Bristol Rovers boss Ben Garner has lamented his side's final ball after they were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw at Rochdale on Saturday.
The Gas once again let an early lead slip, with summer signing Sam Nicholson scoring a superb opener inside 10 minutes – knifing through the Dale defence before lashing into the bottom corner.
But Rovers then sat off and conceded a poor equaliser midway through the first half as a long punt forward outfoxed Jack Baldwin and Alex Newby raced in behind to profit from the mistake.
The Gas regained control of the game after the break and created a handful of golden counter-attacking opportunities that died through poor decision-making or execution of the through ball.
At full time, Garner shared his frustration with Rovers' play in the final third and the spell where they ceded the initiative after taking the lead.
"We started at a really good tempo and a really good level, and we probably came down from that five minutes after we scored," the manager said.
"We stopped doing what brought us the success. I had a few strong words at half time because I wasn’t happy with that, but the response second half was much better.
"Second half, the way we passed the ball and worked through the pitch was excellent. We had good control of the game, created really good opportunities.
"Our final ball with the pass or the cross just wasn’t quite there today, which is why we’ve come away with one point rather than three.
"We’ve worked really hard on it, and it’s coming, but we just want it to go into games.
"We should score more goals than what we are at the moment."
A pattern has threatened to emerge in Rovers defensive play over the nine League One games so far this season where the back five has looked solid in their shape but been susceptible to individual errors.
That trend continued on Saturday with Dale's leveller, much to Garner's disappointment.
"It’s a really disappointing goal," he said. "I think other than that, Anssi (Jaakkola) has had one or two very routine saves.
"It was disappointing not to come away with the clean sheet because one lapse in concentration cost us, and we can’t do that."
