Northwich Victoria 2 Charnock Richard 3

Vics led 2-1 going into the game’s final five minutes, but former player Jordan Darr equalised before Mark Woods crashed in the visitors’ winner two minutes later.

Aaron Burns had scored twice – the second directly from a corner – to put the hosts in control at Wincham Park but Wilkes says the tale is an achingly familiar one.

“We should be winning these games. We’ve thrown away so many points this season its untrue,” he said.

“It’s tough to take but we’ve got to learn sooner rather than later.

“We looked very, very comfortable in the second half. They weren’t causing us any problems whatsoever.

“We got the second goal to put us 2-1 in front and I thought we were just going to cruise home.

“We lose the ball on the edge of their box and seven or eight seconds later, its 2-2.

“The third goal is a great strike, but we shouldn’t have been in that position.

“We’ve spoken about game management again but its something we’re not very good at at the minute.”

Burns came off the bench to replace the injured Tom Kilifin in the first half and scored Vics’ equaliser just before half time to cancel out Carl Grimshaw’s opener from the penalty spot.

However, it was his second goal that caught the eye as his corner caught the wind and deceived Charnock goalkeeper Ben Ascroft to nestle in the corner.

Wilkes says it was far from accidental, however.

“We’ve watched Charnock a lot and their goalkeeper is a very good shot-stopper but he’s very small,” he said.

“We spoke at half time to our corner takers and with the wind as it was, we told them to try and score.”

That goal looked like earning Vics three valuable points until Darr struck on the counter-attack as he came back to haunt his former club.

“We know what Jordan’s about,” Wilkes said.

“We wanted to keep him in the summer but he wanted to play higher.

“He’s getting more money where he is now than he was with us, but that’s the way it is at the minute.

“Good luck to him, it’s a good finish.”