INTERIM boss Craig Jones admits it was a relief for all that Worcester City rescued a late point at Tividale at the weekend in his first competitive match in charge.

Sean Brain converted a 94th minute penalty to cancel out Tivi’s seventh minute opener as they restarted their Midland Football League Premier Division campaign with a deserved point.

City had a goal disallowed earlier in the second half and also had to play the final 10 minutes a man down after Nat Kelly’s red card but Jones was impressed with his team’s attitude to bounce back.

“It was relief as much as anything,” he said.

“We have come through a fair bit of adversity in the last couple of weeks let alone the 90 minutes on Saturday.

“The boys showed great resilience and desire, a want to not give up and take something from the game and the boys did that at the end.

“We have seen at times this year where we have conceded a goal or come across some adversity in the game and we’ve gone on to concede another goal or concede more chances whereas Saturday we shut up shop, didn’t concede and got back into the game.”

Jones was less than pleased with the disallowed goal as the referees seemed to reverse their original decision after Tividale players had confronted the officials.

“I actually thought Brainy (Sean Brain) was offside,” admitted Jones.

“But the linesman didn’t put his flag up, the decision has been given, the ball is back on the centre circle, we’ve retreated ready to kick off and it’s not until the Tivi players go over to the linesman to get in his ear to pressure him that the decision changes.

“If you make a decision, you stand by it.

“But the linesman was influenced and I told him as much.

“He took a barrage of protests from their players to get him to make what they thought was the right decision which is unacceptable really.

“But again, it just proves to more adversity we endured, and it’s credit to the players to come through that and get something from the game.”

Jones started his interim rein last Tuesday with a 4-2 friendly win over Bewdley Town and he followed that with a 1-1 draw on Saturday but says the attitude and performances from his players has been the most pleasing aspect in his short time in charge so far.

“I’m more pleased with the attitude of players than results,” he said.

“We could have died on Saturday and gone and lost 3-0 or mucked in and get a result, which is what we did.”