Matlock Town manager Martin Carruthers gives verdict of play-off defeat at Warrington Town

These were the words of Matlock Town boss Martin Carruthers after the Gladiators were comprehensively beaten 4-1 by Warrington Town in the NPL Premier Division play off semi final at Cantilever Park on Tuesday night.

A 1-0 win at Marine and defeats for both Hyde United (3-1 at Warrington Town) and Radcliffe, (2-1 at Nantwich Town) meant that Matlock, outsiders before the start of play, snuck into the play-offs by the back door.

So an unbelievably quick turnaround saw them head to Warrington who had finished in second spot but this is where the journey ended.

Matlock were demolished as three goals in thirteen minutes in the final quarter of an hour of the first half came on top of a 12th minute opener for the Yellows to leave a shell shocked Matlock four goals adrift come half time.

Carruthers was full of praise for Warrington who will now meet Bamber Bridge in Monday afternoon’s final at Cantilever Park, Brig having beaten Gainsborough Trinity after a penalty shoot out following a 1-1 draw.

“We were well beaten by a far superior side, it was men against boys,” he said.

"They’re the best side I’ve seen at this level for five or six years, their movement, their rotation and the quality of their counter attacking is really outstanding, I think and no disrespect to South Shields, that they’ re a better side than Shields and I’ll be really shocked if they don’t go on and win the final against Bamber Bridge.

"We simply couldn’t match them, they’re a side three years in the making and it’s what we want to aspire to.”

Carruthers admitted that in hindsight, he should have selected a different side. It was a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The Town boss kept an unchanged starting line up and formation from the game at Marine, a decision most fans would have approved of..

“The lads had done well so I went with the same side but if I had my time over again, I would probably have gone 5-3-2 with different personnel but you learn from these types of things”.

So what was said after a first half mauling?

“I said to the lads we had to play for pride, we can’t down tools, don’t go out like this! We won the second half but they’d taken their foot off the gas a bit, having said that I felt we showed real character to make a game of it.

"Saul Deeney made some great saves, he was our man of the match.

"Saul’s had a great game for us. We’re all disappointed but the lads should be proud of what they’ve done, we’ve just come up against a very very good side who were bang on form.”

So with the season now over what does Carruthers make of his time at Matlock so far?

“I’ve loved every minute of it and a very family orientated club and Wayne (Hallcro) and me are delighted to be here, the club has made us both feel really welcome,” he added.

"We’ve had challenges along the way and making the play-offs, given our position a few weeks ago is a real bonus. Now we’ve got to crack on and try to do even better next year.”