Steve Evans believes Bristol Rovers should have been out of sight against Barnet before falling to a 3-1 loss to the Bees.
Ellis Harrison gave Rovers the best possible start, with his low strike putting the Gas into the lead within four minutes. Rovers dominated, with Fabrizio Cavegn and Shaq Forde getting several chances to make it two before the Bees punished the Gas for their missed opportunities.
Adam Senior, Zac Williams and Kabongo Tshimanga scored for the visitors late in the second half, with Tommy Leigh sent off for the Pirates when the score was level.
Speaking to the media after the game, Evans reflected on the performance, with missed chances and mistakes proving costly.
REFLECTIONS ON THE MATCH
“Listen, for 79 minutes, we've made what many managers and people in the game have told me is the best team in the league, and they are a very good team. But they've had a drubbing today for 79 minutes; we scored a goal. We missed five or six golden chances to get a second.
“The Ciarán Kelly mistake. He's an honest lad, but it's a huge mistake. It gets them in the game, and it doesn't excuse Tommy Leigh. It's a clear red card every day of the week. I couldn’t see it from the far side, but I've just looked at it back. It’s a straight red.
“I'm not concerned about the third goal. We pushed everyone forward, and that can happen, but it's a sore one to take because we should have been out of sight."
MISSED CHANCES
"We should’ve been four or five up at one stage. That's not an exaggeration of the chances we've got. I think we got four one-on-ones with their goalkeeper, and we didn't score a goal in the second half, maybe from angles and different things, but we have to hit the target, score a goal, and we didn't do that.
“I said to Paul as the game was going on, we'll pay a price for this. You don't expect it to come with as big a mistake as that is because that's just horrendous from Ciarán and a very honest kid who's played really well apart from that. Really well.
“I felt sorry for the players. In fact, one of the owners has just come in and said the same thing. They feel for us; we need to learn from it. We need to learn from the hurt we'll feel tonight, as the supporters will. I'm sure the Gasheads will think for 80 minutes; they've probably seen us produce, in my opinion, the best performance of the season."
THE PERFORMANCE
"The facts are, if we play like that over the course of the season, for sure, we'll be in the top three. If we play like we've played today for 79 minutes.
“These eyes are not pickles. These eyes watch the game; they study the game. I go home and study it. At 79 minutes you should be four or five on the scoreline, but it's not.
“As long as you're missing good chances like that after really good play, you're always in danger, aren't you? And we're in danger. We make a big mistake. It's not just a mistake. It's a huge error. And when you make a huge error, you get punished at any level."
NOT SCORING THE GOALS THEY SHOULD…
“Well, we've got punished. If you look at Barnet, and I'm not exaggerating, they had four efforts on goal today. Four efforts on goal, and they've scored three times.
“I don't know what the shots are, but we probably hit 15 to 16 efforts on goal, and we've scored once, and probably half of those are really good, good chances.
“If you don't take chances at one-zero, you run the risk. You don't expect, of course, Ciarán Kelly to make the level of mistake that he makes, but he makes it, and at the end of the day, he's an honest kid who's been outstanding today for everything else apart from that one moment, but that one moment has cost a team.”
MOVING FORWARD
“It'll be a long couple of days for sure. I think the group will feel it. You can see the group. It was totally silent in there; they're feeling the pain.
“But as I just said to them, we need to channel that pain and bounce back, and we need to go to Shrewsbury and produce that type of performance and the same when we come back here for two of the big games in the same week.
"Salford is the other best team according to everyone. But if the benchmark is Barnet, then we'll live to that benchmark, and we'll see where we go.”
