AN UPBEAT Paul McGuire played down Radcliffe Borough’s Lancashire Challenge Trophy exit on Tuesday night insisting his side have ‘bigger fish to fry’ as they look to build on Saturday’s league victory over Harrogate Railway Athletic – their first since August.

The Boro were dumped out of the Trophy losing 4-3 on penalties to North West Counties First Division leaders Atherton Collieries, who had goalkeeper Danny Taberner sent off in the first half.

Chris Mason continued his goalscoring run following up two goals against Harrogate with the opener on 56 minutes, but Mark Truffas drew the visitors level as the Evo-Stik Division One North side crashed out of the competition at the second round stage.

The local rivals had previously met in this season’s FA Cup preliminary round when Boro’s goalkeeper Chris Cheetham saved his side’s blushes with three penalty saves following two 2-2 draws, but luck was against McGuire’s men in Tuesday’s hotly-contested cup tie.

“It’s disappointing as we wanted to win but we didn’t capitalise when they went down to 10-men,” said McGuire.

“We rested or benched quite a few of our key players including Bevan Burey, Sam Grimshaw, Elliott Rokka and Danny White and hopefully in future league games that will play dividends.

“We’re not going to lose too much sleep over going out of the Challenge Cup. We have some important league games coming up against Droylsden, Darlington 1883 and Salford so we’ve got bigger fish to fry,” he said.

Boro stunned Harrogate Railway Athletic by coming back from 3-1 down with less than half an hour to play, to win 4-3 on Saturday with goals from Sam Grimshaw, Dave Sherlock and a brace from Mason.

“It was an incredible game and a massive day,” said McGuire. “That’s why I’m not too despondent about the cup defeat. The manner of the win over Harrogate was a really big step in the right direction.”

Radcliffe Borough are at home to seventh-placed Scarborough Athletic on Saturday before hosting FA Cup giantkillers Warrington Town in the Doodson Cup on Tuesday.