Phil Parkinson felt his Wrexham side were punished for not killing the game off as they dropped two points with a 2-2 home draw against Cambridge.
James McClean cancelled out Elias Kachunga’s opener before Steven Fletcher looked to have grabbed the winner, only for Dan Nlundulu’s late penalty after Lewis Brunt fouled Sullay Kaikai to earn Cambridge a deserved point.
Wrexham have dropped out of League One’s top two and Parkinson feels his side need to look at why they ultimately left two points on the table at the Racecourse Ground, where their Hollywood co-owner Ryan Reynolds was watching.
He said: “We’re obviously disappointed with the first goal we conceded and how the lad’s got through on that left-hand side. It looked too easy and then I thought we responded well, it was a great goal with a brilliant finish from Jim.
“Second half, it was a fantastic bit of closing down from Ollie Rathbone, I thought he was outstanding the whole game. Once we’d gone ahead, I think we did enough to kill the game off and I think we’ve got to look at that because we’re on such a good run and done so well at home, it was almost like it’s going to take care of itself and we got punished.
“It wasn’t as if Mark (Howard) has had saves to make or we’re hanging in there at all, but when you don’t go and kill the game off, that one moment can prove costly and with the penalty decision, it looks like it was a penalty and that’s cost us two points.”
Cambridge boss Garry Monk was full of praise for the U’s and outlined slight disappointment they were not leaving with maximum rewards, but hopes the point and performance can lead to a route out of the relegation zone.
He said: “I thought they were excellent to a man, the guys that started, the guys that came on, even the ones that didn’t come on. It was a really united performance and if anything, there was a slight tinge of disappointment in the changing room that we didn’t win the game.
“We stayed focused and I thought to a tee we were excellent and to come away from home against a team like this, where they are in the league, I think it’s more proof to the players that even though we are in the bottom four, we don’t feel like we’re a bottom four team.
“If we can keep setting performances like that which we’re striving for, then we know that we’re a much better team than where we are in the league. Hopefully sooner rather than later we’ll be away from where we are in the league at this moment in time.”
