REJUVENATED Altrincham finally climbed out of the Blue Square Bet Premier relegation zone but still left manager Ken McKenna reflecting on what might have been at Moss Lane on Tuesday night.

Ahead through a first-half Damian Reeves penalty, Alty lost midfielder Anthony Danylyk to a second yellow card and were then pegged back by a Southport equaliser in a 1-1 draw that lifted them to fifth from bottom.

With Cambridge United next up at Moss Lane on Saturday, though, McKenna sensed a missed opportunity and also made it clear he shared the home crowd’s dismay at some baffling refereeing decisions.

“I might wake up in the morning and think it was a decent point, but at the moment I am very frustrated,” he said, shortly after the final whistle.

“We could have been in a position to try and overtake Cambridge on Saturday, and, in all truth, we should have been.

“We dominated after scoring and should have been on for a comfortable win.

‘But we just froze for that one split-second that mattered, and they tucked away an equaliser. It was a case of regaining our composure after that, but I thought we did it superbly and looked a real threat again.

“I never publicly criticise referees, and I’m not going to get involved now, but there was a feeling of being let down a bit by some things that were out of our control.”