Paul Gallagher admitted he had never seen much like the conclusion of tonight’s game in his 16 years of playing after North End played out an entertaining 3-3 draw against Aston Villa.
In the last five minutes alone, there was a goal apiece for either side and a penalty save from Chris Maxwell in the dying seconds to give North End a crucial point away at Villa Park.
Speaking after the game, Gallagher admitted the mood was mixed in the changing room after North End led the game 3-2 late on, but the No. 12 believes the positives outweigh the negatives at this moment in time.
“That last 20 minutes was unbelievable,” said Gallagher to iFollowPNE post-match.
“I said in the changing room to the lads at the end of the game that we have to take some positives out of that. We showed great character second half - even when they had 11 men in the second half - we started moving the ball a lot quicker and we had plenty of opportunities to score.
“It’s those fine margins however, and we have to see these games out and on another day we win that game 3-2. We played very well second half coming to a place like Aston Villa and we can take heart from that.”
North End found themselves two down at the break, and manager Alex Neil spoke about having more belief in his post-match interview with iFollow second half, and Gally was in agreement that North End need to show more belief as a team for the whole game.
“We have to believe as we’re a good team,” he continued. “Coming here and being fearful is no way forward. We’ve come here to win the game and we’ve set up to win the game.
“We’re a young team, the second youngest in the league but we still have to show belief and come to a team like Aston Villa and get a point. We’re disappointed as we could have come away with three points, but when you look at it we could have lost it and it’s took a great penalty save from Maxi but we have to look up to Saturday now and try and get three points.
“We’ve got to get back to being hard to play against,” added Gally. "We’re working hard for each other and if we do that we give ourselves a chance in the game to go on and win it, but If you’re conceding goals every game then it’s going to be difficult.
“We have to try and keep clean sheets but we’ve showed good team spirit, coming to a place like Villa Park and sticking your chest out and dominating the second half and we deserved to win it, but ultimately it wasn’t to be but we have to keep our chin up and stay positive.”
The experienced pro also had words for the fans after the game with 397 making the journey to Villa Park tonight, and Gally had nothing put praise for the PNE faithful.
“The fans were brilliant tonight,” continued Gally. “They’ve come here and stuck with us and they want to see you playing with passion and with pride and I felt they saw that with how we played, we’re just gutted we couldn’t send them home happy with all three points.”
Watch Gally's full interview on iFollowPNE now.