United created by far the better chances at the One Call Stadium on Tuesday night but they had to settle for a point as they rued some excellent missed opportunities that could easily have turned it into a win.
And manager Paul Simpson agreed afterwards that it probably should have been a victory, both with the way the team defended and on the balance of the quality of the openings.
“If we’re going to be greedy it should have been more than the one point, let’s be fair,” he told us. “This is a tough place to come, and if you look at their record I think they’ve won 16, drawn one and lost one of the last 18 games here.
“We always knew this was going to be a real test but I think we’ve worked our socks off and we’ve caused them real problems. Look, they caused us problems as well, I don’t mind saying that, but we’ve had some fantastic opportunities to get at least one goal.
“We had some really good bits of play and I think if we could have taken a little bit more care then we’d be talking about more than one point right now. Saying that, I am satisfied with the performance and now we’ve got to make sure we take that into the next game.”
Speaking more about the quality of the goal scoring moments that came his team’s way, he added: “There’s no doubt they’re match winning chances. You’re sitting and watching and you’re thinking please, let’s not be regretting the fact that we’ve missed them again.
“Thankfully we’re not, and I thought we defended magnificently against a really difficult side to play against. That’s probably as good a defensive display as we’ve had this season.
“To come here and get a clean sheet, and in a game we probably should have won, I have to say that I’m pleased with everything I’ve seen from the players.”
It was a defensive performance built on a determined approach to winning every first contact, or mopping up when the second opportunity to deal with the ball presented itself.
“It’s massively important to defend in the way they did,” he commented. “I thought we could have had a little bit of help from the referee but, unfortunately, he didn’t do that for us.
“I have to say it again, this is a really tough place to come, and I’m delighted that we take a point away from it. I know that I can be picky and say that I expected more out of it, with the way we went about it and the chances we created, but we saw some really big performances and that’s a huge positive.
“I think the fact we’re not taking the chances at moment is a frustration more than a worry. I think when you defend as resolutely as we did then you probably hope that we’re going to go on and nick a goal … I just used the word nick there, but I don’t think that’s the right description.
“The chances in the first half, we had a great opportunity early on when Omari could have taken his touch across the box and he’s in on goal, but he takes a touch to cross it and it doesn’t quite happen.
“Morgan had a chance where it came through three or four pairs of legs, so he saw it very late. Denno had his great chance, but we can’t really say anything about him, he’s scoring for fun so far this season. That sadly went over the bar on this occasion.
“We had the passage of play where Mox just needs to slide it through for Omari, and at one point we had a run of great opportunities because we played some really good football.”
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