Paul Trollope told the Western Daily Press that Rovers side were hard done by as they ended 2009 by suffering their seventh away defeat on the trot.

The Pirates were out of luck in their 2-0 defeat at Millwall after twice being denied by the woodwork and creating their fair share of chances.

But Steve Morison's second-half strike and a late own goal by Pat Baldwin meant the Pirates again returned home empty-handed, despite an improved performance.

"We feel harshly treated. There have been a few times recently when I've said we didn't deserve anything out of an away game, but that certainly wasn't the case this time," Trollope told the WDP.

"We feel we deserved at least a draw, produced a decent performance and got to a good level.

There were plenty of positive things both with and without the ball which pleased us, but we had a couple of bits of bad luck inside their box, along with maybe a couple of bad decisions, which meant we couldn't make the breakthrough we deserved.

"You need to get goals when you are on top in games, but, unfortunately, they didn't come for us in that opening period. Then we produced a poor bit of defending for their opening goal, which made it an uphill task.

"We had an energy and intensity to our play that we certainly lacked against Tranmere and Colchester, but the small details you need to get right in both boxes didn't go for us.

"Games are decided by things like that and both of Millwall's goals stemmed from good play by us.

"For the first we got done on the counter-attack, which was disappointing because it's something we have worked on in training."

The result saw Rovers slip to ninth in League One, four points adrift of the top six. But Trollope hopes recruitment during the January transfer window can help to rekindle his side's challenge.

"We are halfway through the season now and a few points behind where we feel we should be," Trollope admitted. "But we are ninth in the table, still in striking distance of the play-offs and, hopefully, that is something we can push for over the second half of the season.

"Some of our away results have been disappointing over the last couple of months, and that is something we need to address.

"We have a little break now and, hopefully, we can get a new body into the squad - maybe two. We need it in certain areas and we will be trying to add over the next few weeks.

"We have tried a number of different strikers and they have all done well for spells, but we need another body in that area and especially someone who can link play up for us and score goals as well."

The Wirral Globe headline after Tranmere's 2-0 win over The Gas blazed out "the light at the end of the tunnel burns ever brighter."

It was Les Parry's first game in charge since being confirmed as boss until the end of the season, and The Globe harshly described the win as "a routine victory."

Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine a better early Christmas present for the newly-installed manager than the dogged, determined performance that proved too much here for a side on the fringes of the Coca Cola League One play-off places.

After a fairly mundane opening half that was only lit up by Craig Curran's superb opener on the half-hour, Tranmere went on to boss the second period and should have secured a greater margin of victory by the final whistle.

The Globe added; "Gritty and full of endeavour, this side is fighting its way towards safety with a style that at times might not be pleasing on the eye, but nevertheless gives Tranmere a fighting chance of avoiding the drop.

"Curran's goal to break the deadlock just before the half-hour was certainly classy enough, a curling left-foot effort from the right-hand edge of the penalty area that looped brilliantly into the top corner.

"Gornell, too, showed some neat touches, the only black mark on his performance being his failure in the second-half to pick out Gareth Edds for a one-on-one when he elected to shoot from distance instead. "

Sadly but true, The Globe said that "Bristol Rovers, for their part, were scarcely a threat, although Andy Williams crashed a header against the bar with the score at 1-0, and Chris Lines was denied late on by some great defensive blocking, before Luke Daniels saved from Darryl Duffy."

In the Bristol Evening Post Paul Trollope admitted; "I've defended our league position and some of the results quite a lot over the last five or six games - but this wasn't acceptable.

"We thank the supporters who made the journey up here. We appreciated their support and I am as disappointed as they are with the performance. We can only apolgise for that.

"Their support was fantastic considering their long journey in bad weather so close to Christmas.

"All I can say is that we now have an important Christmas period coming up and we will be better than that."