Tommy Rowe felt a failure from Rovers to turn the screw when in their period of dominance cost them at Harrogate Town.
Rovers were largely in control of the game after skipper Rowe lashed in an equaliser but the game quickly slipped away after Harrogate went back ahead against the run of play.
And Rowe believes the story would have been much different had Rovers gone ahead when on top.”
“It’s really disappointing,” he said. “Coming away from the last game, we really wanted to build on it.
“After the first goal went in - which was poor and we’ve conceded goals like that all season - we were the best team for large parts and it was probably up until they scored again when it turned.
“We’ve had plenty of chances that we should have taken and we should defend better, particularly in the areas where they’ve scored. It’s not good enough.”
Rowe was also frustrated with the team’s defending in the costly moments.
He said: “We defend as a team. We’ve been working on things all season in terms of where we’re happy for the opposition to have the ball. Too many times we see goals go in and it’s not what we want and it’s not what the manager wants.
“We need to dig in now and get it right because going into this new year, we want to sustain better attacks and when we do we need to be concrete at the back and we weren’t. As a unit, we need to slide over and deliver better in those moments.
“It’s something we need to get right.
“We weren’t clinical enough - and that’s key in every game. We created enough chances but we’ve got to take them and that’s on everyone, not just strikers.
“The other side of it is ‘are we boxing them out, are we chasing them back, are we showing them on the outside?’ For large parts we did it but the key moments in a big game we didn’t sustain them enough.
“Everyone is bitterly disappointed.”
