Steve Evans was adamant that the better team won after Bristol Rovers' narrow 1-0 victory over Rotherham United in Sky Bet League Two.
In a game where chances were few and far between, the Gas scored the only goal in the first half. Tommy Leigh created a chance for Bobby Kamwa, whose shot was saved by Ted Cann before Leigh reacted quickly to the rebound and fired home with a first-time finish.
The Millers looked for a leveller, with Fábio Tavares heading straight at Brad Young before thundering the bar with a curling effort. However, they could not find one, with the Gas staying top of Sky Bet League Two with their fourth straight win.
Speaking to BRTV after the match, Evans was delighted with the hard-earned three points and was proud of his team's achievements after the Pirates earned their tenth home league win in a row, a joint club record.
REFLECTIONS ON THE MATCH
“They were a hard-earned three points. I think I've said it in the last three or four weeks: the Millers have strengthened significantly with different players, and Alex and Steve, I would assume they worked really hard to make that happen.
“But I think we dominated the game and possession and probably shots and attacking areas for long, long spells. You know, the first half, I think we were very dominant. We didn’t take advantage of situations we got ourselves in apart from the goal.
“Tommy plays a good ball to Bobby and the goalkeeper spills it, and Tommy finishes it. So, we’re one-nil up, and the disappointing thing at half-time is that we've not scored a second, because we've made a couple of good chances to go two-nil up. I think if it goes two, we beat them well.
“Second half, I think it's more in the balance. They're not making any chances; they're having a bit of play. I've always said if coaches or managers want to play against my teams and pass it around the halfway line, the difference is that they're not the manager of Manchester City; they're the manager of the team they're managing.
"It takes until added time before they start throwing six up front, throwing caution to the wind and just launching it in. Therefore, we saw it off, apart from one that comes off the bar, and it's more going over the bar than in, so let's not be misguided. It did not bounce under the side of the bar; it's more going over than in.
"Then we didn't take advantage of two or three good chances, and you've got to give credit to some of the Rotherham players who got tremendous blocks in from young Phil and from young Reiss when he came onto the pitch, and Kofi hit a brilliant strike. This block was just a yard from the line.
“So, listen, we've got ten league home wins in succession. It equals a record. So that's credit to the players, but I love working with them, and these boys know that the harder we work, the better we'll become, and we'll become better.”
TOMMY LEIGH’S STRIKE
“I thought some of his passing was sensational, as it is in most games. I thought there was one crossfield pass to Shaq Forde that should be in the Premier League. It's just that he's drilled that a metre off the ground. He's put it 70 yards to Shaq’s to us. It's an amazing pass. He was just tight in his hamstring at half-time."
"If there are risks at all, that's why we take them out. That's why we've got a squad, and it was good today to get young Phil onto the pitch. It might have only been ten or 15 minutes, but I thought he was really good when he came on and young Reiss. We know the quality that boy has got. Jack Aitchison got longer in the team and he's been deserving it for a few weeks.
USING THE SQUAD
“I think I’ve said it before, about other players like Keenan Gough. We’re missing big players at the moment, but if there are risks at all, we take them out. That's why we've got a squad, and it was good today to get young Phil onto the pitch. It might have only been ten or 15 minutes, but I thought he was really good when he came on and young Reiss. We know the quality that boy has got. Jack Aitchison got longer in the team, and he's been deserving it for a few weeks.
"We had to scrap, and then we had to look after people who are really tired. Players who are really tired, like Shaq Forde, Fabrizio and Bobby, have been running 14 or 15k a game for three games.
"I made the decision that they are staying in because I thought we'd penetrate them, but early in the second half, they started to show their tiredness, but that's why we've got the bench we've got.
“I said to the players before the game that it hurts me on a Friday when I'm leaving certain players out of the squad because we're in this together, we're a team, and we've added to that, the was supporters, the Gasheads have been absolutely amazing since the day I walked in. I think the decibels at the end today were louder."
TOUGH OPPOSITION
“You command respect for teams that score late goals. They scored in injury time at Tranmere to get a point from being dead and buried because it wasn't a good performance from them. I watched a lot of it.
“They got a good win over Chesterfield. When Chesterfield equalised in the 88th minute, it takes a really good team, Paul Mullen, who's been a nemesis against my teams for years, but he takes advantage of a slip in 90-odd minutes and goes away and sticks it in, which Mullen does.
“They're full of good players, Rotherham, and I'm sure they'll be fine over the season, but my interest is Bristol Rovers, and we've got on top of the league. We are top of the league, whatever the results are.
“The brilliant thing is that we have a free week now, so the main group can have one or two days where we'll be in, but they'll be down a little bit, and then we'll sharpen the process up for a trip up to Grimsby. I've got enormous respect for them and their manager.”
TEN CONSECUTIVE HOME WINS
“It's been deserved; the performances in the main here. It's been fully deserved. I think if you're here as a neutral today, you'd probably say, I would guess you’re probably saying out there, the best team won.
“No, they didn't win comfortably, and they didn't win by much, but the best team won the game. And the other games were like Colchester, we won it comfortably, and you know, and the other we went away to Crawley was comfortable, and Newport here was very comfortable.
“So, we're not always going to win as comfortably as we wanted to because oppositions will come in and they'll try and stop us, but we've also got some systems to change too that we've been working on the last ten days and we're ready to implement what we need to do.”