Neil Reynolds Remains Calm After Rylands' Heavy Defeat

Warrington Rylands suffered their heaviest defeat since reaching the Northern Premier League, but Neil Reynolds walked out of the dressing room insisting this is no time for alarm.

His side were thrashed 5-0 at home by Redcar Athletic on Saturday, a bruising afternoon that left the Blues with three defeats from their opening five games. It was also Reynolds’ first match back in the dugout after a four-game touchline ban. Some managers would have torn into their squad. He chose a different line.

“We just had an off day,” he told the club’s YouTube channel, fully aware how that might sound after a five-goal beating. “There’s nobody in my dressing room that needs to worry about being replaced or me calling them out.”

He called it “a horrendous off day”. The kind that lingers. The kind he has seen before.

Reynolds quickly reached for a reference point. Around February last season, Rylands went to Prescot and were beaten 3-0. That afternoon sparked something.

“After the game, we stayed in the dressing room,” he recalled. “Barring our new players, everyone in that dressing room today was at Prescot that day.

“We had a bit of a conversation with some open and honest words and then went on an unbelievable run and were a penalty kick away from being promoted.”

That memory is doing a lot of heavy lifting this week. Reynolds wants the Redcar defeat to serve the same purpose: a low that sharpens rather than shatters.

“If we respond positively – and that’s putting a performance in at Workington on Tuesday night and then building on it against Alfreton – then we’ll look back on this moment and know how it feels to be that low.

“We’ve got to learn from that – we’ve built that side and we’ve had an off day.”

For 45 minutes, there was no hint of a collapse of this scale. Rylands trailed only 1-0 at the break and were still in the contest. By the midway point of the second half, it had unravelled. Three more goals flew in, Redcar added a late fifth, and the scoreline turned ugly.

“It shouldn’t have been that scoreline given where we were at half time,” Reynolds said. “But unfortunately, information that we passed on just wasn’t retained.

“We’ve been beaten by an exceptional side who have come here and done a job on us.”

So the wait begins. Three days to Workington. Three days to stew, to replay the goals, to decide what sticks and what gets ripped up.

“It’s going to be a long three days until Tuesday – it’s certainly a tough one, but there’s no panic.”

Rylands know what a response looks like. The question now is whether this group can find another one.