A frustrated Paul Burton offered his thoughts on a disappointing defeat to Penrith at the John Keegan Stadium on Tuesday evening.

The manager-less ‘Bonny Blues’ stunned the Seasiders with a dogged and well-organised performance.

Kian Makar struck the Blues in front inside ten minutes, before Jordan Palmer doubled the tally in the later stages of the game.

Tai Bell was sent off for a last-man challenge. Marske were awarded a spot kick, from which Lewis Boyd denied the lively Leo Robinson.

Reflecting on the match, Paul Burton conceded it was perhaps the poorest performance he had seen since the club’s return to the Northern League.

He admitted serious discussions were held in the dressing room after the ninety, and called upon his players to turn it around against Newcastle Blue Star this weekend.

“I don’t know where to start to be honest with you. I’m in disbelief.” He said.

“It’s disappointing, obviously, but I’m not quite sure what I’ve just witnessed to be honest with you.

“I read something on social media about our game against Shildon. It said it was probably the best performance since Marske came back into the Northern League, and that was probably the worst.

“I just don’t understand where that’s come from, if I’m honest with you. They’ve travelled a long way for a midweek game, which is never easy.

“They’re below us in the league, and they’ve just sacked their manager. It’s the perfect opportunity for us to pick up three points, so we can get going again.

“The instructions were to start brightly. We wanted to get at them in the first ten, fifteen minutes, hopefully get ourselves in front and control the game from there.

“If anything, they did that to us.

“They started brightly. They penned us back. Won a few corners. We just seemed to panic and try to force things. We kept giving the ball back to them, which allowed them to put us under more pressure.

“It was no real surprise when they scored. It wasn’t against the run of play or anything like that. It was fully deserved.”

“I think the penalty could have been a turning point for us. I'd like to think if we had scored that then it's a different game. They’re down to ten men, and we've got a bit of something to us.

“We still had plenty of time to get something out of the game, and then the second goal has obviously killed us.

“You just can’t let the ball bounce in those areas, it’s as simple as that.

“We've just gone in the dressing room and had a chat with them. A couple of times, already this season I’ve ‘gone offit’ after games, but I thought, what’s the point, and we’ve just spoken to them.

“I explained what I think has changed. We can’t quite figure out what’s happened since the Shildon performance. We’ve taken our foot off hard a yard since then.

“If you look at the goals we’re conceding at the moment, they’re all sloppy goals. We’ve gone from being extremely compact and strong, to looking like we’re going to concede goals every game.

“It’s a real worry for us. I thought defensively that was one of our strongest sides as a unit. Pretty much every goal we’ve given away since the Shildon game could have been avoided.

“I wish I could tell you exactly what the issue is, but looking at it now, I’m honestly not too sure. We need to train Thursday, have a look at a couple of things, and go again against Newcastle Blue Star on Saturday.


“The team we had out tonight was more than strong enough to get a result that we wanted, but for whatever reason, that just hasn’t happened.”