Aaron Collins could not conceal his frustration after Bristol Rovers felt they were on the wrong side of key refereeing decisions in the 3-1 defeat at Portsmouth on Saturday.
Rovers had their backs against the wall at Fratton Park, but Collins' equaliser just after the hour put the game back in the balance before it hinged on two big calls from referee Gavin Ward in the final 10 minutes.
First, Pompey were awarded a spot kick eight minutes from time when Joe Pigott went to ground after Harry Anderson attempted to make a clearance. The Rovers man did make contact with the ball before the striker and Pompey boss Danny Cowley admitted he did not think it was a foul.
Pigott coolly scored from 12 yards to restore Portsmouth's lead but Rovers were adamant they should have had a penalty of their own moments later when Collins went down after contact from Joe Rafferty. Rovers boss Joey Barton believed it was a more credible claim than Pigott's and Collins said it was a "blatant" foul. For clarity, Cowley did not think that was a penalty either.
"It’s frustrating," Rovers' top scorer said. "At the time I knew it was a penalty. I don’t understand how the referee hasn’t given it, especially when he gave their penalty two or three minutes before that.
"Theirs, you could say, is questionable and the ref has given the decision. OK, but we go up the other end and I think mine is more of a penalty than what there’s was and the ref waves it away. It’s frustrating because I think we should be leaving here with something.
"You get different referees. You get some referees who talk to you; some referees just laugh at you really and it’s frustrating.
"Sometimes you just want a conversation and you can see the boys’ reaction after that, they go over and see him and we get nothing from it. You just want an explanation of why it wasn’t a penalty rather than ‘Get away, get away’. Just explain to us and tell us why because we believe that is a blatant penalty."
Collins is tied for second in the League One scoring charts with four goals in five games so far, level with Pompey's Colby Bishop and behind only former Rovers marksman Jonson Clarke-Harris in the standings.
Collins has taken the step up from the fourth tier in his stride and Rovers are delighted that they tied him down to a new three-year contract last month. A factor for Collins in that decision was the connection he has built with the fanbase and he paid tribute to the 1,843 Gasheads who made the arduous trip to Fratton Park on Saturday amid strikes by rail workers.
The 25-year-old believes Rovers – who are 15th in the table with six points from five games – have the strength to compete in League One and they will only improve in the coming days and weeks as Barton plans to make several signings before the August 31 deadline.
"When you’ve got fans like ours, you can go anywhere," Collins said. "The fans were phenomenal. I think there were 1,800 of them and they come here with 18,000 and you can still hear them for most of the game over the other 16,000. They are phenomenal and they do get us through the game and they help massively.
"It’s frustrating for them to travel down here and for us to not get anything out of it, but they can look at the positives. We go home against Shrewsbury next week and hopefully we can get the win.
"We’ve got plenty of time. There are 41 games left, so we stay positive. This season, we know we’ve got the strength and more strength to come in and do well in this league.
"It’s positive for me to get another goal today, but at the end of the day you want to be winning. I want to help my team and score and assist as much as I can, but when you don’t come away with points you do get frustrated."
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