Nigel Clough believes Burton Albion's performance did not warrant victory at Birmingham City - but he would have been quite happy to see an under-par display rewarded with three points for a change.
Instead, Clough's Brewers were pegged back late on for the second successive game, Birmingham's Lukas Jutkiewicz following in the footsteps of Middlesbrough forward Britt Assombalonga in denying Albion a win in the final five minutes of a game.
While Albion were certainly second-best on the creativity front at St Andrew's - they fashioned five shots on goal to the Blues' 24 - it looked as though brave, committed defensive work and some fine goalkeeping from Stephen Bywater would move them to within four points of safety.
But those efforts, coupled with Lloyd Dyer's fourth goal in as many Burton Albion v Birmingham City League games, were just not quite enough.
"We were close again to getting the three points," said Clough.
"It wouldn't have been particularly deserved on the performance today - but there have been plenty of times this season when we have deserved it and not got it.
"The difference is we came here and did similar last season, but we hung on, we saw it through.
"This season, we weren't able to do that."
Dyer put the Brewers in front in the 48th minute with an emphatic finish against the team he loves playing against for the Brewers.
That was at the start of Burton's best spell in the game - but they spent much of the 90 minutes repelling the Blues' attacking waves.
That saw Clough switch from a 4-4-2 to a 5-4-1 setup after an hour, with Ben Turner replacing Darren Bent.
But the Brewers boss says that tactical switch may not have been necessary if his side had performed better earlier on.
"You are hoping (to hold on)," he added.
"But when it's been like that for 40 games, there's not too much reason for it to change with a few to go.
"We threw Ben Turner on just to try to shore the defence up.
"I wish we'd have been playing better and we'd have stayed in the same formation.
"But in the first half, despite being a 4-4-2, we gave the ball away far too many times and that gave Birmingham five or six chances in the first half.
"After we scored the goal, we gave it 10 minutes to see if we improved and then we went defensively."
