Gary Owers was pleased with the progression he saw from his side in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against FC Halifax Town at the Shay.
United conceded in the 68th minute, but hit back through Jamie Reid seven minutes later. A point could have easily been three if United had been a little more ruthless in front of goal.
“I was first of all very pleased with the performance,” said Owers after the final whistle. “that’s the best performance I have seen from the team since since I got here, and that includes the victory over Maidenhead. I thought we started the game really positively, always took the game to them, looked a threat. Again, if we can just find that killer instinct we could have been out of sight today, but we weren’t.
“They went into the lead against the run of play and we had to recover from that, regroup, and we did that and got a goal from a well-worked set play. [There were] opportunities there to nick it maybe.
United changed to a 3-4-1-2 formation with the aim of getting two strikers up front.
“We’ve looked at trying to get two strikers at the top of the pitch and certain individuals like Josh McQuoid in areas of the pitch where he can do damage – I thought he was a constant threat. The lads have taken it on board. I made my mind up at the end of the game last week and we’ve been working on it during the week. They [Halifax] had to change the way they played – we were murdering them. They had to change the way they were playing a couple of times to cope with us.
“We had dominated the game and fallen a goal behind. I wasn’t going to sit there and watch the game peter out, I was going to change it. Actually I was going to go to a 4-4-2, we got the goal and i made one change. We were well worth the point today.”
Despite being pleased with the overall performance, Owers was not pleased with how United played in the last few minutes of the match.
“I just spoken to the players. In the last minute, or the last minute and a half, when there is a point on offer for us we made five mistakes and ended up having to defend a corner. We’re still learning.”
United moved off the bottom of the National League due to a superior goal difference over Solihull Moors.
“That’s progress, we;ve moved off the bottom. We’re trying to catch the next team now. A little bit more of a positive vibe in the dressing room. The lads have worked hard this week and I think they’re starting to ‘get’ me and Martin to some degree. They know what we want and let’s hope it’s not another false dawn.”