DARWEN manager Steve Wilkes was left shocked by the nature of his side's elimination from the second qualifying round of the FA Vase at the hands of NWCL second division rivals Bacup Borough.

Prior to the game all the talk was of the feud between Wilkes and his opposite number Brent Peters. The pair shook hands and buried the hatchet before the game, but afterwards the only concern for Wilkes was the manner of his side's capitulation.

"I was disgusted" he blasted. "Their attitude was poor, the performance was spineless.

"I have never been so upset after a game in all my life -- I could have cried.

"This was a big game for us but nine out of the ten outfield players out there let me down.

"I kept them in the dressing room for half an hour after the game and I just hope that what was said didn't just go in one ear and out of the other.

"I don't know what you do as a manager. Ultimately it is down to me but it is hard when you tell them what you want and then when they cross the white line they just don't do it."

However, Wilkes was not about to take anything away from what his opposite number Peters had achieved.

"There is no way that I would claim that we left this game thinking we were unlucky," he said.

"Bacup Borough are a good side and on the day they were far superior. Quite simply they wanted it far more than we did."

Peters was far less rough on the Darwen performance, though he felt that they had failed to deal with the strength and pace of one or two of his players -- particularly Karl Stanley who scored one goal and had a hand in three others.

"For the first 45 minutes I thought it was a genuine cup-tie with all that entails, it had everything," enthused Peters.

"There were chances at both ends, we missed a penalty but everything you could wish for happened.

"But as often is the case a goal changes the picture and for me that is what happened.

"We had defended well under pressure and then created a few chances, but in the end I think they struggled to cope with our strength. Certainly Karl Stanley was causing them plenty of problems and he deserved his goal and he had a hand in most of the others.

"We have been threatening to do this and maybe having put five past Darwen in the cup a few people will sit up and take notice of us."

What with the penalty miss and their failure to convert three other clear cut chances the Bacup side will have been glad that the floogates did open with Stuart Farnell leading the way with two goals, and Stanley, Jason Lanns and Mark Hall bagging the others.

RESULT: DARWEN...0 BACUP...5