PHIL Parkinson couldn’t hide his frustration after Altrincham confirmed their place in the play-offs but let two points slip away despite dominating most of a 1-1 draw with Hereford at the J Davidson Stadium.

Leading through a brilliant Jordan Hulme goal and seemingly in little danger, Alty were pegged back by a fortuitous equaliser, as an attempted clearance cannoned into a defender and fell for Hereford midfielder Tom Owen-Evans to break clear and score.

“The word I would use to sum up how I feel is frustrated,” said Parkinson, whose side travel to Ashton United on Saturday and have home advantage in the play-offs against opponents yet to be determined next Wednesday.

“We should have put the game to bed early on but wasted chances we have been putting away.

“Jordan’s goal was outstanding but probably the most difficult opportunity we had.

“Everyone is a bit flat,

because it was a great occasion with people turning up in numbers, including lots of families, and we wanted to put on a good show.

“We did that for a large part of the game, but it fizzled out after the equaliser, and that was disappointing.

“I was also frustrated with the referee because it seemed everyone inside the stadium could see it was a penalty when Yusifu Ceesay was tripped early on.

“The ref is saying he slipped, but he only lost his footing because of the

contact.

“Another goal then would have set us up for winning easily but it’s a measure of how far we have come that we are really disappointed at only drawing with an ex-league club.

“That’s the high expectations we have of ourselves. We go into the play-offs full of confidence, but we know we need a complete 90 minutes in those games. That will be the aim.”

Josh Hancock, Sean Williams and John Johnston should be fit for Saturday and next Wednesday’s play-off game.