of young players and I’m sure they’ll be better for it.”

Warrington Rylands: Pilling, Smith, Hardcastle (Dwyer), Thompson, Regan, Furman, Burns (Porter), Morris, Massanka (Rooney), Hough (Baillie), Burton (Porter)