United head into a week without a midweek fixture that gives manager Paul Simpson and his coaching staff an opportunity to work hard and, just as importantly, build in some much-needed recovery time for a squad that has been pushed and stretched in recent weeks.
“Hopefully this week we can get them freshened up, back to working, back to believing again, and hope next weekend we’ve got much more energy than we showed against Crewe,” the manager said.
“We have no games planned, just training. We’re going to get some proper work into them over the course of the week.
“They’ll also have some rest days, it’s been a tough few weeks for us – not tough, that sounds wrong, it’s football – it’s been a lot of travelling, a lot of physical activity, we’ve just got to get them freshened up, working, and get some life and energy back into them.
“Those were the main things lacking at the weekend, energy and sharpness. When we’re doing well we are a real front foot team, we go and press teams, win second balls, create opportunities.
“We lacked that. We were an almost team, we just didn’t push on. During the break I told them that it was going to take one mistake for a team to win it, so make sure it’s not from us.
“We could have won or lost it, and I’m sure Crewe will say the same, so the draw was probably the fair result.”
“We’ll make the most of the week we have now,” he added. “It’s a chance to calm down, not have to do any preparation for a midweek game.
“We’ve taken five points out of the last week, if you switch it around and draw at Grimsby and win on Saturday we’re all happy as Larry. We didn’t lose, and we move onto the next one.
“You always take not losing as a positive. I think it has to be a positive, it shows the character, shows the leadership of people like Hunts and Corey, that we have marshalled it well.
“It would have been very easy for us to switch off and concede a chance at the end when it was set plays. But we stuck to our task. The big thing I’ve got to say is we can’t do anything about it now.
“It’s about how we’ll react to the next one now. We’ve managed to get our first away win last Tuesday, we now go to Hartlepool where I know we’re going have hundreds of our own supporters there, we’ve sold out of a small allocation that we’ve got.
“We’ve got to make sure we go and be better, livelier, sharper, brighter than we have been in this game at home.
“I saw that Orient had lost at home, strangely enough against Newport, who we probably should have beaten last week. I think it shows what the league’s like, it can be a bit unpredictable.”