Dave Hodgson, who was speaking exclusively to Darlington's official website www.darlington-fc.net, bemoaned the state of the pitch and the bad refereeing in the Boxing Day draw with United :
"After the warm up I could see there was a little bit of a concern on the player's faces in reference to the surface," said Hodgson.
"You saw when Michael Bridges went to hit one ball it wasn't even there for one second. It was very heavy and very bobbly so we knew we would be limited in what football we could play.
"We basically had to get through to half time and see if we could deal with it and make changes and get our height on that we had on the bench. In saying that we've come away with a point and we've got to be grateful for that."
On the subject of the dire refeering performance of Mike Lewis, Hodgson commented :
"I had a laugh at him come the end there. I said 'you might have been better coming out with a blue shirt on as opposed to a green one'. That was only a bit of fun but there were a lot of decisions today, especially the penalty, which I found strange.
"There was one incredible one where the boy was blatantly offside and he ignored his linesman and we gained nothing from it. The guy has probably had a hard Christmas day and he is struggling like everyone else to get it out of his system."
Talking about the first-half injury to Joey Hutchinson the Darlington manager said :
"It looks like a cruciate on the other knee. I am hoping not but it could well be. Stampy (Phil Stamp) went down with a virus and Ryan (Valentine) was suspended and all the things like that try to stop us from putting out the same side. Shelton (Martis) stepped in and did a very good job."