Petersfield Town co-managers Connor Hoare and Callum Glen admitted they were gutted after the Rams conceded a stoppage-time equaliser to draw 1-1 at home to Roffey in the Southern Combination Football League Premier Division on Saturday.
Liam Kimber gave the Rams the lead in the 69th minute, but Jordan Mase’s 94th-minute equaliser meant the points were shared in front of a crowd of 168 at Love Lane.
The draw kept Petersfield in third place in the Southern Combination Football League Premier Division table – four points ahead of Roffey.
Despite his disappointment at conceding the late equaliser, Hoare was delighted with his side’s performance.
“I thought the performance was really good,” said Hoare.
“From the first minute all the way until the counter-attack they've hit us on and scored from I thought we were superb.
“We more than deserved three points. Roffey will be absolutely delighted that they've come away with a point.
“It does feel a bit like two points dropped but the performance was really good.
“I can't ask for much more than that but we need to be at that level every second of every game because you can get punished if you switch off for even a second.
“There were a lot of positives. I thought we controlled the game and were really fluid and dominant.
“I don't remember Roffey having a spell longer than two or three minutes in our half. It felt like we were in their half for a lot of the game, so there are a lot of positives.
“It is quite a bitter pill to swallow – conceding so late is always such a gut punch.”
Glen admitted his side could have managed the game better in stoppage time, with the Rams pushing for a second goal and being hit on the counter-attack for Roffey’s equaliser.
“We've got a young side,” said Glen. “We made all our substitutions to try to win the game and in the end it probably cost us.
“We gave the ball away and were susceptible to a counter-attack which is difficult but we've got to learn from it.
“It's a little bit frustrating. I don't feel we could have done much more but we have to take the point and move on.
“It feels like a loss. Rather than two points dropped it feels like we've lost all the points, but it's another game unbeaten.”
The Rams pressed Roffey throughout the 90 minutes, and Hoare insists that intensity is the result of hard work at training.
“We work on pressing relentlessly,” said Hoare.
“Last Thursday night we had a two-hour session with the lads – it was two hours' worth of high intensity pressing, reaction pressing and making sure the boys recognise that every time they are with us that's the mindset and the mentality they have.
“Our pressing puts a lot of fear into teams – it panics a lot of teams and you have to be mentally strong as a team to continue to play and try to break pressure when a team are that aggressive on you.
“It's a style of football that excites us – we love coaching it.
“All the time we're in management I don't see us changing because that's what we always wanted to be as players and how we've always wanted our teams to play.”
Petersfield have a break this weekend before facing a home game against Wessex League Premier Division outfit United Services Portsmouth in the second round of the Portsmouth Senior Cup on Tuesday, November 12 (7.45pm kick-off), and Hoare thinks the break comes at a good time for his side.
“We know United Services quite well from the Wessex League days,” said Hoare.
“I think the break might be quite good for us – when you suffer something so gutting to have a bit of time away to forget about it and then having a cup game could be good for us.
“We'll go into that game with full respect for United Services. We'll be bang on that fully rested and we expect the boys to put in an intense, aggressive performance and try to dominate the game and progress.”