Huddersfield Town caretaker manager Mark Lillis revealed he was left with a sense of pride following the 1-1 draw with Charlton Athletic, despite the late equaliser from Igor Vetokele which prevented Town from securing successive wins.
Following on from the 2-1 win at Reading in midweek, Town looked good money for the three points after Nahki Wells had given the Terriers the lead after they were reduced to 10 men when Murray Wallace hauled down the Addicks goalscorer on the verge of half-time.
But the Addicks eventually profited from the dismissal and the injury suffered by returning captain Lee Peltier to steal a late, late point through powerful forward Vetokele.
But Lillis refused to let the late setback overshadow his side's impressive display.
"The thing for me today, I'm so proud," he told reporters.
"That's a good word for me, proud of the players and the fans.
"We have pulled together these past couple of weeks and it shows you what we can do when we've got a good spirit in the dressing room.
"You get in amongst the lads and you trust them.
"I kept saying to them, we are going to use 20-odd of you in this spell that I'm in charge - whether it's the one month, two months or three months.
"Until the chairman and the club decide that a new man comes in, I've got to keep going, which I will do.
"I want to thank the fans today, it makes it all worthwhile when you have that following behind you."
The late equaliser came as the result of slight confusion at the back as the Addicks' new talisman stole in to slot past Smithies, and the interim Town boss failed to hide his regret over the visitors' leveller, but felt his troops gave a good account of themselves in the second period after Wallace's red card.
"There's disappointment obviously with conceding right at the death," he revealed.
"That could have been back-to-back wins which we haven't done for a long, long time at the football club.
"But coming off the back of the three points at Reading and put on a performance here, which I think we did, and with Murray [Wallace] sent off, it was difficult to take.
"But we had to regroup at half-time and I didn't want us to sit and soak pressure up from when the second-half whistle went.
"The main thing was for us to have a go and play football with 10 men.
"The place was bouncing at one stage in the second half and it was great to hear, but totally disappointed."
Fans were far from impressed with the performance of referee Tim Richardson throughout and were particularly incensed when he failed to award a spot-kick when substitute James Vaughan was seemingly man-handled by Charlton stopper Tal Ben Haim.
Lillis shared the supporters' frustrations and believed his side had been short-changed from the decision.
"We felt we should have had a penalty," he claimed.
"I've seen it once and I think if it's at any other part of the pitch, it's a free-kick.
"But I think the referee has been assessed today and we can't change that, it's gone now."
