Daisy Hill’s winless run was extended to five games after they went down to a 4-1 defeat at Darwen in the North West Counties League First Division North on Saturday.

After a goalless first half, former Daisy man Connor Hughes scored twice in the space of 12 minutes in the second half, either side of a Jack Foster strike, to put Darwen in the driving seat.

Although debutant Liam Sheppard pulled a goal back for Daisy five minutes from time, Foster struck his second of the afternoon in the final minute to round off victory for the home side.

Daisy coach Lewis Woodcock pulled no punches in his analysis after the game.

“I think annoyance at the performance is the biggest emotion,” he said. “The first half was okay, Darwen were maybe the slightly better team, but they didn’t cause us any problems.

“We changed a few things at half time, as we had defended well but didn’t really create much, so we decided to have a go at them a bit.

“But we came out in the second half and we were a different team. They put their foot on the gas, we gave away sloppy goals and we kind of fell apart a bit.

“We missed a good chance at 1-0 and a few minutes later they scored a second. We have got to take those chances when they come. They took their chances and were more clinical than we were.

“We had a spell in the last five or ten minutes, but that was what we had expected for the whole of the second half.

“We had the quality of the player on the pitch to match them, the difference was that we didn’t have that clinical edge all over the pitch. We were sloppy, there was poor communication, and we didn’t have that desire you need.

“Fair play to Connor Hughes, both of his goals were very good finishes, but we made it too easy for him and that’s not good enough. You can’t afford to give a player of Connor’s quality the sort of time he had on the edge of the box.

“Darwen had more heart and more desire, and at this level if you don’t perform as a team you’ll get punished for it.

“We deserved to lose on the back of that second-half performance. It’s not often we’ve come off the pitch this season and said the other team deserved the win, but that was the case today.”

It was a game that took a while to spark into life, and in the first half, chances at both ends were few and far between.

In the fifth minute, slack play at the back from Daisy allowed Darwen’s Fenton Reeves a clear run in on goal, but his weak shot was easily gathered by keeper Morgan Newns.

Daisy’s only effort of note arrived just after the half-hour mark when Prince Haywood’s shot from the edge of the box was safely dealt with by Darwen keeper James Aspinall.

A goalless opening 45 minutes was a fair reflection of the run of play, and Daisy attempted to freshen the line-up by making two half-time substitutions, with Kyle Whittaker and Luke Nicholls replacing Luke Roscoe and Lucas Robinson.

But it was Darwen who broke the deadlock on 55 minutes, when Hughes picked up the ball on the left edge of the box and smashed a shot past Newns into the top corner.

Just after the hour, Daisy came close to levelling the scores when Nicholls latched on to a through ball and rounded Darwen keeper Aspinall, but was forced wide before his effort on goal was cleared.

Within two minutes, Darwen had doubled their advantage, with Hughes turning provider to set up Foster, who slid in to steer the ball past Newns.

Five minutes later, Hughes struck again to bag his second of the afternoon with a similar strike to his first goal, this time picking up a pass from Bruno Severino before burying a shot past Newns.

Daisy kept going and on 70 minutes Nicholls was denied by a great blocking save by Aspinall at close range.

But with five minutes remaining, a neat through ball from Nicholls set up fellow substitute Sheppard to pull a goal back for Daisy with a cool finish from 10 yards.

With Daisy pushing forward as the game drew to a close, they were always vulnerable to the counter-attack, and in the final minute, after an attack broke down, a long ball forward sent Darwen substitute Foster clear on goal, and he wrapped up a good afternoon for his side when he beat Newns with a low shot for his second of the game.

Daisy are back in action in the North West Counties League First Division North on Saturday when they travel to West Yorkshire to face Route One Rovers.