Skegness boss feels side can only blame themselves after loss

​The Lilywhites were beaten by a side who are effectively full-time and who as a result of Saturday’s win, leap-frogged Skegness up to third in the table, two points ahead with a game in hand.

So Rawlinson was philosophical following a game in which his side’s cause wasn’t helped by a red card handed out to Scott Floyd with the score still goalless.

He said: “If I’m honest, we’ve only got ourselves to blame. It was a silly sending off after 27 minutes when I don’t think anyone would deny we were were on top and could only see one outcome.

"Having to play against what is basically a full-time academy, ten against 11, becomes very tricky in the way that they can keep the ball and move things around.

"We conceded a sloppy goal just before half-time but I still felt we had a chance.

"We had a great chance just after half-time and a stone wall penalty waved away, and while our player’s prone in the box effectively reducing us to nine men, they broke and scored again.

"Then from the re-start we had a player sin-binned for questioning the referee’s decision and they scored the third when it was 11 v 9 which made it an almost impossible task.

"The red card and sin bins weren’t due to bad tackles or anything like that, more due to us getting angry at situations and not reacting well to it.

"I can’t fault the lads’ work ethic, it was a case of fighting a losing battle.”

Skegness were due to go to Boston Town on Tuesday night in the Lincolnshire Senior Trophy quarter-final, after this week’s Standard went to press.

They then host RC Warwick on Saturday in the quarter-finals of the UCL League Cup.

Rawlinson said: “We’re going to be stretched given the injuries and unavailability we’ll have but we’re at home, so we’ll get the best eleven available out and give it a good go against a side in the play-off zone in the southern section of the league.

"We want to do well in both cup competitions, but the focus has to be on the league game the week after at home to AFC Mansfield.”