WAYNE Goodison admits 1874 Northwich can improve on their performance in yesterday’s FA Cup encounter with Northwich Victoria.

However he insisted too that his players deserve credit for their resilience after Paul Connor’s first-half dismissal left them with 10 men for the entire second period of an absorbing 2-2 draw.

The rivals will meet again for a replay on Tuesday.

“We were 2-0 up so it’s natural to feel disappointed,” reflected the co-manager.

“We didn’t play how we can, save for spells here and there.

“But in the end we played for close to an hour a man down, and when you’re digging in it’s harder to express yourselves.

“Still, we created plenty of chances and their goalkeeper has made more saves than ours did.

“It’s important that our finishing is sharper though, because that could have put us out of their reach inside the first quarter of an hour.”

Paul Connor was shown a red card by referee Kristian Silcock in the moments before half-time as punishment for his part in a tangle with Sam Marshall.

The match official chose not to take any action against the Vics player after consulting with a linesman.

“I didn’t see it,” admitted Goodison.

“The ref has told us that he saw Paul change direction to come down on their lad on purpose.

“He admitted he hadn’t seen what the Northwich player had done first, which is why he spoke to the linesman.

“We filmed the game, and the incident happened right in front of us, so we’ll take a look at that.

“We’ve reinforced to the players though that we won’t be standing for silly disciplinary breaches.”

Scott McGowan had converted a first-half penalty, after full-back Daniel McDonnell had hauled by Taylor Kennerley inside the area, before doubling his personal tally after an hour.

1874 were stronger after the interval, and might have added to their tally before Brian Matthews made it 2-1.

Jordan Cobley then levelled with his first contribution after coming on as a substitute to force a replay.

Goodison said: “They let us settle after half-time, which surprised me.

“Perhaps they felt they could hurt us later if they held on a 1-0, but once we’d scored again it was easy for them to take a risk.

“The timing of their first goal was important; if we could have held out for 10 minutes longer then they may have lost heart.

“You have to be fair though; they came back strongly in the end and made the most of a numerical advantage when they committed an extra man forward.”