Second-year scholar Faris Khan felt the 4-1 scoreline in Rovers U18s loss at Grimsby Town wasn’t reflective of the nature of the game on the Lincolnshire coast.
The midfielder’s headed finish was the youth team’s only goal in the EFL Youth Alliance League tie as the Mariners took advantage of an earlier Jak Whiting dismissal.
The result saw the hosts climb above Rovers in the final regular season table and Khan felt the visitors fell victim to their own pursuit of goal.
He added: “I think it was a game really where, after the red card, we had to push forward and take chances to get back into the game.
“Unfortunately, because of that, we struggled to cope with the counter attack and that’s why we’re coming away from the game with a score line as big as it is, and I don’t think it tells the story of the whole game to be honest.
“Up until that first goal, and possibly even second, we were in control of large parts of the game and didn’t really look to be in trouble, or like conceding.
“Obviously the red card decision went their way and they were clinical with the chances that they got to be fair to Grimsby.
“After those two goals we had to take risks to get back into the game and it just didn’t come off in the end.”
Khan was happy to half the deficit at the time, but also felt he could’ve changed the game even further with a different decision in the very next attack.
He added: “From the corner, the balls come in and I just thought that with where it was going, if I jumped up I had a pretty good chance of winning it, so I did that and it’s come off the back of my head to go in.
“It was good to get on the scoresheet and, at that point, get us back in the game, but it was unfortunate what happened after that really because we’ve come away with nothing from the game.”