Matt Lawlor left frustrated by Fleetwood draw with Gillingham
The woodwork was struck three times during the goalless stalemate.
Frustrated Fleetwood boss Matt Lawlor stressed his side missed a trick after being held to a goalless draw at home to Gillingham.
The visitors twice struck the woodwork through Ronan Hale and Will Goodwin, with Lewis McCann hitting a post for the hosts.
But Lawlor was adamant his side should have emerged with three points at the Highbury Stadium.
He said: “It’s frustrating, we should have won.
“But the positives out if it is it was another clean sheet, which is three in a row, and we’re unbeaten in seven from the back end of last year and start of this year.
“Ultimately I’m frustrated because we’ve not got three points and won the game at home. My frustration is that, but there are positives to come out of it.
“I think they made the second half scrappy and we were good, but I thought the first half was scrappy from us. We didn’t get our foot on the ball and pass the ball.
“In the second half we had all the ball and momentum, but we were just missing that final little bit.
“I think were just a little bit too desperate to go and try and win it, sometimes leaving ourselves exposed at the back.
“It’s something we can build on, though, against a really good manager and a really good squad which Gillingham have got.”
Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth praised his side’s defensive solidity and young players who made an impact.
“Performance-wise it was like the first 80 minutes from last week, the performance was good enough,” reflected Ainsworth. “That’s how you defend your box.
“But the overriding concern now is the Kadeem Harris injury, that was a tough one to see.
“The boys were tasked to defend the long ball and to defend their own box. They [Fleetwood] put free-kicks and corners into the box, as billed, and we dealt with everything.
“On the flip-side, I thought we had the best chances of the game but we have to score some of these chances.
“It was similar to last week, we’ve got to start putting some of them in. We could have won the game.
“We had an unbelievably young bench, it was a real Gillingham academy bench and the club has to be proud of that, plus we had some league debutants.
“It’s a good result for us because Fleetwood is a tough place to come.”
Ainsworth’s side struck the woodwork twice and he admitted: “The luck is just not with us at the minute.
“Maybe six times already this season we’ve hit the woodwork, but the positive for me is the young players coming through.
“For me, there’s not many teams in the Football League who would have had what we had academy-wise this weekend – on the bench and on the pitch.
“But saying that, I do need my experienced players back in the side, we’ve got so many players out who could have affected this game.
“When they are back we are going to be good, but I’m trying to get two or maybe three more faces in before the window closes.”