Stafford Rangers boss Steve Bull blamed the pressure of his first home match as manager for the team’s poor performance in the bottom of the table battle with Farsley Celtic.

Rangers went down 2-0 to end their unbeaten four-match run and saw them drop further into the relegation mire.

They dipped to second from bottom after Northwich’s 3-3 draw with Ebbsfleet, while Farsley moved out of the relegation zone and opened up a ten point gap on Rangers.

Bull said afterwards: “I think they left their spirit in the dressing room. 

“I told them all the attention is going to be about me today – some were shellshocked and couldn’t cope with it.

“They picked themselves up for two games and I thought, if they do it today, great. It never happened.”

Farsley boss John Deacey said they had prepared their players for the Bull factor.

“It was difficult circumstances we had to deal with – a big crowd, Steve Bull’s first game at home – that’s what we measured our team talk around,” said Deacey after the game.

“”We weathered the storm for 10 to 15 minutes, but they didn’t really trouble us a lot after that.”