Town manager Richie Barker spoke to BBC Radio Sussex after his side's 1-1 League One draw against Carlisle at Brunton Park, Barker thinking the game had had 0-0 written all over it:
“I thought in the first-half there probably wasn’t a great deal to write home about. There wasn’t much of an atmosphere, there weren’t too many clear-cut chances, and I would have to say that I thought for a while it had probably got 0-0 written all over it. Which would we have taken it, it is a point away from home and it wouldn’t have helped with the goal mindset, but obviously we have put that right with a goal and a point. I said last week that we hadn’t turned the corner but we were in the corner, and I think we are further into turning the corner now.
“We have given a team step up with the penalty and without being disrespectful to Carlisle as they are very organised and Graham Kavanagh is going to be a very good manager, but I just couldn’t see them breaking us down. I thought we handled what we highlighted was going to be a problem, we handled that reasonably well and I thought if anyone was going to score it was going to be us. Then unfortunately a mistake, a poor decision from Joe Walsh really has cost us.
“Joe didn’t have too many arguments with the penalty, but do you know what, I thought Joe did OK apart from that. I thought his overall game was decent and he is learning and he has come a long way in a short time. But, yet again defensive errors have pretty much cost us six points in the last month or so. But, on a positive, the players stuck at it, a fantastic attitude and I thought it was the least we deserved.
“The reason I was allowed to make the triple substitution was again, because I didn’t really ever see them breaking us down. So, I could be a little bit more positive because I thought that the back four were actually handling it quite well and we didn’t really need that protection. Yes, they have got some good players in midfield but I just felt that for half an hour, make them worry about us. A bit like when we are home and we are winning and teams do it to us, so make them worry about us and I would have to say that I thought the three lads who came on were excellent."
“I think they probably wanted to just hold onto the 1-0 lead and that is what their aim was. On another day they possibly could have but I thought firstly, the fact I was positive and made those substitutions and that is two in a row now in a week, so I will say it before anybody else does. But, no, I thought the fact that the players kept believing, and there was a real belief out there, they did generally believe they were going to get something out of it. So, we have got to take a lot of positives from that.
“Bits of luck like our goal can go the other way as well, obviously when we saw this little issue we got ourselves in it came from Joe Walsh’s back pass at Port Vale. Not that I am for one minute blaming Joe Walsh for the next month that happened but we talk about on little things can mindsets change. It can easily go the other way as well, players can be extremely fragile mentally and it is amazing what can change their mindsets. So, I just said to the players there, a win last week and a draw today, if we look at the real positives that is two unbeaten in two away games as well. So, we will take as many positives as we can.
“Billy Clarke is one of those who is just a goalscorer and he has just got that sort of almost selfish ability to go and do that late on really. Obviously, we look back now, the goalkeeper [Ben Amos] could have easily just gobbled that up and we would have said what a poor decision. But, I have said before, if we don’t shoot then we don’t score and he has certainly got that mentality.
“Nicky Adams was left out as he just didn’t feel well and he had not slept very well and to be fair to him he said he didn’t know if he would bring anything to the team particularly. So, it was extremely honest of him having spent three days in Carlisle, but that is the kind of person he is, he puts people before himself. Obviously, I won’t say who played instead of him but I felt I had an ample replacement.
“Overall I think today was an away point, and we have not had a great couple of weeks but under normal circumstances if we had come away and got a point then I think everybody would have thought it was a good result. So, we have had a bit of a bad time, before that we had a great time and it happens. Over 46 games no-one is going to have it their own way all the way through. There is a big corner for us to turn but back to back games away from home without getting beat is a real starting point.”