FOLLOWING what he described as “a massively frustrating night” for his Warrington Rylands side, Mark Duffy has outlined what he feels went wrong in their defeat to Ashton United on Tuesday.

Blues, who were looking to rebound from Saturday’s opening-day loss to Hebburn Town, flew out of the blocks at Gorsey Lane and were 3-0 up inside half an hour as Ntumba Massanka, Jake Burton and Matt Regan struck.

What followed, however, was a staggering collapse as Ashton stormed back to take a 4-3 win, with striker Jason Gilchrist netting all four goals.

> Rylands 3 Ashton United 4 - full verdict

The first of those came from the penalty spot seconds after Regan, who conceded the spot kick after upending Darius Osei, had made it 3-0 and Duffy believes that gave the visitors something to hold onto.

“Ultimately, it’s a massively frustrating night for us,” he said.

“We’ve had a raw conversation with the players in there because inevitably, it’s not good enough.

“It’s two games of football and we’ve lost them both, and we’ve lost the physical battle in both games which I can’t accept.

“We spoke to the players before the game about having energy, aggression and a real intensity while also having the quality we know we possess.

“We started the game really well – we were on the front foot, we took it to them and they couldn’t cope with us, to be honest.

“We moved the ball fantastically well and scored three fantastic goals. then we switched off, maybe thinking the game was done.

“We gave away a silly penalty and it’s given them a little bit of hope going in at half time.”

Either side of Gilchrist’s penalty, Ashton boss Steve Cunningham took the unprecedented step of making three tactical substitutions in the first half, including the introduction of giant striker Tom Denton.

He went on to set up Gilchrist’s next two goals via knock-downs from crosses, with the winning goal also coming via a cross.

And Duffy says Denton’s influence could have been negated had his players carried out their half-time instructions.

“They made numerous changes and changed their formation to match us up, but we said at half time that we wanted to pressure on the ball and stop it going into Denton,” he said.

“He’s 6ft5 and is a real presence but if you stop it at source, he becomes less effective. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that well enough.

“We didn’t stop crosses, we allowed them to put the ball into the box unopposed and when that happens, he’s going to get on the end of them.

“Them making three changes before half time is them panicking and scrambling to get back into the game, because we were so dominant.

“One mistake gives them hope and allows them back into the game.

“From their point of view, they were dead and buried but now had an opportunity to come back.

“Our message was that we could score more goals, but we needed to put pressure on the ball and stop crosses.”

Rylands’ latest bid to get off the mark in the new Northern Premier League Premier Division season sees them host Whitby Town on Saturday before a trip to Lancaster City on Tuesday.

And Duffy says the young players in his squad will have to learn lessons from what happened against Ashton and learn them quickly.

“We’ve got a young group – a lot of the players are between 19 and 23,” he said.

“There’s a few older players in there but the core of the group is young and they will learn a lot from the experience of being out there.

“We’re trying to give them as much technical detail as possible, but you learn the harshest lessons out on the grass.

“That one time you let them turn you and get a cross in, they punish you and that’s the case the higher up you go.

“The fine details are so important and this is what we’re trying to get into the players.”