McGrath 'mightily proud' of his team after Shaymen's impressive second-half showing in draw against Boston

Halifax completely dominated the second-half of the game, recovering from trailing 1-0 at half-time and equalising through Conor Carty, but were unable to turn their vast superiority into a winner.

"One, I'm super proud of the performance, it was everything I want in my team and I want to display as a manager," McGrath told the Courier.

"For the first 15, 20 minutes I thought we were OK and the goal's against the run of play. Sloppy from Tommy and Tayt, they allowed the kid to wriggle in and the shot from 30 yards catches Granty out.

"But we had a good conversation at half-time and I said to them 'listen, we've scored a goal in the 93rd minute and conceded 15 seconds later, so there's 45 minutes of football to play so let's get our heads up'.

"That was massively evident in the second-half, I thought we were absolutely superb.

"The only thing lacking from that performance was the winner, but it was great to see the fans after the game, I think if you've come to watch this game, you've gone away really happy with a team that play football the right and an exciting, attacking brand of football, completely different to what we produced on Saturday against Worthing.

"Mightily proud of the performance but the question will be how didn't we pick up the three points.

"The keeper was superb, we hit the crossbar, had a couple cleared off the line. I think someone mentioned we had 15 shots on target, which is phenomenal.

"So I can't ask for anymore. The only thing I can ask for is a second goal, or if we get the first goal, they've got to come out and play against us, and that's a long night for them."

On the flurry of second-half chances his team created, McGrath said: "Cruz had one straight on the penalty spot, he hit it really well but straight at the keeper.

"Tolls had the one-on-one, which I expect him to slot it and not lift it.

"But the keeper makes a good save.

"We've probably created enough clear cut chances to win two or three games of football."

McGrath admitted his players should have done better for Boston's opener.

"They got told that at half-time, the same as the goals on Saturday," said the Town boss.

"No-one really opens us up. Look how hard we have to work to create our chances, but it's just a simple throw inside.

"Tommy loses his man but then he pops inside to Tayt and as a CDM, your fiirst port of call is to protect the back line and he skips past Tayt way too easy.

"Being a centre midfielder myself, that's criminal because I see it through my playing eyes.

"Tommy's got to do better. I can have a go at them both singularly, but between them they should deal with the situation and suddenly you're giving a team like Boston, who are defensively sound and a big side, a bit of a foothold in the game and they're like 'OK, come and break us down'.

"If we score the first goal, it's a different game, they've got to come out and play against us, but again, we should do better for the goal."

On why Town were much improved in the second-half after a less-than-impressive first-half, McGrath said: "I had this conversation with them at half-time, I said 'look boys, you've just conceded a goal, that's it, it's not the end of the world'.

"We started really bright, Max has a header back stick he should score, Tommy has a header back stick he should score, Conor Carty has a chance, hits the keeper.

"We were on the front foot, playing good football and against the run of play (Boston scored), but you can go back a bit further and Flinty shouldn't give the ball to Max where he is, we should just try and hit Conor further forward.

"The level is really good, there's good players and good teams and if you give them opportunities to score, like we did Saturday against Worthing, they're going to take their chances.

"But the other side of the coin is creating loads of chances and not scoring, but it's not for the want of trying, sometimes that's football, that's the game we love.

"There'll be games this season when we play poorly and we win 1-0 but I've said to the boys if we maintain those levels of performance, like I've always said, we'll win more games than we lose."

Carty was taken off late in the game, but McGrath said that wasn't due to injury.

"He just ran himself into the ground. We had a conversation on the bench about whether we bring Morgs or David on and we just felt how David is with his pace and power, he'd probably be the better one.

"But Conor was fantastic and thoroughly deserved his goal."

Read more from the Town boss on the Courier website tomorrow.