Monday 30 November 2015 09:54, UK
Sale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond was frustrated by his team's display as they failed to capitalise on a 15-8 lead in the second half and were held by Newcastle Falcons.
Danny Cipriani kicked five penalties but Jon Welsh's late converted try rescued a 15-15 draw for the Falcons as they claimed their first two points of the Aviva Premiership season.
Diamond reasoned that it was an unacceptable result for a team who have aspirations of making it into the top six, with Cipriani missing a late penalty that would have been a match-winner.
"Let's be honest, we should have kicked the goal at the end to win the game," he said. "We should have kicked the goal against Harlequins to win the game so we're six points off where we should be.
"With what's happening at the moment, where people want to go to so-called super clubs, we should be in the top three tonight after our last two league games.
"We've got to look at that and go again. We've got to go to Gloucester, which is a difficult place to go on a Friday night, and get something out of it.
"We're a good team, we've got a good set of lads and we're better than that, which is the disappointment. They know that in no uncertain terms. If you want to be in the top four or top six you've got to win your home games."
Mixed feelings
In comparison to Diamond, Newcastle boss Dean Richards was pleased with his team's display, even though he had mixed feelings over the end result.
Richards said: "You could either say it was two points won or two points lost and it was probably the latter. It was disappointing in some respects but when you bear in mind the conditions and the fact we scored two tries, I was pleased.
"I was pleased with the enthusiasm and the commitment. Sometimes we made some judgement errors but in conditions like that you're going to.
"On the whole I was pleased with the boys, even though there were some mixed emotions. I was disappointed they didn't get the four points, but happy they got two."
Despite being delighted over the performance of his players, Richards was annoyed by some of the refereeing by Craig Maxwell-Keys.
"There were three errors and they are big game-changers the referees have to get right on a week-by-week basis," he added.
"They don't get it right quite often and it has a massive impact on the way the game unfolds. Thankfully, Danny didn't get his kick at the end but there were three big decisions that I felt weren't right on the day."
