Iron manager Graham Alexander believes a point is the least his side deserved from the 0-0 Good Friday draw at Barnsley.
His first match in charge of United, Alexander praised the effort and commitment of the squad and felt they could have picked up a win.Evidently pleased to get his tenure underway, the boss told The Iron PlayerHD: “I thought the players put everything into the game and were very motivated to win it.
“It’s frustrating that we didn’t as we had some really good opportunities in the first half which we didn’t take.
“They defended well and we had to make a change because of injury but overall I’m pleased with the effort from the lads and their commitment – I thought they were superb.
“We had to change the formation in the second half which was something we hadn’t worked on but the lads responded well to that and deserved at least a point, if not three.”
APPLAUSE: Graham Alexander thanked the fans for their backing at Oakwell at full-time.
The stalemate extends the club’s unbeaten run to seven League One games, six of which have been draws.
That is something that Alexander insisted needs to be improved on but he was however happy to see the side register a hard earned clean sheet.
“I know there are good players in this squad,” he continued.
“You’re always looking for improvement at whatever level and that’s what the job is now.
“We need to work on the little things we can improve on to turn those draws into wins.
“The clean sheet is down to the whole team because the work rate of everybody was superb, especially considering the run of form Barnsley have been on.
“They’re a very good team with a lot of good players and we’ve come here and kept them relatively quiet apart from one set piece where the lad had a clear header.
“You always have to take the positives and there were a lot from today.”
The aforementioned injury concerned midfield man Jim O’Brien, who was forced to leave the field after picking up a strain late on in the opening period.
Issuing an update on that as well as a couple of names missing from the matchday line-up, Alexander continued: “He (O’Brien) strained his groin a bit just before half-time and wanted to give it a go in the second half but had to go off.
“That was unfortunate for Jim because I thought he was having a good game.
“Neal Bishop and Kyle Wootton also pulled out of training in the last couple of days with slight injuries so they were unavailable but we’ll see if we’ve got them for the start of next week.”
See much more from Graham Alexander, Murray Wallace and Luke Daniels on The Iron PlayerHD.
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