Clinton Mola was pleased with elements of Bristol Rovers' performance against Chesterfield, but confessed more work is required after the Gas fell to a 3-2 defeat to the Spireites in Sky Bet League Two.
The Pirates were looking to end three straight fixtures at The Memorial Stadium with another victory after wins over Newport County and Walsall. However, they got off to the worst possible start when Tom Naylor headed in from close range for the visitors.
Shaq Forde's brace had turned the score around, but Naylor netted again before a spectacular finish from James Berry sealed all three points for Paul Cook's men.
In a game that could have gone either way, key moments proved crucial, with Mola disappointed with the way his side fell to defeat despite the spirit they showed in fighting back from early adversity.
"I think it’s a bit unlucky, a bit unfortunate," he said. "I think we battled well today, and to be honest, if you concede three goals at home, nine times out of ten you don’t really deserve anything. They’re a good team, but we did well to come back in the game. It's the sloppy goals that let us down.
"We knew the first half wasn’t good enough from us, especially with the standards we set in the last two games. We started poorly, and they were on top of us.
“They wanted it more than us, which is not good enough, but then we did well to get back in the game and get to the half-time at 1-1, even when we weren’t playing well. Then, of course, we have done well to get the lead, but that’s when we just have to take the sting out of the game and just leave with something."
Forde's brace had seemed to have put Rovers back on track after Naylor's goal within the first few minutes of the contest. Nevertheless, the Gas could not make the most of their advantage and lost control almost immediately, with Naylor looping a header over Young and into the net just a matter of moments later to level the score.
"When we do go 2-1 up, that’s when, as a team, we’ve got to realise that we’ve just got to shut up shop and we see the game out from there, but it’s two sloppy goals after," said Mola. "I think we could have done better as a whole team.
"We’ve had back-to-back clean sheets, but there’s still a lot of work to do from us. Nothing is over yet, just because we’ve won two games in a row. We’ve still got a lot to work on as a group."
Mola has been one of the outstanding performers since Steve Evans took charge of Bristol Rovers.
Regularly played as either a left centre-back or a left-back in his first 59 games at the Gas after joining the Club last summer from Reading, the 24-year-old has moved into the midfield, partnering January addition Ryan de Havilland for the previous four fixtures.
It has been a while since Mola has been deployed in the middle of the pitch, mostly playing there for Chelsea's academy and England's youth teams, but the 24-year-old has enjoyed a return to his old role under Evans, who is getting the best out of him.
"I like the work side of it," he said. "I think that’s one of the strong parts of my game in terms of the running and making challenges in there, but also, I enjoyed getting on it and trying to play and trying to progress the ball up the pitch. So, hopefully I can keep getting opportunities in there and just keep trying to play well."
The Pirates' defeat to Chesterfield was certainly not the perfect ending to the three straight games at The Mem everyone was hoping for, but after collecting wins in their first two games, there was clearly a sense of optimism and hope all around BS7.
For Mola, the disappointment of the defeat shows Rovers are truly going in the right direction, with a week of work until the trip to Cambridge United giving everyone a chance to freshen up before another tough challenge.
"I think anyone would ask, if we were to get six points out of this possible nine, I think most people would take that," said Mola. "I’m happy that we’ve got three home games and then we’ve got six points out of them, but we’re still disappointed because we were leading today, and I think that’s showing that we kind of turned the corner a bit because even in the dressing room we felt that, okay we lost a game, but we weren’t happy with it and we’ve got to win next week as there’s a big one at Cambridge.
"Obviously, we’ve got a lot of new players as well now, so I think we could use this week coming to gel with them and get some time on the pitch. We haven’t had that much time, and I’m sure the gaffer would want to get his points across as well."
