PAUL Carden has identified an area in which he wants drastic improvement from his Warrington Town players.

Yellows fell 2-0 behind at Darlington in National League North on Saturday before skipper Josh Amis came off the bench to score twice and seal a hard-earned point.

As much as the fightback showed the team has character, Carden feels that falling behind in the manner that they did can be avoided.

“The first half was unacceptable,” said the Yellows boss, who made comparisons to the previous weekend’s 2-0 home defeat to Oxford City “The warm-up before the Oxford game was poor and I thought the warm-up before Saturday’s game was poor.

“I had a go at some because the intensity wasn’t there. You can’t switch it on and off week-to-week and you can’t switch it on and off on a match day.

“You start with a point, you start 0-0, but the lads had to work so hard to claw a point away from home.

“So don’t be cheap with the way you start and approach games, because on another day you’re not getting back into it.

“That they did is testament to character and resilience and not laying down, but it’s also a reminder that we should be performing in the first half like we did in the second half because if you do that you can flip the outcome.

“We don’t want to be having to make three changes to get back into the game. But sometimes you do and thankfully on Saturday it paid off and we got a point.

“It was a tale of two keepers in the end. First half, Dan Atherton kept us in the game and second half their keeper’s kept them in the game.

“First half we were so far off it. They were good, they were attacking on the back of a poor result in midweek at Chorley. They started with a lot of tempo but we started with a lack of tempo.

“When they went 2-0 up it was probably fully deserved and we were lucky to go in 2-0 at half-time.”

Andy White’s departure with an injury late in the first half was a forced change but a change of formation and the arrival of Josh Miles as a makeshift wing-back, Mikey O’Neill in midfield and Josh Amis up front turned the game around.

“Whitey coming off wasn’t part of what I had in mind for what we needed to do at half-time, but I thought we were going to have to change something – it wasn’t sticking up front, we weren’t keeping hold of the ball, they were getting down the sides of us too easily,” said Carden.

“We went with three at the back so that the outside centre halves could cover, and obviously Miles coming on in a wing-back position is probably something he’s not familiar with but I thought he was outstanding when he came on.

“And the others subs as well, Mikey O’Neill was different class. He was forward thinking, he was probing with his passing, he put a shift in, he was back defending, he was up attacking, having shots, little threaded balls through and the weight of pass was top drawer.

“And then Josh with his goals was different class and probably should have had a hat-trick.”

Yellows fans could get their first glimpse of new loan signing Noah Halford when South Shields visit Cantilever Park on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

The 19-year-old was signed from Bolton Wanderers ahead of the Darlington game but was an unused substitute.

With Evan Gumbs suspended for this Saturday, Halford could be the man to step into the defensive midfield role just in front of the back four.

“I watched Noah last week for Bolton and he played in front of the back four and he was very good,” said Carden.

“He was assured, he was composed, he was good in the air, he moved well.

“I felt it was important to make sure we had that bit of security in the midfield in the deeper area, so he’s come in.”