Clinton Mola believes Bristol Rovers deserved something out of their clash with Milton Keynes Dons after the Pirates' 1-0 defeat at Stadium MK.
The Pirates were looking for a reaction after back-to-back defeats to Colchester United and Salford City, and Rovers showed one in the first half, with the attacking trio of Shaq Forde, Ellis Harrison and Fabrizio Cavegn causing plenty of problems.
The Gas could have taken the lead through Cavegn moments after Luke Offord thundered the crossbar. However, Craig MacGillivray pushed away his one-on-one strike. Callum Patterson punished his missed opportunity with the only goal of the game just before half-time, getting on the end of Aaron Collins' cross to score from close range.
Speaking to the media after the fixture, Mola took the positives out of the performance, suggesting moments of the game let them down.
"I think we deserved to get something out of the game, especially against a good team," he said. “I think we battled today, and it was a good away performance, but it’s just the moments in the game that let us down today. We battled well today.”
“Hopefully. As long as we just keep battling, I think today was a better performance than on the weekend. The gaffer was big about us running today, and just showing a bit of fight, effort, and desire, and I think we showed that today. We were just unlucky. We’ve just got to bring that into Saturday now.”
Mola has usually been deployed at left-back or left centre-back in the blue-and-white quarters, but moved up to the midfield against MK Dons. To some, it was a surprise that the 24-year-old was pushed into a slightly more advanced position, but it was not unfamiliar to Mola after playing there in Chelsea's academy.
“I’ll play wherever the gaffer and the team need me to play," said the defender. "He pulled me up earlier and said, ‘I know you can play there, I’ve seen you play there before'. That’s where I grew up playing, so I’m comfortable in that role, and it’s not new to me. I just wanted to do a job for the team, and we're just unlucky not to get anything from the game today.”
The match-deciding moment came soon after some controversy. Patterson avoided a second yellow card for an elbow on Joel Senior before scoring the winner in the final seconds of the first half. Mola feels moments are going against the Gas currently, with the goal hard to come back from.
“It’s just what’s going wrong for us at the moment," he said. "It’s just the moments in games. I feel like it was a good first half. If we just go in 0-0 and then we come out in the second half, you never know, something can happen for us, but when you go 1-0 down and undeservedly as well, it’s always hard.”
The Pirates now have three straight games at The Memorial Stadium, starting with a Severnside derby against Newport County. With the Exiles only one point behind the Gas, Mola knows the size of the fixture.
“It’s going to be a big game," he said. "Today was a big game. Every game is a big game. Especially as the next game. We know what it means, and we know what it will do for us, for our confidence to get the win, so that’s all we’re going to be trying to do.”
