Joey Barton believes Bristol Rovers claimed a "valuable point" against Exeter City on Saturday, albeit he was frustrated by a lack of composure in Rovers' approach play in front of their biggest crowd of the season.
The Gas took an early lead in front of 9,689 supporters in BS7 – a sell-out with terracing safety measures implemented since the start of the season reducing the capacity – with Luca Hoole turning home Antony Evans' corner for his first senior goal.
But Jevani Brown equalised for the Grecians midway through the first half, and both sides had their moments in an entertaining game where the balance of power flipped back and forth.
Barton believes his players could have shown more composure when they had the impetus.
"I don’t know about a good point, but it’s certainly another point," Barton said. "We would’ve liked three to keep our recent run of good results going, but we didn’t manage to do enough to earn that today.
"If you can’t win them, don’t lose them. It will be a valuable point, no doubt, come what may.
"We got ourselves in the ascendancy getting that first goal. The only disappointing thing for me was that I just didn’t think we played enough.
"We didn’t pass the ball at the level I know that we can and again we have to give credit to the opponent. Fair play to them they stopped us doing that and it made for a tough game for us.
"I just felt we were a bit snatchy today. There was a little bit of angst in there. A little bit of free-flowing quality and confidence that you’ve seen at other moments, today we were just half a yard away from it.
"But again there was still lots of battling qualities. We had to do things right to take something out of the game. But I think when we watch the footage back and the clips, I think we’ll be a little disappointed we haven’t found the composure we’ve shown in recent weeks in those moments where you get those final third opportunities.
"You’ve got to be cool, calm and composed. In recent weeks we have been, today I think we can certainly improve on."
Barton has never been shy in discussing his vision for Rovers if he achieves success, and the biggest crowd at the Mem this season indicates the momentum Rovers have amassed over a 12-game run with just a single defeat.
The manager thanked fans for their support, with the atmosphere reminding Barton of the club's potential.
"When we first came in there was no crowd due to the COVID period," he said. "Then when they came back in, we weren’t given the best output and it was difficult.
"But I was sitting in my office before the teams came out and were back in for the warm-ups. I turned the lights and TV off and just sat and listened from the belly of the beast. Just listening to the fans singing and the positive energy and atmosphere that was in our stadium today.
"I just took a moment to be proud of everyone at the football club and how hard they’ve all worked. Every single person to a woman and a man. Every single one of them has worked tirelessly to get us in this position and we’ve got to keep doing that if we want to keep having great days and full houses.
"We’ll play better there’s no doubt about it. We’ll play better as our season goes on and goes out. But I'm really thankful for the fans' support, it means a lot. The Gas are coming."
There is plenty of work to do, of course, with Rovers dropping to 10th in the standings, four points adrift of the top seven ahead of Tuesday's visit of Barrow.
Sam Finley was withdrawn at half time and after the game, the manager revealed he had been suffering with a non-COVID virus similar to the one that knocked Nick Anderton out of contention for Tuesday's win at Leyton Orient.
"(Nick) and Sam live together, Couttsy is in there as well," Barton said. "It’s difficult if you do get a viral infection to contain it the way our lads are logistically down here.We’ve tried our maximum to do that but we’ve had a couple of people catch it. Hopefully, as quick as its come, it passes.
"Sam felt fine to try and play. I felt when I watched him in the first half he did OK. I just felt he was not quite himself.
"I can’t risk an injury to Sam. If you’re not quite yourself and you’re half a yard behind, especially when he’s on nine cautions, there’s bigger fences coming and more challenges coming down the track and we need to make sure that we’ve got our full complement available.
"So it was a tactical one and sensible one at half time."
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