Joel Senior thought Bristol Rovers were unfortunate to fall to defeat after the Gas lost 1-0 away to Milton Keynes Dons on Tuesday night.
The Pirates were looking to claim a victory from their final away fixture in January and put right their wrongs from their defeat to Salford City on the weekend, and controlled large parts of the contest.
Fabrizio Cavegn had a superb chance to give the Pirates the lead and all of the momentum in the first half when he raced through one-on-one with Craig MacGillivray, but his close-range strike was saved.
The Pirates were punished for their missed opportunities on the stroke of half-time, with Callum Patterson netting the only goal of the contest to push the Dons up to second place in the table. Despite the defeat, Senior feels his side showed a reaction after a disappointing performance against Salford.
"Well, I obviously thought it was difficult to come here; they’re a good team," he said. "I thought we battled well; we had some good chances in the game. They’ve scored at a bit of a killer time, and I don’t think the lad should be on the pitch, but I thought we played well in spells.
“As I said, we had a reaction; we needed one from the past three games, and I thought we got one, which I thought was quite unlucky with our chances. It's another defeat; we need to bounce back as quickly as possible. There’s another game Saturday, and that’s what we need to do. If we show the fight and the spirit as we did tonight, then I think we have a good chance of winning the game."
It looked like the game was going to be level heading into half-time, but Paterson struck from close range just before the break to give the hosts the lead. It was gutting for the Gas, especially as Patterson arguably could have been shown a second yellow card moments before, after an elbow on Senior.
The right-back was disappointed with the way his team conceded the only goal of the contest and believes they were unfortunate to come away empty-handed.
"It’s frustrating," said Senior. "It’s probably the worst time to concede, especially when we probably had better chances in the first half. Obviously, it was a scrappy game; that’s what we need to make it.
"Coming here, it’s always going to be a tough place to come, so obviously, conceding on half-time is not ideal at all, but I thought we reacted in the second half, especially towards the end of the game, we reacted well again. We were unlucky to come away with a defeat.”
Bristol Rovers fell victim to a second 1-0 loss on the road, this time against MK Dons, following a similar result against Salford City just days earlier. Ryan Graydon scored the only goal of the Ammies fixture in the eighth minute, both matches being narrow defeats.
However, Rovers improved against the Dons and could have taken something from the fixture, with Cavegn having a one-on-one strike saved when the score was level, alongside half-chances for Mees Rijks and Shaq Forde in the second half. Senior believes his team can take the positives from a strong performance against a good side.
"It gives us belief to go into the next game on Saturday. I feel like we should win the game. They’re obviously good, they’re going to have chances, they’re going to have spells, but we battled, and we had a good shape to us, and we didn’t give them any chances.
"Obviously, the goal is frustrating, but I felt like we could come away with a lot of positives from today, especially coming here against a very good team.”
An impressive 454 Gasheads packed the away end at Stadium MK, and over 800 travelled to the Peninsula Stadium on Saturday against Salford. The Rovers fans have been with the Pirates all the way, with Senior desperate to repay their support.
"We need to repay them; it’s only us on the pitch that can do that, and obviously, their support has been brilliant since I’ve been here," said Senior. "On Saturday, we didn’t perform anywhere good enough, and to repay them on the pitch, what we need to do is start winning games and give them something to shout about, because no doubt they will be there again supporting us. As you said, they’re the best fans in the league, we need to give them something back on the pitch now."
The next fixture on the calendar for the Gas is when they face off against Newport County in the Severnside derby. Three straight 1-0 defeats for the Pirates show narrow margins can make all the difference, with Senior knowing a win needs to come by any means necessary.
Now we’re in a situation where we need to start winning games, no matter how we do it. It doesn’t matter, as long as we get three points.
“So, with the fans behind us, no doubt they’ll all be there again on Saturday and obviously the next three games," he said. "We’ve all got to concentrate on each game as it comes, but we’ll be ready to fight and hopefully win a game.
"Once you win a game, then you can go on a roll, and you don’t really think about it, but it’s fine margins in this league, there’s not really much in it. We’ve just got to try to get on the right end of the result and just win games no matter how we do it, as long as it’s three points, we don’t care.”
