Dan Butler says his overriding feeling to the dramatic 3-3 draw with Macclesfield Town is “disappointment” despite the fact he got his second goal of the campaign during the game at Rodney Parade.
Butler, who won the sponsors and fans man of the match awards for his performance during the contest, got County’s first on the night but they were already two-nil down at that point after a header from Fiacre Kelleher and a penalty from David Fitzpatrick.
When Butler's reply did arrive, it was a move straight from the training ground, something Butler admitted post-match had been worked on in training for weeks, and the Exiles then drew level with a penalty of their own on the hour from Mickey Demetriou.
Fitzpatrick converted the games third penalty with eight minutes remaining to seemingly give Macclesfield their inaugural League Two triumph, but County grabbed a dramatic late equaliser when Jamille Matt made it five from three games with a header from the final play of the game.
That gave County a deserved point at Rodney Parade and here, you can read what Butler exclusively told iFollow Exiles upon the conclusion of the game…
On the dramatic draw with Macclesfield Town…
"The last emotion I felt in the game was obviously happiness because we managed to bring it back to 3-3. But the overall emotion is disappointment because I think we did enough in the last 70 minutes of the game to win it.
"We just had a bad start again today and it has let us down. We’ve addressed these slow starts to games a lot, we’ve spoken about them, made sure the tempo of the warm-up was right and it’s just one of those things.
"It’s happened again, we have to make sure that come Saturday against Forest Green it doesn’t happen again because sooner rather than later we won’t get away with it and we won’t come away with any points.
"Of course we’re happy to have got the point at the end. The team spirit in the changing room is massive, it has pulled us through a lot of times already this season like tonight, but we can’t start games like that."
On the goals scored by County at Rodney Parade…
"Yes we have worked on that particular move before my goal. It’s never come off like that before, but it is something we’ve tried to do and thankfully it went in on this occasion.
"We work on set-pieces a lot, both defensively and attacking wise, it’s always nice when they come off but it means we have to go back to the drawing board and think of some others now.
"Mickey is feeling exactly the same as me tonight, we’ve had a chat, and both said it’s nice to score being defenders, but we want the three points. If we don’t get the three points but score, we’re not really happy if we're being honest.
"Jamille Matt is a handful. The last two games, especially Saturday but tonight as well at times, he was unplayable. He’s saved us tonight so we’re grateful to him for his performance."
On the goals conceded by County at Rodney Parade…
"We’ve conceded two penalties tonight, I don’t think my foul was a penalty but regardless of that, it shouldn’t happen and that’s something I’ll need to look at.
"And then we’ve conceded from a set-piece, we work a lot on set-pieces, so that shouldn’t be happening either.
"We’ve got a couple of days now to work on things ahead of Saturday’s trip to Forest Green to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
"Apart from the goals we conceded, we played some really good football and created a lot of chances. I think Macclesfield cleared three off the goal line, one may have even gone in, so our attacking game was really good tonight. There’s obviously things to work on defensively but I’m sure we can sort it."
On the trip to unbeaten Forest Green Rovers on Saturday…
"It gives us no further motivation [that Forest Green Rovers are the only unbeaten side left in League Two.]
"We want to win every single game no matter who it is against, what their record is, so motivation will be high just like every other game and we’ll go there trying to get the three points.
"Forest Green are a very good footballing team. They obviously have to be hard to beat because they haven’t lost in League Two this season and I expect them to probably be well drilled as well.
"It’s going to be tough like every game in this league but the next three days we will be working on it and coming up with a game plan to win.
"I can’t speak highly enough of the crowd, the last two games at home they have been brilliant and pulled us through, so hopefully a lot of them will travel to Forest Green. I want to thank them for their support and hopefully we’ll give them a good game and result on Saturday."
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