JAMES MCNULTY felt that his Rochdale side dominated the match in the 0-0 draw with York City on Saturday, and were unfortunate not to walk away with all three points.

York's first goalless draw of the Vanarama National League campaign came at the Crown Oil Arena with Rochdale being forced to share the spoils with Neal Ardley's side, with City claiming a much-needed clean sheet against play-off chasers.

Rochdale boss McNulty felt that his side were in complete control of the match and that they were unlucky not to score a goal, with the Dale manager pleased that his side were able to retain so much possession in front of their home crowd.

“I thought we had been dominant in the game, we controlled both halves totally and played almost the whole game in York’s half," McNulty told the Rochdale media team.

"I think that reflecting on it, York maybe thought that it was going to be a difficult challenge winning it off of us in our own half and maybe would be dangerous for them to do so because of what they might leave behind, spaces wise.

"They kind of gave up the ball in that regard and we played almost the whole game in York’s half, I know that when a team plays a real low block like that then you need your fans on side, they need an understanding that their whole team is behind the ball.

"What we don’t need is any edginess, in games like that it’s very important not to get countered on or sucker-punched when you have so much of the ball.

"In the first half I thought that we were unfortunate with the moments we created in the first-half, unless you get that goal then the real challenge for the opposition is if they haven’t scored and they’re still in that same mode of defending deep and hanging on, so we moved the ball and the game really opened up in the second half.

"We had loads of chances I think, we were the much better team on the day, we controlled the game and created a lot more chances from it and were just unfortunate on this day that none of them went in.

"The fight and everything else in the performance, I can’t ask for much more from this team, particularly the situation they’re in, it’s admirable."

McNulty also went on to ensure supporters that his side would remain humble despite their off-the-field issues, having struggled to pay the wages of the staff at the club in recent times.

“If someone did that to us then I would be very open about it, I’d be saying that they were totally dominant and controlled, but we were.

"I tell my guys all the time to be humble, humility is a big word in our camp and I think that once you get ahead of yourselves then you cause yourself big problems.

"We definitely can’t afford to get ahead of ourselves because there are too many challenges that we’re facing, but in a 95 to 100 minute performance we had total control and total dominance.

"It was a brilliant execution from the team but just never got the goal unfortunately.”