Gary McSheffrey insists Rovers can only focus on getting the win at Shrewsbury Town on Monday following the disappointment of defeat against Bolton Wanderers.
Rovers turned in one of their best attacking performances of the season against the Trotters but slipped to a 2-1 defeat at the Eco-Power Stadium.
The result leaves the margin to safety in Sky Bet League One at six points with three games remaining and McSheffrey says his squad must head into Monday’s trip to Shrewsbury believing survival is possible.
McSheffrey on how the game played out:
“I think for five or six minutes at the start of the game, we couldn’t get near them.
“They moved the ball well and we couldn’t retain it when we won it back.
“The next time I looked at the clock it was 24 minutes and we got a foothold back in it, we played well, we were on the front foot, moving the ball well.
“Before you know it, it was half time and I thought it was a great game of football.
“In the second half, we started sloppily again with some poor decision making.
“We reacted well from the disappointment of conceding and get ourselves back in it. But then we need to be better and we can’t concede with their next attack.
“The lads need to learn from that.
“In terms of performance level, I thought it was a good performance. I thought the lads were brave, played on the front foot, got on the ball well and excited the crowd and got them off their seats.
“We missed some big chances and their keeper has made some great saves.
“I’m disappointed with the result but the performance level was good.”
On Amadou Bakayoko’s challenge on Adam Clayton in the first half:
“It was a late tackle. Ultimately it wasn’t a red card.
“It’s happened to us a couple of times this season. It did at Wimbledon.
“I’m not one to be saying he should have been sent off. Ultimately it’s the referee’s decision and he booked him.
“He goes on to score but we got ourselves back in it.”
On a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal:
“That was the difference.
“Their two bits of end product in the second half, they scored from.
“They countered well, got some crosses in and fizzed a few balls across the box but in terms of chances, they put their two away.
“There’s no secret to it. We’ve created chances, their keeper has made two or three really good saves but ultimately we should be scoring at least one or two more.”
On the chances of survival:
“Monday is massive.
“We go there, we get the three points and we look at the other results to see what happens.
“It’s obviously mathematically still achievable but we have to look at other results as well.
“There’s more frustration when you see a couple of results that have gone our way.
“It’s disappointing because we played well enough to win, barring a couple of ten minute periods. We created a lot of chances and if we’d had that bit more quality we’d have won.”