Cleator Moor Celtic were beaten again in the West Lancashire League, going down 4-1 at high-flying Burscough Richmond.
But manager Stuart Shaw felt the final score did not reflect the game after Celtic travelled with some key players missing.
They played a different system to their normal formation while taking a very young group of lads to Burscough for the game.
Shaw said: “I certainly had mixed emotions coming away after the defeat.
“Firstly I was delighted at what we had set out to do before the game and was perfected for the first 20 minutes.
“We deserved to go into the lead 1-0 against a really good quality side in Burscough. They didn’t know how to handle us and we scored a great goal through Ben McCarron who looked sharp all game.
“Secondly though, I was disappointed how we let Burscough grow back into the game and like previous weeks our own individual errors cost us massively, as we were not willing to put bodies on the line and defend.
“Then a very dubious penalty was given against us but we have to deal with situations and we didn’t do that going into half time 2-1 down.
“We were still very much in the game and pushing for that equaliser with a couple of great deliveries from Luke Close and Bradley Rooney off set pieces.
“I’m afraid we just lacked that desire to get on the end of them.
“After 80 minutes we changed the system again to push even more for the equaliser but still felt we could defend as we had been doing.
“But that wasn’t the case, switching off and not clearing our lines cost us again and we came away on the end of a 4-1 defeat which doesn’t reflect the game at all.”
This Saturday Celtic are on the road again to Lytham Town in the first round of the President’s Cup. Their hosts are in Division One, currently seventh in the table and beaten 4-1 at Millom last Saturday.
