Two second-half goals ended Daisy Hill’s hopes of progress in the Edward Case Cup on Saturday as they fell to a 2-1 defeat against Holker Old Boys in a closely-fought cup tie at the Plumb Factory Stadium.

Calum McHale’s third goal of the season had given Daisy the lead at the break, but within three minutes of the restart Luke Ellis had levelled for the visitors. And at the midway point of the second half, Tom Dawson struck what proved to be the winner, to book Holker’s place in the quarter-finals of the competition.

Daisy manager Lee Hill summed up the disappointment in the home camp afterwards.

“I thought we were definitely good value for the lead at half time,” said Hill. “It was a poor game in terms of quality generally, there wasn’t a great deal of quality from either side, and the two goals we lost really should have been avoided.

“But that has been the story of our season. I can’t keep saying week in, week out that it’s a new team and we had to make changes again today.

“There are only so many times you can bang that drum, and the lads have got to learn and learn quickly.

“Holker are what they are, they are up near the top of the league, and it’s the third time this season we’ve had a tight game against them. Sometimes styles clash and maybe our two styles clash to the point that it’s always a close game.

“We freshened things up and given some lads a chance, and we’ve still gone toe to toe with them.

“It was a midfield battle for a lot of the time and we knew it would be, but I felt that Holker overall won more second balls than we did, and in this league that is what makes the difference.

“They regrouped a bit at half time and obviously looked at our shape and readjusted a bit because they thought they could get a bot of joy by changing slightly.

“The second goal was disappointing as I think if there had been better communication it could have been avoided, especially in the lead up.

“I thought Lucas Robinson did well for us up front in his first game, he’s only trained once with us and he acquitted himself really well. He had a chance in the second half and probably deserved that to go in, for the work rate he put in.

“It was another example of how fine margins haven’t gone our way, because if that had gone in it would have been a different game, but it wasn’t to be.

“But we go again on Saturday, and by then everyone should be back fit, and we’ll have a full squad to choose from.”

The opening half hour only produced two goal attempts worthy of note, with the first chance arriving on 15 minutes when an effort from Holker’s Luke Davey beat Morgan Newns in the Daisy goal but sailed just wide of the post.

Four minutes later, Daisy skipper Jake O’Brien was unlucky with a free-kick from 25 yards that just missed the target.

The game fell into a dogged midfield battle for much of the remainder of the first half, although Daisy had Newns to thank on 37 minutes when he tipped a Dawson header over at full stretch.

But it was Daisy who broke the deadlock on 40 minutes when a pinpoint pass from Prince Haywood played McHale in on goal and he beat the keeper with a cool finish to put his side ahead.

In a tight game of few chances, it looked like it could have been a crucial moment in the game, but only three minutes into the second half Holker drew level with the first chance created after the break.

It was a moment to forget for the Daisy defence who failed to deal with a cross into the box, and the ball fell neatly into the path of Ellis who drilled his shot through a ruck of players into the corner of the net.

The pattern of the game then continued in a similar manner to the first half, with clear chances few and far between, with Newns only called on to deal with a shot from Tyler Spence, and at the other end Holker keeper Matt Bailey smothered a shot from Alex Dodd, before the visitors took the lead just after the midway point of the half.

The ball was swept wide to Spence on the right flank, and he raced forward before squaring a pass into the path of Dawson, who buried a shot past Newns from 12 yards.

Within a minute Holker found the back of the net again, but Davey was ruled offside by the assistant’s flag.

Daisy’s debutant centre-forward, Lucas Robinson, had been causing problems for the Holker defence with his strong running, and he came agonisingly close to levelling the scores as the game moved into the closing 20 minutes.

The Holker defence were caught out with a ball over the top of the defence, and spotting keeper Bailey off his line, Robinson neatly chipped the ball over the head of the stranded keeper from all of the 30 yards only to see his effort drift narrowly wide of the post.

Daisy are back in action this weekend, when they travel to face Darwen in the North West Counties League First Division North.