Keeper Mark Gillespie on his man of the match performance at Crewe
Keeper Mark Gillespie came away from the Alexandra Stadium on Saturday with the man-of-the-match vote from the terraces as almost 1,400 United fans watched him defend his lines through an all-action ending to the game.We spoke to him about it shortly after full time.
“You could probably say it was a game of two halves,” he said. “I think we were always in it and if we’d seen it out to half time we’d have probably have taken all three points.
“We had some good chances just after we scored, and that would obviously have made a difference, but credit to Crewe because they came back out with their tails up in the second half and they put us under a bit of pressure at times.
“They had a few scrambles, and stuff like that, but we managed to take the point. We always say that if you don’t win the game you make sure you get a draw and we’ve been quite good at doing that this season. We come away feeling happy.”
“It was one of those days where you could see both sides were up for it,” he added. “Both teams looked a threat going forward and we had the foothold once we got our goal. That’s why we’re a bit disappointed that we didn’t kill them off, or at least see it through to half time.
“The lad hit a decent free kick, to be fair to him, so we have to take the positives from the result, particularly with it being away from home. He did strike it well but I’m disappointed because I don’t like conceding goals at any time.
“I got my fingertips to it to try and point it onto the post, but it didn’t quite happen, and that’s just one of those things. I made a few saves in the second half and that helped us to get the draw. We have to take credit for the fact we’ve only lost one league game this season. Hopefully we’ll keep that going as well.”
Speaking about his action packed closing ten minutes, he said: “As I say, I did have a few saves to make. I blocked a couple at the near post and the lads defended really well, and they were brave whenever the ball came into the box.
“We could have nicked it at the end on the counter-attack as well so I’m always happy to contribute to a positive result. I’ll always be annoyed if I don’t keep a clean sheet but I’ll also always look at the positives.
“The main thing is the confidence is there in the dressing room and that’s because we keep picking points up. We’ll go to Notts County looking to win the game and, if we do that, we’ll be in a really strong position.”
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