Joe Ironside’s early second-half penalty proved decisive, as United were made to rue missed chances at Moss Ross.
Hurst said: “My initial thought is anger, because I don’t think you get too many better chances to win a game of football. We need that ruthless streak about us and I still don’t think we really did enough or recognised that it (the opportunity) was there. In the end, because of that, if you don’t score you leave yourselves open. They won the penalty and got the all-important goal.
“I don’t think we warranted losing the game, but we have – particularly as we didn’t score a goal in that first period when we were well on top. It was 20 attempts at goal today and to not get any return from that is extremely disappointing. We couldn’t even get a goal to at least take something from the game.
“We should have won that match, there’s no doubt about that, but the record books and table doesn’t look at how you lose the game, and should have scored, it reflects the result and another one that wasn’t in our favour.
“There were instances where we put some great balls in and didn’t even register an attempt at goal – particularly a ball in from Regan (Slater) where the ball drifted out to the back post and it looked like a tap in.”
Talking about the debut of George Miller, he continued: “He started well and they changed slightly in terms of defending a bit deeper in the second-half so there wasn’t much space to run into. They then probably tired a little bit, but he did look like someone who could score goals in terms of a few positions he found himself in and there was an overhead kick, as well as one where he didn’t quite connect properly, and then the one where he got down the side and hit the bar.”
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