Melee ends New Mills’ ‘bad day at the office’ in home defeat by Ashville

The game ended up in a melee after a bad tackle and red card for sub Adam Muir, who had only been on the pitch three minutes, while Reece Lyndon, who had already been substituted, also got involved and was also red-carded for the depleted Millers.

“It was a poor day at the office and we didn't really see it coming either in a way,” said Birch.

“We have a lot of injuries, some are playing on with them, as well as suspensions – we are just low on numbers. It's that time of year.

“But we have been playing really well despite that, so this came out of the blue a bit. It can happen and we have to move on.

“No one gives you an easy game in this division and we conceded early goals that gave us an uphill task. But we still had enough chances to win the game comfortably.

“Then we had a lad sent off, but it was game over by that point. He had only been on the pitch three minutes.”

He added: “It was a bad tackle – he overstretched. I don't think there was any intent to hurt anyone, he just caught the lad late and it upset a few people and there was handbags.

“There was a bit of melee and Reece, who had already come off the pitch, got involved and was also sent off.

“These things happen with most of our lads being from Manchester and playing a side from Liverpool. It was a feisty game and sometimes the line gets overstepped. We will deal with anything that went on internally. But there was nothing major. A late tackle caused handbags.”

Ashville went ahead from the penalty spot through Josh Maldon on six minutes and two minutes later he doubled his tally from an angle outside the box after a short corner.

Chris Rogers headed in George Howarth's corner on the half-hour to give Millers hope.

But five minutes after the break Ben Greenop brilliantly dinked the keeper from 35 yards to make it 3-1 before an increasingly chippy game erupted with the tackle.

Birch said he would be bolstering his injury-hit squad this week ahead of Saturday's visit of Abbey Hulton United.

“It will be another tough game against a team that beat us early in the season,” he said.

“We are looking to bring a couple of people in this week in time for the weekend just to bulk up the squad really as we are really thin on numbers.

“We have been getting results and scraping through, but it's tough at the moment.”