GERRY Luczka was left to reflect how often you do not get what you deserve from a football match after Tuesday night’s UniBond Challenge Cup exit at Mossley.

Three days earlier, Radcliffe Borough turned in a scrappy performance at home to Woodley to bag three important points in their UniBond Division One North campaign with a fortunate 2-1 win, courtesy of a double from striker Steve Howson.

Conversely, the Boro director of football watched as his team packed full of youngsters battled manfully for 120 minutes against Mossley, only to lose to a goal scored by former Ramsbottom United man Matt Kay with a minute remaining of extra time following the dismissal of the excellent young centre back Shaun Connor.

Connor is already showing signs of becoming another find for the Stainton Park outfit in much the same way that Craig Dawson — now impressing at Rochdale — became a much-talked-about prodigy.

Luczka now faces the task of lifting his men for the all-important FA Cup second qualifying round at Warrington Town on Saturday, a tie that has assumed greater importance because of the financial benefits that could accrue from a decent run in the world’s oldest knockout competition.

Luczka, however, refused to accept that the defeat at Mossley did not matter as much as a win at Warrington would count on Saturday.

“We are not good enough to be able to pick and choose which tournaments we want to do well in,” he said.

“These lads are paid to play football and win games for this club. We turned up at Mossley to win the game, but we were just a little unlucky.

“Woodley was a scrappy game, but it was the result that was important. At Mossley, however, we played really well and go nothing, but that’s football.

“While it was a disappointing result, it was a fabulous performance overall, especially when you look at the very young and inexperienced side we had out there.

“It was very unfortunate that Shaun’s sending off has just changed things a little bit, but we’ve no complaints. As a manager, all you want from your players is an honest shift and they certainly did that.

“I thought we were quite comfortable throughout the game. They had one or two opportunities, but in general we gave as good as we got.

“It was a very encouraging performance and young Shaun was magnificent. He’s a wonderful talent, and I’m sure that lad’s going to have a future in the game.”

Looking ahead to the Warrington clash, Luczka acknowledged the importance of the cup tie to Boro.

He added: “We’ve got to dust ourselves down. There’s one or two players that have had knocks and Warrington is our priority now. We’ve got to put a performance in, and we’ve got a great chance of going through to the next round.

“The financial rewards are extremely important to a football club at our level.”