Albion’s only two games in 2012 have resulted in defeats – but both were in cup competitions and boss Kulwinder Sandhu will accept that.

“You don’t want to lose any game but if they had to be defeats then it is better that they were in the cups,” said Sandhu.

Albion were knocked out of the Wilkinson Sword Trophy semi-finals 5-2 at Grimsby Borough and then in midweek they lost 5-0 at home to Barton Town Old Boys in the second round of the Northern Counties East League Cup.

Both heavy defeats hurt the manager and his players but there were mitigating circumstances, not least that they were the only two games Albion have played this year due to the weather.

The loss at Grimsby came after Aron Haywood had been sent off and Wednesday’s was against a club from a higher division and with Albion’s squad depleted.

Sandhu said: “An hour before the game our keeper Aaron Bryan rang up to say he was on his way to Bradford Royal Infirmary with a knee injury.

“Steve Hollingworth was missing too and Alex Cusack was also ruled out through injury – then we lost Karl Hall to injury about 20 minutes into the game. It was one of those days.

“That was our main keeper, centre back and leading scorer all out before kick-off, then losing another forward it was the backbone of the team ripped out – and we only have a small squad here.

“It is a shame we went out of the cups but thankfully they don’t cost you points and challenging for promotion is our main focus.”