Davies admits Drayton second-best

No highfalutin jargon about tactics, moans about relative resources or bleats on how, why or where an incident, indivual or stroke of bad luck led to such an unlikely result.

Just a public acknowledgement that about everyone in the Town camp had a nightmare afternoon.

“We simply weren’t at the races,” he said after Colne slammed in four second half goals to smash Town’s unbeaten home record for this season’s Evo-Stik NPL West campaign.

“We made some good chances in the first half but the truth is we were never really with it from start to finish.

“A huge disappointment all round. Just about everyone had a bad day.

“No excuses, we got what we deserved

“The best thing we can do is to accept that, learn from it and move on.”

Davies and his squad can console themselves that’s exactly what Colne were doing on their first-ever visit to Greenfields.

Their dominant performance came in the wake of their most devastating result of the season – a humiliating 6-1 home hammering by league leaders Runcorn Linnets.

An end-to-end opening spell on Saturday brought smart saves from both keepers. Colne’s Hakan Burton held a hard low shot from Louis Irvine, bravely won a one-on-one confrontation with Jud Ellis, sorted a free-kick melee and was relieved to see Matt Ballard’s header fly just over his bar.

At the other end, Ash Rawlins denied Alex Curran at close range, Brad Knox from long distance and made the save of the match stopping Connor Hughes’ spectacular volley from somewhere in between.

But a minute into the second half, Rawlins was left the fall guy when Town’s defence were caught playing pass the parcel, lost possession, the ball bobbled kindly and Clone’s Curran accepted a gift.

Five minutes later a long raking crossfield pass from Knox was lashed home by Hughes and Drayton were suddenly heading for their first defeat in six games.

Increasingly unconvincing attempts to save the situation also backfired as Colne grabbed two more with classic counterattacks, Matt Morgan angling a 65th minute shot across Rawlins into the far corner and Brad Lynch following suit just four minutes later.

In between times Ballard broke through with a brilliant run – but then blasted the ball wide with only Burton left to beat.

It just about summed up Drayton’s day.

Drayton, who remain mid-table, now take time off for their next game is on November 3, at Glossop North End, who are bottom of the league. Their 2-0 defeat at Ramsbottom on Saturday left them with just six points from 12 games, one fewer than Chasetown, Kendal and Skelmersdale.