I think all Trump needed to do was not look bad. I did not watch the debate either, but there did not seem to be any gotcha moments for Trump.
Looks like trump won every poll listed except CNN and AOL so you can bet the media will only mention those
http://www.infowars.com/poll-who-won-the-first-pres idential-debate/
The Donald did not lose the debate, but he was thrown on the defensive fairly early on. Herself had a couple of enormous openings, but could not consolidate the thrust of the argument, and also did not earn all that many points.
The Donald never really got into the missing e-mails, as he was far too concentrated on deferring any demands that he release his income tax returns. He did say he would do that when Herself releases the 30,000-plus deleted emails, but he did not follow up with the very obvious breaches to cybersecurity and particularly the security of the clandestine server that Herself maintained, by individuals and very likely foreign government operatives.
Not the knock-out punch we were all looking for, but more of a preliminary bout.