Declan delivers his match day verdict

It wasn’t a result that did either team too much good but the Irons remain in the top four at the end of a weekend when results probably went our way  elsewhere – a win at Leicester would have been perfect.

Ok, it didn’t work out like that but as Declan declared after the match there are plenty of games left which are going to define the Hammer season and he believes the boys are ready.

We will all hope he is right but the rhythm which we were playing in earlier games is still missing and we need to discover it with other teams having a number of games in hand on us.

It’s been said many times previously of course but it remains a fact that even when the team is playing below its abilities it’s the sign of a decent squad that they can keep digging out results such as those today.

And afterwards Declan declared: “The first half, we were excellent. We really stopped them playing through the lines and counter-attacked on them well. We could have used our chances better. 

Obviously, it was a sloppy penalty for us to give away, and in the second half they were really on top, but we’ve been working really hard on our set-pieces and Daws is incredible in the air. It was a good point in the end.

It’s because of the way we push each other as lads. It’s what the manager’s driving on in training and in games. 

In my opinion we could have been two or three up in the first half and the game would have looked very different. The penalty swings in their favour and then it’s a game of two halves. 

To get the equaliser at the end was a big point for us, considering where we are in the table and where we want to get to.

It’s hard to put it into words [why the momentum changed] really. In the first half we were so compact in the middle. [Kiernan] Dewsbury-Hall really started to pick the ball up in the second half, in that little space he occupied behind me on the right-hand side, picking up little pockets of space, and Harvey Barnes was flying on the left, which we’d nullified in the first half. 

This is football. Things can happen. It goes round and round. Even though we were 2-1 down, we started believing we could bring players on and that we could get a point.

We really stopped them [in the first half]. They were getting really frustrated and the fans were getting on top of them. I just wish we could’ve made a bit more of the chances that we got. 

Obviously, it was a great goal by Jarrod again, but we need to start taking our chances and putting the game to bed.

As a squad last year we were incredible. This year, we’re still around the top four spots, when many people doubted us this season with there being more games.

We’re still really positive. We’re a great bunch of lads and we’ll take each game as it comes, but it was a good point here today and we’ll move on to Newcastle next week.

The games are coming thick and fast. It’s so important we do everything right to recover for our games. We spoke about it as a group of lads. 

We know we’ve got big games coming up in the next couple of weeks which could define our season, and we’ll be ready.”