Joey Barton believes Bristol Rovers could have made easier work of their victory at Crawley Town on Tuesday evening, but those minor complaints will drift into irrelevance after his side closed to within two points of the League Two play-offs.
The Gas remain ninth, but their 2-1 win at Broadfield Stadium reeled in the sides above them, with the automatic promotion places just three points away.
Harry Anderson and Aaron Collins scored the goals in Sussex, but Jake Hessenthaler pulled one back with 21 minutes to play and the Gas had to withstand intense pressure in the closings stages.
Barton thought he could have enjoyed a more comfortable night in the dugout had Rovers been more clinical, but the nerves were replaced by delight at the final while.
"Really pleased to win any game off the back of a disappointing result (at Newport) at the weekend," Barton said. "We knew coming here today Crawley are a competitive side. John (Yems) has always has them right in every fixture and we knew from the home game that it would be a tough encounter.
"We’re delighted to get out of here with three points. We probably could have made it a bit easier for ourselves, but credit to Crawley, they kept testing us and kept probing and pushing us right to the end.
"Harry Anderson and Aaron Collins will get the plaudits for their goals tonight, but there were a lot of good moments from our defenders and when the defence is penetrated, my opinion is we’ve got the best goalkeeper in the league in James Belshaw and he came through for us again.
"If you’re going to be successful you need everybody in your team to step up when required. Certainly in the second half of the season, we’ve had match-winners all over the park.
"We’re disappointed to concede a goal from a corner, but there were circumstances with one of our key defenders (Nick Anderton) off the pitch getting treatment.
"We had to hang on and do things properly. We probably should have put the game beyond them with a couple of the chances we had, but I’m not going to complain (about) three points and an away victory that gets us looking back up the table."
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