Manager Post Airdrieonians

26/09/15: AJ - "We have got to win games like this at home. Even though we played on Tuesday night we still had enough quality there to win the game.

- - Listen to these Allan Johnston comments

Allan Johnston had to settle for just one league point after his team ended up 1-1 against Airdrieonians on Saturday. Speaking to the media after the game he said:-

"You are always disappointed when you don't win at home. It makes it really hard when you lose the first goal and to be fair we should have defended it a lot better. I think we had three defenders back and they had one striker who managed to get his shot away. We will learn from that.

"Credit to the players for the way they came back, they had been taken to extra time on Tuesday night (v Dundee United) but they kept on going and it was only a matter of time before we got a goal. We just have to be a little more clinical because we had other chances.

"It is hard when teams have virtually got their whole team sitting in front of their box. It is really difficult to break them down but there were a lot of good balls going in there. We had a few shots on target and a few chances that we should probably have done better with.

"That happens in games but the main thing is the way the players responded to that at half time. They knew that they had dropped the tempo in the first half but they upped the tempo and you saw the difference in the second half.

"They are really disappointed that they never won the game. The first goal is massive in this league because if you lose the first one they can sit in and make it really really difficult. You could see the players coming off at the end, especially the away players, I don't think they could have given anymore.

"Our players kept on going and on another day we would have got the goals. We have to make sure that we do not put ourselves in that position by defending better first and foremost."

Michael Moffat's introduction off the bench made a difference and it was the former Ayr striker who scored the equaliser but the Pars manager admitted that his choices were pretty limited:-

"To be fair we never had many options either. We had David Hopkirk injured (kick on ankle), Michael Paton is injured (went over on ankle) and they have been big players for us this year. At the end of the day the players who were there were more than capable of winning the game. That is definitely not an excuse, you saw in the second half, once they started playing you could see the quality that we have got."

With Ryan Williamson, Callum Fordyce and Shaun Rooney already sidelined the manager could have done without another injury but Josh Falkingham was forced off just seven minutes into the second half.

"Josh got a knock on his back and we will have to wait and see how he is. He was struggling as it tightened up. The best thing was just to get him off since he could not continue any longer.

"We have got to win games like this at home. Even though we played on Tuesday night we still had enough quality there to win the game. You are not going to win every game but credit to the players for keeping on going. They looked a lot more likely to score a second goal.

"That was Marc McAusland's first game of the season. He has not played in any pre season games either so I am sure that he will be tired. It will take him a wee bit of time to know us but I am sure that he will do well."

- - Listen to Airdrieonians manager Gary Bollan's views

Related Stories

• Dunfermline 1 Airdrieonians 1
• Preview Airdrieonians
• Manager on signing Marc McAusland
• Manager on Thursday