Lee Johnson had mixed emotions after his side battled to take a valuable point back to Boundary Park with a 1-1 draw at promotion hopefuls Swindon Town.
He explained, "Obviously I am pleased, but also a bit angry because it shows we can compete for 60/65/70 minutes and match the top teams in the league. I went in after the match and half gave them a cuddle and half slaughtered them because I was fuming because we weren't fit enough for the last 20 minutes to sustain the earlier level. I said to the players before the match what do they want to do next season – be promoted, have a chance of the play offs or be relegation fodder?"
" You saw for the first 65 minutes it was close on chances and I was pleased with that. Towards the end it was like the Alamo, but we deserved the draw for the amount of work we had to do. There was a lot of good and a little bit of bad, but there are a lot of positive signs to go forward. I am proud of the players, but I know how close we were to doing even better which is frustrating."
The Latics took the lead in the 68th minute after Lee Croft dribbled the right, cut in and squared the ball back for Barnard to fire home into the roof of the net. Unfortunately for the visitors Rooney equalised with a spectacular overhead kick. The result gives the new manager four points in two games and an undefeated start to his reign.