Rawlinson vows to bounce back after play-off defeat

Tulips boss Chris Rawlinson wants his side to take inspiration from this season’s champions Shaw Lane following Saturday’s EvoStik League Division One South play-off final defeat at Witton Albion.

Spalding suffered a 2-1 reversal in a match which Rawlinson felt was ‘one game too far’ for his spirited charges.

And, after seeing Shaw Lane bounce back from last season’ s play-0ff final defeat to win the Division One South title this term, Rawlinson is calling for Spalding to repeat the feat next year.

He said: “Witton are good side, but I felt we were just a tiny bit short of being at our best which was disappointing.

“We did well in patches, but going to extra-time on Tuesday night probably took a little bit more out of us.

“Leon Mettam has scored our goal of the season by some distance to get us back level, but they’ve broken when we were attacking on our long throw and scored.

“It was our achilles heel earlier in the season. I thought we had moved on from it, but it has caused us a problem today.

“It’s been a difficult day for us with Michael Duggan being unable to kick properly, but he’s palmed away the header for their second goal and they’ve got a goal out of nothing so fair play to them.

“They were a little bit better than us so it’s important we learn from that and came back stronger next year.

“Shaw Lane did it this year after losing in the play-off final last season and that’s got to be our target.

“We’re annoyed and disappointed to have lost. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we need to go away, regroup and pull together and make sure we’re ready to go again next season.”