Gainsborough Trinity head-coach Russ Wilcox was disappointed after his team conceded a late equaliser against Stocksbridge Park Steels on Saturday, but remained optimistic over the season as a whole.
The Holy Blues went into the weekend as huge favourites against Stocksbridge, with three points required to help push them on and close the gap between them and fifth place Warrington Rylands.
However, a stunning strike from Australian midfielder O’Connor cancelled out Sisa Tuntulwana’s opener late on and the game ended 1-1.
On how he felt after the game, Russ Wilcox said: “Yeah, I mean a home draw’s always disappointing.
“We’ve had good draws this season where we’ve been behind in the last minute, so it goes both ways.
“Credit to them, if they keep that squad together, keep that intensity and keep that togetherness that they’ve got I reckon they’ll stay up this year.”
The visitors equalised with just three minutes to go after registering just three shots on target all game. When asked if the timing of the goal made the draw a tougher pill to swallow, Wilcox said: “Every goal you concede is disappointing, I thought we’d done enough to get the three points across the line.
“It still would’ve been a disappointing performance, but you get four/ five games like that where you look back on at the back end of the season and say glad we got the win in that one.”
Charlie Parks came in today for the injured Adam Crookes, earning Man of the Match and impressing his manager who said: “Yeah he did well, an outstanding performance.
“Adam Crookes was a big loss but it is what it is, you’re going to get injuries and suspensions over the course of a season.”
It’s now two home games in a row for Trinity, the first of which being a clash against Leek Town on Tuesday.
When asked if anything needs to change between Saturday’s game and then, Wilcox said: “We need to get three points, you can change personnel, but the main thing is to win games.
“We’ve had an outstanding season and we aren’t even halfway through yet.
“It’s very easy sometimes to swing it negatively but I’m a glass half full guy so I think we will gather together and go again Tuesday.”