Christian Fox believed Selby Town fully “deserved” their Toolstation NCEL Division One 3-2 victory over Dronfield Town.
The Robins secured their first win of the new campaign, despite surrendering a two-goal-lead at the Fairfax Plant Hire Stadium.
A big element of controversy shrouded Liam Flanagan’s late winner as the penalty awarded in the build-up should not have been given as the foul on Josh Walker was committed outside the 18-yard box.
But Fox – whose side were on the receiving end of several controversial decisions in a 3-1 defeat at Dronfield last season – felt his troops created enough opportunities to earn the points.
“It was an end-to-end game of two halves again which we seem to do on a regular occurrence,” Fox told Non League Yorkshire.
“All-in-all, chances for both teams, I think we just edged it. I think we deserved to win, but I’m sure the opposition will have a different view on that.
“I was obviously 60/70 yards away for the penalty so I couldn’t see where the contact was made. If it was outside the box, we’ve obviously got away with one.
“You take them though. These things average themselves out over the season.”
The heavy wind also had a big say, with Selby dominating the first half and failing to full advantage.
Dronfield had control of large parts of the second stanza, and at 2-2 looked like the team most likely to nick the three points.
That was until Flanagan struck and Fox paid tribute to his players.
“Well, we try not to get into things like the wind so excuses aren’t made before we go out, but especially in the second half you could how strong it (the wind) was,” he said.
“With their goalkeeper having a big kick, we were under the cosh at times in the second half. I thought we played some good stuff today and it is frustrating because we have had 20 decent chances.
“We had lots of chances when it was 2-0 and maybe better decision making in the final third would have seen us go in more comfortable at half-time.
“Obviously they got the goal back. You can criticise any goal, but the goals we conceded were really poor from our point of view. It is something to work on, but we’ll take more positives than negatives from today.
“When they got the equaliser they had the momentum so credit to our lads for sticking together and grinding it out.
“The lads managed to create a few chances towards the end and their lad going in the sin-bin alongside the penalty probably made it game-over.”
The new sin-bin rule was also applied for one of the first times in the NCEL as Dronfield’s Ash Rawson was removed for ten minutes following remarks made to the referee in the aftermath of the penalty decision.
Fox added: “I’m a bit sceptical about the new sin-bin rules, but dissent towards the referee has got to come out of the game.
“It is a difficult one. It is good when it goes in your favour, but I wouldn’t be too happy if I was their gaffer.”