Ryan Qualter apologises to Tadcaster Albion's supporters following Worsbrough Bridge Athletic thrashing

The Brewers headed into that NCEL Premier Division fixture fresh off the back of a superb FA Cup victory over higher-division Stalybridge Celtic, a performance which their manager rated as being up there with the best he had overseen since taking charge at Ings Lane.

But, having fallen behind early on, Albion were blown away by last season’s Division One play-off winners, going on to concede another four goals in the space of 35 second-half minutes.

"I’m a bit lost for words because I just thought we crumbled and it is disappointing following the highs of the FA Cup win,” Qualter said.

"I didn’t see this coming, but it’s alright getting up for games like Stalybridge, but at the end of the day, we are not going to win the FA Cup. Yes, we want a good run, but the league is our bread and butter.

"We do our preparation behind the scenes, we watch clips and get reports to help the players as best we can, but at times it must be like we are speaking a different language to them.

"We knew it was going to be tough coming to Worsbrough, we knew we would have to dig in, but from minute one, we just got bullied by a very good side. It felt like for them, it was do or die, and for 80 percent of our players, it wasn’t.

“So, apologies to the fans who came, because that is not an acceptable performance from a Tadcaster team.”

After Charlie Austerfield opened the scoring on three minutes, it took Worsbrough until early in the second half to add to their lead through Lance Friedrich.

But that goal saw the floodgates open, and Lewis O’Connor and Lloyd Smith (2) went on to breach the Albion defence in fairly quick succession.

Defeat leaves the Brewers third from bottom of the table and just two points clear of the drop zone.

They return to league action on Wednesday night when they visit Retford United (7.45pm) before travelling to Lancaster City in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup this Saturday (3pm).