Graham Coughlan | "I think we should have won it..."

Manager Graham Coughlan was left feeling frustrated after his side were held to a 1-1 draw against Grimsby Town on Saturday afternoon.

Omar Bogle gave the Exiles an early second-half lead before Danny Rose cancelled out the forward's strike just five minutes later. 

“We’re incredibly frustrated,” said Coughlan.

“I think we deserved to win it and should have won it if I’m being honest, but a lack of a clean sheet let us down. 

“It’s not normal from our boys but it’s a soft goal and that’s three points we’ve lost once again. I stood in front of the cameras last week and felt we chucked away three points or should have at least gotten a point, but today we should have got all three. 

“We can’t keep giving points away regularly and I’ve got to stop that as a manager. We have to address that. Yes, we were the better team, yes we had the better chances and yes we were the better team, but we’ve chucked it away. 

“I’d expect us to manage the game better. We’ve played about 30 odd games now and we’ve only managed four, five, six clean sheets, whatever it is. If we want to win games in League Two you’ve got to keep clean sheets.

“Likewise, we’ve created so many good chances and we need to take them too.” 

Will Evans made his return from injury as a second-half substitute and Coughlan provided an update on his recovery. 

“I don’t know how close he was to starting but I think the best we could get out of him would be around half an hour,” added Coughlan. 

“You’re always running the risk then of any contact on the ankle in the second half and that it could put him back another week, so it was a big risk for us. 

“I wanted Will on the pitch in the end. He’s our talisman, he leads the line really well and he gives us that real energy up top.”

Watch Graham Coughlan's full post-match press conference HERE.