The Fleet maintained their manager’s approval for their start to the season once more but Daryl McMahon declared himself frustrated not to have all three points on the board after Gateshead managed to keep the scoreline goalless this afternoon.
“I thought we should have won. I thought it was our best performance of 90 minutes of the season so far,” McMahon told BBC Radio Kent’s Matt Cole. “I don’t know if they had a shot on target or even got in a situation to score a goal so I was pleased with the defending. Going the other way, we looked good and so many great opportunities in the final third that we rushed or made a bad decision on.”
The Fleet boss was left to rue the lack of a killer touch and feels it has deprived his side of extra points in their first month back in the National League. “It’s 100% frustrating, it’s frustrating to the players as well,” McMahon said, “because we’ve been in situations two goals behind from starting sloppy and got back which is a point gained. But situations like Guiseley where we should have won, today we should have won and probably even the second half at Maidenhead we had two or three really good opportunities that we didn’t capitalise on. So that’s three out of the five [draws] that we could have nicked but the step up [to the National League] I think we’ve handled well.
“We’d done so well to get into so many great attacking situations and not taken advantage of them when we should have and it’s been the story of our season so far. We’ve had five draws – we could have easily won at least two of them from better finishing. Gateshead have had two Top 10 finishes last two seasons. Neil [Aspin] said after the game that we should have won. But you’ve got to take your chances when you’re on top. But we’re a team that will evolve as the season goes on.”
And McMahon had words of praise for both ends of his Fleet side, with Darren McQueen and debutant Chris Bush (pictured) earning some plaudits.
“I thought Darren was terrific today, his best performance of the season,” McMahon said. “His movement was probably the best since he’s been at the club, he was always an outlet, always getting in between people and he defended really well in the sense of blocking people.
“And I thought [Chris Bush] was terrific. He settled in, he hasn’t trained with us and came straight into the team, so he literally met everyone today but we’ve kept our second clean sheet of the season off the back of it.”
Listen to the full interview below.
https://soundcloud.com/eufcofficial/daryl-after-gateshead
