Joey Barton had no complaints after 10-man Bristol Rovers succumbed to a 2-0 defeat to League One title-chasers Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday.
The Gas battled hard in the opening stages to keep the Pilgrims at bay, but Antony Evans received the second of two yellow cards for fouls from behind in the 26th minute, leaving the odds stacked in the hosts' favour.
Barton's side made it through to half time with some last-ditch defending, but it took just six minutes after the pause for the deadlock to be broken, with Niall Ennis scoring a sensational bicycle kick into the bottom corner. Just a couple of minutes later, the game was put to bed when Macaulay Gillesphey headed home Matt Butcher's cross to put the Greens within one win of the Championship.
Rovers finished the night in 15th and Barton believes they could only blame themselves for this defeat in Devon.
"It was always going to be tough," he said. "They are top of the table for a reason after the amount of games played, so we knew we’d have to be on our game today.
"I think we were fine up until the two challenges, really. I definitely thought the first one was a yellow card and once you’re on that yellow card, you just can’t run the risk and take that chance.
"He’s a young player, Evo, and he’s let the lads down there. He’ll be disappointed and nobody will be feeling it more than Antony, but after that, we had a bit of a mountain to climb.
"We got to half time and weathered a storm and I changed it at half time to get us a bit more of a defensive platform. It didn’t work; we conceded within five minutes of the second half and then it was a tough task for the lads.
"We kept scrapping away. We didn’t get a number of goals put on us and I felt in the midst of that, we learned a lot about some of the characters. I thought Grant Ward was superb, I thought Lamare Bogarde was superb, I thought Ryan Loft was superb when he came on and credit to Johnny Marquis as well. He had an unenviable task up there scrapping away on his own.
"I can’t fault the lads. I’m disappointed with the red card, obviously, but I can’t fault the lads. They kept scrapping away."
Shortly before Evans' dismissal, Rovers had a penalty shout turned down when Aaron Collins was chased by Gillesphey, but Barton – who was booked on the touchline in the first half – believes referee Craig Hicks got it right.
"I haven’t seen a replay but I didn’t think it was a penalty in real time," the Rovers boss said. "The ref was a lot closer than me and hasn’t given it.
"Some you get, some you don’t. I thought he was going to get a shooting opportunity or a crossing opportunity, and maybe he was going to cross but it looked like Josh Coburn slipped a fraction of a second before.
"It would have been nice to get it, but I think from what I saw, I didn’t think it was a penalty."
Top scorer Collins was surprisingly replaced at the break, with defender James Gibbons brought on his place to make it a five at the back. In hindsight, Barton said he made the wrong tactical decision.
"We were toying with the idea of him (Collins) staying on and keeping that secondary striker and having that presence up there," he said. "In hindsight, it was probably a mistake from us if I’m honest.
"I went to a five because they were overloading us with Bali Mumba and Danny Mayor in the first half pulling that seam out. I went for the extra defender in there and it didn’t bear fruit and as a coach, sometimes you make those calls and it doesn’t quite pan out."
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