Speaking after the match, the United manager, Brian McDermott, was quoted as saying: "The only thing that mattered tonight was the result, nothing else, and we deserved to win. We could have gone under when they scored as they had nothing to lose, but we showed a lot of guts and created a lot of chances. I've seen it again and it's a penalty, he was going to score. It reminded me of a game at Reading when I'd just been made permanent manager - we hadn't won for five games when I was caretaker, but we won 1-0 against Barnsley and went on to win eight in a row. The crowd were excellent, they didn't panic at 1-1. This league is very tight. Ross McCormack showed great guts, he missed the penalty but kept going and got a terrific goal".