AFTER a crucial week returned precious little, the scale of Warrington Town’s task is now abundantly clear.

But while they now officially reside in the National League North’s relegation zone, manager Paul Carden insists nobody at the club is prepared to throw the towel in.

Yellows sank to a defeat Carden described as “gut-wrenching” at Needham Market on Saturday, with a last-minute Seth Chambers penalty earning their relegation rivals a 2-1 victory.

It means that two games against sides in direct competition with them have yielded a solitary point and they now sit third-bottom of the table.

And while he accepted Town have not taken sufficient advantage of the chances in front of them – in every possible respect – Carden struck a defiant tone ahead of high-flying Scunthorpe United’s visit to the Cal.Delivery Stadium on Saturday.

And before then, he again emphasised the need to add to his squad having picked up several new injuries at the weekend.

“I’m not daft enough to not realise what’s at stake in terms of teams in and around us,” he said.

“We’ve taken one point from the six available in two games against two of those teams, and it’s not enough.

“We slip into the bottom four – in some ways, it doesn’t really change what we need to do but the fact you’re coming away from such a long journey for everyone with nothing is bitterly disappointing.

The hope lies in that we’ve got games to play. While this run of games hasn’t returned enough points, the only thing we can do is keep trying.

“Maybe we need to change things that have got us so far but not far enough – I know that’s pretty obvious on the back of results, but we can’t be “nearly there” because that’s not enough.

“We’ve had a couple of injuries, so we will need to bring players in because they won’t be back in time for next week.

“Who and where from is another matter, but no-one is throwing the towel in or giving up.

“There’s still a lot of points to play for but when we get chances like we’ve had, we’ve got to be putting games to bed.

“When you’re down there, it comes back to bite you.”

The late blow in Suffolk came after Ollie Southern had been penalised for handball inside the area, with Chambers beating Dan Atherton from the spot to seal a league double over Town for Needham.

Elliot Morris’ first Warrington goal had cancelled out another penalty – converted by Luke Ingram just before half time – but despite forcing home stopper Josh Blunkell into several saves, Carden’s men left empty-handed.

The Yellows boss had few complaints about the award of both spot-kicks and was instead keen to point out the things his players could have done to avoid putting themselves in such danger.

“I thought it was a penalty, to be honest,” he said of the game-deciding decision.

“It’s harsh but again, if we deal with it and get hold of the ball at the top end of the pitch, it doesn’t come to that.

“There’s not a lot in the first half, but we give a silly, needless penalty away to give them a leg-up.

“You come out in the second half needing a reaction and I felt like we got one. We were positive, on the front foot and got a deserved goal.

“We should have gone on to take the lead with the chances we had – there were opportunities where the final ball was just a bit over-hit or we didn’t take enough care with the finish.

“I have to say as well that their keeper has made three or four really top saves, but to lose in that manner is gut-wrenching.

“They had a couple of breakaways where they’ve shot across the goal, but I don’t think Dan (Atherton) has been troubled in terms of making saves.

“Their keeper has made four really good ones – there’s one from a header and a couple of one-on-ones – and we’ve not hit the target on a couple of occasions when it was there to be finish.

“One goal should be enough, but it never is. That’s not the way football is.

“I keep saying it, but we’ve got a habit of undoing our work.

“There were elements in the build-up to that goal where we’ve got to take control of it. There were shouts of “hold the ball” but we head it straight through to the keeper, he shells it up the pitch and that leads to the penalty.

“It’s just so disappointing, especially for the fans who’ve travelled.

“I think the majority of them will see we’ve had a proper go at winning the game, but we’ve come out of it on the wrong side again.”

The Scunthorpe game marks the beginning of a busy period for Town, with midweek fixtures in each of the next three weeks leading to the end of the month.

Tuesday night sees them travel to Leamington – the first of three consecutive away fixtures which also includes trips to Spennymoor Town (February 15) and Hereford (February 18).