Take the Positives, says Courtney
Courtney Pitt admitted he is "gutted" to miss out on the third round of the FA Cup after Saturday's defeat, especially after what he feels was a much improved performance.
Two first half goals by York, including a soft penalty for Richard Brodie, gave the visitors a lead to defend and although Anthony Tonkin's excellent first goal for the U's closed the gap in the last ten minutes United were unable to make their pressure tell.
"We felt that the York players were going to ground very easily and we told the referee that, but that can be no excuse - we lost the match and have to hold our hands up and accept the responsibility," said United's 'man of the match'.
"We have now given the opposition a two-goal lead in the last three games and that's hard to keep coming back from. I thought we actually played better today than we have in the last two games when we did pull the result back.
"Except for the ten minutes around when they got their goals I thought we dominated the game and the result just doesn't reflect our performance today."
Tonkin's strike gave rise to hopes that United might just pull off a third successive comeback from 2-0 down.
Holroyd headed over, McAuley and Pitt had shots saved and a stoppage time goal was disallowed for pushing before the curtain dropped on this year's FA Cup campaign.
"The second half in particular we pressed them back and back but they threw men behind the ball and got someone behind every attempt we had," confirmed Pitt. "It took something special from Anthony Tonkin to break that level of defence.
"We're all gutted not to be in the third round draw but if we can take a positive from the game it's that if we continue to repeat that level of performance then we will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season."
Interview by David Gray
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