RHYL director of football Eddie Maurice-Jones offered no excuses for his side as they fell to a shock 3-1 home loss to Gresford Athletic.

The Lilywhites suffered another early blow to their Huws Gray Alliance title chances, and they will look to bounce back at the earliest opportunity when they host Denbigh Town in cup action this Friday (7.30pm).

Maurice-Jones, said: “It is very frustrating as I thought after previous weeks we have gotten over the nervy stage of building as a team. I thought we had left all that behind, so it is disappointing.

“We have got to play better as every team that comes here is going to be playing out of their skin and it will be a cup final for them. They brought it to us and credit to Gresford they wanted it more and were clinical at both ends of the field.

“The way we play we are always going to have the majority of possession, but I have said to the lads that means nothing if you do not produce in the final third. We had a few wobbles in pre-season in terms of when and when not to play out from the back and we have switched off again.

“We are still learning about the players and we are going to be a match for anyone in terms of ability, but if the other team play with more heart and work together it is going to make things difficult.

“You have got to put emotions and friendships to one side and I didn’t think we did that, but the lads need to remember that we are Rhyl, we are here to win and friendship doesn’t count for anything during those 90 minutes.”

A mistake from keeper Rory Crowther enabled Jordan MacCarter to open the scoring for the visitors after eight minutes, and they added to their tally after the break courtesy of a Sam Molyneux strike.

Striker Barry Torrence got the Lilies back into the game with a fine header from a corner, but another defensive error resulted in Kieran Evans restoring Athletic’s two-goal cushion to confirm their triumph.