Parker hails battling Spartans

It's been a tough few months for Spartans defender Danny Parker. A horrific facial injury suffered in August saw him ruled out until January in initial reports. However he returned for the FA Cup clash with Leek Town and played his part in a wonderful win for Spartans. However a poor first half had Parker admitting things were "psychologically hard" as they calm in a half time facing a two goal deficit.

"It's great to be back and to come back into that game is incredible. We came here with belief that we could win. We were abysmal in the first half and it was psychologically hard to fight back. We were given a hammering at half time and rightly so. It's great to get through and we just about deserved it after a brilliant second half"

Strong words were said in the Spartans dressing room by managerial team Tom Wade and Colin Myers, something Parker felt was more than justified. However he paid credit to the duo as they oversaw a change of emphasis that inspired a remarkable fightback.

"I can't say many of the words that were said at half time. We were reminded what we had been told in the analysis we had done on Leek at training on Thursday. We changed the way we played and we attacked down the wings, that won us the game"

A penalty in the sixth minute of injury time saw the hosts given a golden chance to take the tie to a replay. However Andrew Kinsey fired over with Parker already moving his focus to a replay but he described the relief at the miss.

"I was thinking of the replay but I was still confident. You don't like saying it because the lad has missed but it was relief and I've never experience anything better"