FOOTBALL: MOORS boss Mark Yates left Macclesfield with mixed feelings after seeing his side earn a crucial point against the league leaders.
While Yates was delighted to earn a point, he admitted his men were disappointed not to score a goal before half time – a period of play in which Moors dominated.
The result means Moors are still seven points short of safety in 21st place, but a haul of eight points from their last five games has injected plenty of hope into Yates’ side.
He said: “We were the better team in the first half, but they showed in the second half why they’re up there and pegged us back.
“I’m delighted with the point.
“We were disappointed at half time not to come in with a goal.
“We had a couple of good chances and we could’ve done better on a couple of occasions.
“In the second half, we didn’t really get going and sometimes you’ve got to give credit to your opposition.
“You realise why they’re top of the table because they’ve got good players, they look after the ball but I’m really pleased with the effort that my players are putting in every day.”
Despite not hitting the heights of their first half display, Yates didn’t feel Macclesfield caused too many problems.
“They (Macclesfield) are good on the training ground and they’ve done really well today,” said Yates.
“Their ‘keeper has kept them in it first half and made a couple of good saves.
“Max (O’Leary) has made a couple of good ones second half, so it’s a pleasing point.
“I’ve been here 11 games and the most we’ve conceded in a game is one. So something is going right.
“We need to keep working at it, keep trying to improve everything but we’re giving ourselves a chance of trying to make this a great escape.”
The hosts began the day six points clear at the top of the table as well as being on a run of ten unbeaten – Yates took pride from the fact that his players took the game to their opponents.
“They keep the ball, they got some width in the game and tried to change it, but we dealt with most of it.
“A couple of shots, there weren’t too many scrambles – but we did exactly the same in the first half.
“We were the most likely looking to score.
“We were strong, determined and we were dominating play to be fair at times.”
