Alan Irvine was disappointed not to have taken the three points when he spoke after the goalless draw with Nigel Clough's Derby County. The North End boss felt his side had created enough opportunities to win the game.
"I think we had plenty of chances, albeit Derby had opportunities on the counter-attack as the game went on," he told PNE Player. "I thought they started the game very well, but after the first 15 or 20 minutes we started to get on the front foot and in the second half we started the half very well and that was probably reflected by Nigel making a couple of changes.
"I didn't feel as though we needed to change anything, because we were on the front foot. We were creating some chances and we had good enough chances to have won the game.
"At half-time I said I felt we needed to be braver and take the ball more. We weren't taking enough responsibility as individuals and I felt as though we needed to be a bit more progressive with our play. We needed to get players making more forward runs and players into positions where they would be difficult to pick up and I thought they were better in the second half.
"We started the second half really well and then we were affected by the bits and pieces that disrupted the game - a couple of injuries and incidents that took a long time to get sorted out. The game became a bit disjointed, but then when we got back into the flow of things we were a real threat going forward. Having said that, Derby were a threat on the counter and we could have conceded as well, but there is no doubt that we had the lion's share of possession and the lion's share of the pressure."
Looking back to the first half, Irvine felt his side rode their luck early on with a strong Derby penalty shout, but admitted that he felt Ross Wallace could have given PNE the lead.
"I thought it was a penalty. I have not watched it again, but at the time I thought the referee had given it; I didn't realise he had given a goal kick. I was obviously relieved that it wasn't given and it seemed to provide the spark to getting us playing.
"I've still to see whether Ross had a better option on than going for goal with his chance; my feeling at the moment is that he did. The free kick was a terrific effort and it was unfortunate that it didn't go in. When it went over the wall I thought it was going to be very close and of course, it was."
And late on it looked as though his skipper had a chance to win it only for the woodwork to again prevent North End gaining all the points: "It was a brilliant pass from Ross to a very good run and Callum was unfortunate, because it wasn't even as if it hit the outside of the post, from the angle he was going in at, it hit the inside of the post and I was thinking it was going in, but unfortunately it came out and fell to them rather than to us and we had plenty of players in and around it at that time."
Davidson could have left the field before this chance, with an injury, but it was the other full back who was forced off in a bruising encounter where the visitors were lucky to end the game with ten men: "Neil Mellor got a whack, which he is okay about. There was a bit of a problem when Callum Davidson had very tight groins and we were thinking about putting Ross Wallace at left back and putting Paul Parry on the wing as we wanted the three points, but Callum kept on going through it and that stopped me making a decision about other substitutions for a while.
"At the time Callum was struggling we lost Billy Jones, who has twisted his ankle. He will have that x-rayed tomorrow, to check there is no damage there and hopefully there won't be."
Looking ahead to the weekend, Irvine wants his side to take the game to the visitors: "It is another big game and a very important game and one where we are going to have to really be forceful and very much on the front foot, because I would have thought Plymouth would come here and make it extremely difficult for us."
