Hereford United manager Jamie Pitman cut a frustrated figure after seeing his side squander a first-half lead to draw with promotion-chasing Cheltenham at Edgar Street.
Veteran striker Delroy Facey had put the Bulls in front, only for Cheltenham to claw themselves back level in the second-half and Pitman admitted it was a game of two halves.
He said: “I thought we were the better side in the first-half and I think they were probably the better side in the second-half.
“In this league you can defend and defend and get away with it and then you will always get a chance.
“We have seen Tom Barkhuizen this year and you would bank on him to finish that chance.
“You think then that maybe our luck wasn’t quite with us but I couldn’t ask any more of the players, I thought they were fantastic throughout the game.”
Despite the draw, Pitman insists there are positives to take from the match and praised his side’s work-rate, after drawing inspiration from the Bulls side that beat Newcastle United in the FA Cup 40 years ago.
The Bulls boss said: “We always take the positives, we also look at the negatives but you have got to take those negatives to be positives.
“The people that were here, the team from 40 years ago and, when I listened to them, they said they were just an average bunch of people who worked hard.
“I said to the players that everybody here at this football club just wants you to work hard.
“I thought, throughout, every single one of them really did work hard.
“I always feel that anyway but I thought they were particularly exceptional in their work-rate this time.”
Pitman also spoke his disappointment for defender Benoit Dalibard, who suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury.
The manager said: “It’s disappointing. We’ve got two or three left backs here and they keep getting injured.
“It’s frustrating because we had worked with the lads in the week on defending and I thought they did ever so well.
“Then Benoit gets injured which is frustrating for him and very frustrating for us.
“But, luckily, we have Simon Clist back in and Rob Purdie can obviously fill in there, so there’s a number of options we can use.
“Hopefully, Stefan Stam will also be joining us again this week.”
A point against one of the league’s leading lights will be considered a good result for Hereford, even if the result extends their winless streak to three games.
The Bulls were due to visit Aldershot Town last night before hosting promotion-chasing Swindon on Saturday, as they bid to pull away from the bottom of the League Two table.
Before Tuesday night’s fixtures, the Bulls had a four point buffer from the bottom two and immediate danger of relegation.