"YOU@VE got to give it to the lads. They showed great character to come from behind, Bully's made a penalty save and we could have won it.

"It's hard to win games in this league and Merthyr played with plenty of passion, but of the eight games we have played in this league, we should now have won four of them.

"If we had got the first goal, I think we would have gone on to win comfortably.

"Snaky has had the best chance of the game in the first few minutes. He did everything right, showed good chest control to get past the defender, only to smash it wide.

"Early in the second half he missed another great chance.

"Snaky's young and there are some bits of his game you can work on, but you can't teach desire and his desire is fantastic.

"Unfortunately he had to come off and go straight to hospital with a badly dislocated or broken finger.

"Generally, though, certain players didn't perform to the level they are capable of.

"We looked a bit leggy after the Cinderford game in midweek and four of the side were struggling before the game as there is a bit of flu going round the camp.

"We were not as tight defensively as we are normally. Chris Collins is a big player for us, he's our captain, and that is why he came straight back in after injury, but he was very rusty in the first half, although he got better as te game went on.

"He's an honest lad and he held his hand up for their goal.

"Their penalty was the big moment in the game. Two nil and it would have been a mountain to climb.

"Bully has been outstanding all season and you almost expect him to save it because of the form he is in.

"We got another lift when the substitutes came on. Hally and Shez were very bright.

"There was some great link-up play to set up the chance for Shez. You'd fancy him in that position because technically he is one of our best players.

"He was unlucky to miss, but he didn't let it affect him.

"And Hally showed a bit of magic to get through them at one point and then I really thought he'd finish off his chance from the edge of the box but he didn't get any curl on it.

"Alex Stanley showed a lot of character to take our penalty.

"I thought we would go on and win it at that stage, but we still needed Bully to make another save late on."