How is last Monday’s draw at Cardiff supposed to feel?

Should we be devastated at the remarkable twist in the tale? I’ve gone back to 1990 and can’t find a later goal scored against us.

Should we be thrilled because we looked terrific? The quality of our passing and attacking play, and how we kept an energetic, well-coached Cardiff side at arm’s length until the closing seconds was impressive.

A few people have suggested to me that we were unlucky. Without wishing to be unnecessarily harsh, I can’t agree.

Yes, we dominated the game. Yes, we carved out lots of great chances. That pleases me massively and makes me feel very optimistic for the season ahead.

But unlucky? No.

You make your own luck, and if you create so many great opportunities but only take one, you’ve brought that late misfortune on yourselves.

I have no intention of demeaning Cardiff with what I’m about to say, because I really like the look of their youthful side. They looked good on the ball, and will punish less steely defensive units than ours.

However, I’m sure they’d agree that if we’d been three or four goals ahead by the time they won that fateful 98^th minute free kick on the edge of our penalty area, they really wouldn’t have grounds for complaint.

You make your own luck, and our profligacy in front of goal created the conditions for City to snatch a point and send their fans wild.

It wasn’t a new phenomenon. Our inability to put the game to bed was a continuation of a pattern from our otherwise terrific pre-season.

We’ve looked threatening since reconvening after the Summer break, and particularly good on the counter attack. However, I had a nagging feeling throughout pre-season that we might be lacking a little ruthlessness.

I’m not suggesting the strikers haven’t done well: chances get missed. If that wasn’t the case, we’d be watching basketball.

That’s a sport I can’t get into because, for all its athleticism, the significant moments are when an attack doesn’t end in success. That robs it of the intrinsic excitement of a goal, which is valuable through its rarity.

No, we often didn’t open up clear enough opportunities when we got into great positions. The extra man wasn’t quite being utilised as effectively as you might hope, and as a consequence we were threatening, but looked like we ought to be scoring more.

That was certainly the case in Cardiff. Admittedly, in the second half we scraped the right post with a series of efforts (and the other post is probably being replaced right now after Callum Doyle threatened its integrity with mighty wallop!)

However, I lost count of the number of times we hit them on the break, opened them up, but didn’t fashion a clear-cut chance.

It wasn’t just that we didn’t manage enough good strikes on goal; it was the lack of a killer pass that exposed Nathan Trott in their goal.

It’s not an issue I’d expect to continue, though. Two obvious factors suggest things will improve in the next couple of weeks.

Firstly, we’ve lacked the man in our squad who has ice running through his veins.

In the opposition’s defensive third, Josh Windass is a cold-eyed killer. His goal at West Bromwich Albion last season sums him up: the ball lands in his path just outside the box and you know this is going to be a goal before he hits it.

His certainty in such situations, his superior ball-striking technique, his balance all mean that in those situations he’s highly reliable.

That impression is only enhanced by his calm reaction to the ball hitting the net. When team mates score he looks thrilled; when he does, he turns quietly and walks back to the half way line, a blank expression on his face.

He’s saying, “What’s the big deal? This is what I do. Just another day at the office.”

He plays the right passes when on the break too. A master striker knows what good service looks like, because he demands it from others. That means he knows how he’d like the ball supplied to him and can reciprocate.

With a superior range of passing, great awareness of movement around him and the technique to use the outside of his foot, he’s highly adept at spotting the right pass and timing it perfectly,

The other reason to anticipate an improvement of our end product is obvious: we haven’t finished shopping yet. Parkinson will be looking for players who can provide quality in the final third, whether it be creating or scoring.

He has the financial support to do so, and you can expect to see some exciting names cropping up in the final days of the transfer window, when the best players get to look at the full range of options available to them and take their pick.

We’ve already brought in Ben Whiteman, a player who, in the 42 minutes he’s been afforded so far, has demonstrated the line-splitting passing his data suggests is his speciality.

So, how should we feel after the Cardiff match? Delighted, because we showed a new level of passing cohesion, and the failure to put them away is an area which logically will be addressed by the end of the month.