AFTER losing to Northwich Victoria, Steve Edmondson rued his side’s failure to replicate Saturday’s performance and build on the three points gained against Wakefield.

The Mintcakes annihilated their opponents at the weekend but were unable to repeat the feat on Tuesday evening, losing to Lee Ashcroft’s Vics at Flixton’s Valley Road ground.

And Edmondson, who returned to the dugout after missing the clash with Wakefield, cited his player’s inability to play to their strengths as a major factor in the defeat.

“We’re disappointed with the result obviously but I thought we shot ourselves in the foot by showing them too much respect,” he said.

“At no stage did we get the ball down and play like we did on Saturday, instead we started hitting long balls which played into their hands.

“We didn’t seem to have the confidence to get it down and play, which is something we’re usually good at.”

The former Ambleside United manager was also mystified by the referee’s decision to brandish a second yellow card in the direction of centre-half Michael Stringfellow.

Stringfellow was dismissed following an altercation with Northwich’s goalkeeper, with Tim Deasy also seeing red for retaliation, something Edmondson believes had a major bearing on the outcome of the match.

“The sending off has killed us in fairness,” he added. “I feel the referee has made a bad decision there by sending our guy off for obstruction when he wasn’t even looking at it.

“We can count ourselves very unfortunate not to be given a penalty but that’s football.”

Games come thick and fast at this stage of the season and attention now turns to Saturday when Kendal entertain Farsley at Parkside Road.

The West Yorkshire outfit are tipped to be among the leading lights come April and Edmondson admits he may shuffle his pack in a bid to freshen things up.

“Farsley will be up there at the end of the season so it will be a tough one but we’ve got to re-group,” he said.

“We’re a new team and we’ve got to learn to gel and I’m sure it will come, it’s only early doors yet. We’ll build and try and put it right.

“I thought Sefton Gonzales did well when he came off the bench on Tuesday so maybe we’ll try him on Saturday and see if he can cause some problems.

“We’ll have a few missing and Adam Main has left the club so we’ll rotate the squad and give certain players the chance to come in and show what they can do.”