GUTTED manager Alan Little shook off the anguish of Watford's injury-time insult to hail his team as better than the table-toppers, writes Tony Kelly.

The York City boss was left crestfallen by the savage setback of a Watford leveller six minutes into time added on for stoppages.

The agonising 1-1 draw dropped City into 13th place and a spot in the bottom half of the Division two table for the first time in five months. Yet had the Minstermen held on to the 1-0 advantage given them by Tony Barras' first-half penalty they would have been in ninth place.

Little conceded that the draw had allowed a gap to develop between his side and the crop of clubs hovering on the edge of the play-off zone.

His task now was to get morale back on track for tomorrow's visit of Bristol City, who are second to Watford. At least, maintained Little, he could take heart from the display against the lucky leaders.

"I just cannot fault the performance. The players - all 11 of them - were superb," said Little, who also revealed that for the first time this season he did not tell the players, who was in the team until just over an hour before kick-off.

"They responded with the sort of performance we want every week. We are a better team than Watford. But we don't win matches like Watford.

"They tried to play football in the first-half, but we were far better than them. They then changed things by going direct. They came to spoil and they got what they wanted. They scrapped out a draw.

"That's happened in two games against them this season. We just haven't got the breaks we deserved."

Of the stoppage-time furore that left City fans chanting 'cheat' at referee George Cain, the City boss took a philosophical stance.

"The only man in the game with a watch is the referee and you cannot do anything about it. You just get on with it. But it was a sickening time to lose a goal."

The match official later explained that the six minutes had been accrued through lengthy spells of treatment on the pitch for a leg injury to Watford's Paul Robinson; separate head injuries to City duo Mark Tinkler and Barry Jones; three substitutions made by Watford and a booking for Hornets' midfielder Richard Johnson.

City's 'Mr Versatile' Graeme Murty insisted that he and his team-mates felt they should have had all six points from the two encounters with Watford, which both ended as 1-1 stalemates.

"They will probably go up as champions. But we think we have proved ourselves better than them twice this season.

"We have got to take that into consideration for going into tomorrow's game against Bristol City."

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