David McNabb is pleased with the positive signs from their last three games but says they need to turn draws into wins.
They remain unbeaten in three after earning a share of the spoils against Witton Albion before two stalemates against Stalybridge Celtic and Prescot Cables.
Bootle have endured a difficult start to the season and are yet to win since the opening day against Newcastle Town. There have been some harsh lessons for McNabb’s side in the games that have followed but they have bounced back, showing positive glimpses.
They took the lead against Stalybridge but were forced to settle for a point after Obua Mugalula’s equaliser. Their encounter with Steven Daley’s Cables side was much sterner and their task was made greater when goalkeeper, Owen Mooney, was sent off in the first-half.
Speaking to Off The Park, McNabb began: “We wanted to try and get four points out of the two games.
“Stalybridge was a really tough test, two clubs going at it and going for the win, we created enough opportunities to, maybe, grab a winner but Stalybridge also had opportunities.
“A draw was probably a fair result in the end, it’s a tough place to go but a good point. We started well on Monday, the sending off has had a massive impact, looking at the footage, it doesn’t appear to strike his arm and Owen is adamant that it didn’t but it also looks like the defender is on the cover so I’m not quite sure where the decision has come from – it’s a tough decision in real time.
“Despite being down for 75 minutes, we didn’t have as much possession but I thought we created the better chances in the second half.
“We’ve had three one-v-one’s where you’d expect to score at least one of those chances and we could’ve been talking about a fantastic team performance where, despite being down to 10 men for three-quarters of the game, we’ve come out with the win.
“But if someone would’ve offered me a point at the point where Owen got sent off, I’d have taken that aswell.”
Leon Legge took the gloves at Vesty Road against Cables but it was the Bucks who shown greater impetus, testing Mitch Allen, who the Bulls had to thank for securing a point and extending their unbeaten run.
The Bootle boss conceded that the clinical-edge has lacked in recent outings but following Monday’s dogged performance, he refused to be overly critical.
He added: “I don’t think we’ve been as clinical as I’d like us to be, however I’m not going to be overly critical on Monday’s performance because the lads put a shift in.
“When you’re playing your third game in six days, playing 75 minutes with 10 men, maybe that’s had an impact on the ability to finish the game off.
“We do need a cutting edge in front of goal but I’m not going to be too critical on Monday.”
Bootle are looking to pick up their second win of the season against Trafford in Greater Manchester on Saturday.
McNabb knows the quality of Danny Caldecott’s side but insists they need to forge a positive run of wins to push up the table.
“It’s a fantastic club, they’ve got a really good side, Danny [Caldecott] has got them organised, well-drilled and they play some great stuff. It’s one of the toughest places to go in the league,” he said.
“Hopefully we can go there and by any means necessary, get the three points. There are things we want to get better at and there are areas to improve all the time but performances have been positive in the last three games, we just need to turn draws into wins, get on a run and push up the table.”
