Luke Thomas and Ellis Harrison spoke to Sky Sports immediately after our 3-2 win over Newport County in Sky Bet League Two.
After a quiet first half that lacked chances at either end of the pitch, Thomas struck twice in a matter of minutes to give the Pirates a comfortable advantage. The 26-year-old netted his first from close range after thumping in his second following a mistake from Nik Tzanev.
Ellis Harrison then came off the bench to get Rovers' third of the fixture, getting on the end of Alfie Chang's cross to knock his header into the net. Newport got two late goals to bring a tense end to the contest, but Darrell Clarke's men held on to the three points.
The Pirates have now won three straight games in the fourth tier, with Thomas and Harrison reflecting on the victory.
Luke, do you feel it could’ve been a hat-trick for you?
“Yeah, I think it should’ve been they might’ve disallowed it, but they’ve said it was handball and it was never handball, I think I might have pushed the goalkeeper, but they said it was handball, so I feel a bit hard done by there.”
I think it was the assistant who flagged before the ball had hit the back of the net. What’s your initial feeling there?
“It was so loud, so I didn’t hear the whistle go, so I was off celebrating, but yeah, I quickly realised it wasn’t a goal and looking back at it it’s probably a foul.”
And what about you, Ellis? You barely even jumped for your goal; it was a great assist, wasn’t it?
“I couldn't do any more. I played with Alfie [Chang] last year, so I know his quality, and I was in the right area to nod it home.”
You only just came off the bench, it was only a matter of minutes before you were on the pitch to get the third.
“I know what was coming. We work hard all week to create these chances, and I know where I have to be for when the ball comes in.”
I was watching you in the final 15 minutes of the match, watching what was going on in front of you. How were you feeling, Luke?
“Yeah, I'm delighted. I think obviously we made hard work of it in the end, but we got three points in the end, so we’re happy with that.”
And Ellis, when you look at the season overall, how it's started and the way it's going right now, it’s been such a U-turn for you guys.
“We can’t get carried away with it. We’ve got to take every game as it comes, we’ve got Barrow next Saturday, we go again in the week and then go against Barrow to try and get another three points.”
Is it a case of being happy with you got but frustrated in the way that you kind of let Newport County right back into it and you could’ve dropped two points in the first place...
"We didn't. Three points are three points; it doesn’t matter how we got them. We made hard work as Luke said earlier, but we came away with three points and that’s all that matters."
