Mark Beesley: Second half comeback was deserved

Warrington Town manager Mark Beesley has praised the way his side responded after half-time as they came from two goals down to earn a point at home to Rylands. 

The visitors had led 2-0 at half-time and 3-1 with 20 minutes remaining, but the Yellows showed their fighting spirit to score two late goals and rescue a 3-3 draw at Cantilever Park. 

While admitting his side were second-best for much of the first half, Beesley says he is proud of the way his players battled against in-form opposition. 

“For the first half-hour, it was two teams feeling each other out. I don’t think they troubled us and we didn’t trouble them, which is a disappointment,” he said. 

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“Two goals before half-time put us under pressure, and we were poor for 10 minutes. We had a little wobble. 

“In the second half, we deservedly scored three [and] probably could’ve scored a couple more.”

The visitors – who were forced to name midfielder Steve Irwin as a makeshift goalkeeper – looked troublesome in attack, with forward duo Callum Dolan and Kane Drummond continuing their hot streak in front of goal.

However, the Yellows made key changes at half-time and early in the second half, with Mitch Duggan, Isaac Buckley-Ricketts and Luke Duffy all introduced.

It was Duffy’s deflected effort that gave the hosts a glimmer of hope, before Duggan’s stoppage time cross was turned into his own net by Blues defender James Nield.

Beesley praised the contribution of his substitutes after their late fightback, which came in front of over 1,500 supporters at Cantilever Park.

“They’re a good team; they defend well, have experience in the middle of the pitch and have quick players on the counter-attack,” he said.

“I want to give our lads a bit of credit for coming from 2-0 down. It could’ve gone a lot worse; they score a lot of goals but we stayed in the game.”

On the half-time changes, Beesley added: “We said that we needed to up the tempo [so] we brought a bit of extra pace on.

“I thought the three subs made a big difference. Luke scored one, Mitch set up the last goal, and Isaac came on and was a threat.

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“They’re good players and arguably should be playing, so that’s the competition for places that we’ve got.”

Tuesday’s result leaves the Yellows 12th in the division, and Beesley has urged his players to kick on and begin to climb the table.

“We’re doing okay, which isn’t good enough – we need to push on,” he insisted. “We stopped the rot a little bit and got four points from two tough games.

“We need to go again, be pushing on and winning more games.”