RAWTENSTALL Cricket Club professional Brett Pelser believes his side suffered a Twenty20 hangover as they slumped to a heavy defeat at Colne on Sunday.

Pelser’s side knocked out defending champions Lowerhouse in the semi-finals of the short format on Friday night to seal their place in this week’s showpiece.

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But they were brought back down to earth with a bump on Sunday as Colne earned a comfortable seven-wicket success.

And Pelser believes the emotion of Friday’s win affected the side.

“I think it did play a part,” he said.

“Obviously you have the euphoria of Friday night and knowing you have reached a final, which is a huge achievement for the club.

“And then you have to prepare yourself for a league game when the pace is a bit slower and it is a different environment where there is no music blaring or anything like that. We just didn’t adjust.

“The biggest disappointment for me was that at no point were we in the game.

“I didn’t think we were ever on top and that was disappointing.”

Pelser, whose side are fifth in the table, seven points off the top four, now wants Rawtenstall to regroup and push for a high finish as the league enters its final 10 games.

Rawtenstall travel to Church on Saturday before they face two of the four sides above them – Enfield and Ramsbottom – in early August.

“We have to re-group now,” said Pelser.

“Obviously everyone is looking forward to the final, but we still want to finish the league campaign with a high finish.

“We have a couple of tough games coming up and we have to learn from what happened against Colne.

“If we want to become a really good side then we have to be able to cope with playing on Friday and then again on Sunday.

“We have a tough couple of league fixtures coming up and it is a tricky mini-season for us.”