Ref Was Waiting To Give Something – Bristol Rovers Star Blasts Birmingham ‘Dagger To The Heart’ | OneFootball

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Bristol Rovers defender Taylor Moore has labelled Birmingham City’s penalty a ‘dagger to the heart’, but feels the team will be fine in League One if they can perform like Tuesday in their upcoming matches.

The Gas suffered a 2-1 defeat on Tuesday at the hands of the League One leaders Birmingham, after Jay Stansfield converted from the spot in the 85th minute to secure a Blues win.

It was the 37th win of the season for Chris Davies’ men, which has seen them break their own record of 36 wins in a single campaign, set in the 1994/95 season.

On the other hand, Bristol Rovers suffered their fourth defeat on the bounce and could potentially drop down into the relegation zone if Burton Albion win their game in hand.

Moore is of the opinion that on-field officials were favouring Blues and stressed that the Gas unfortunately created an opportunity for the referee to hand Birmingham a late penalty and highlighted that incident as a heart breaking moment for the team.

He told BRTV: “It was a dagger to the heart, a penalty like that, a handball.

“Whether it’s soft or not, I haven’t watched it back, but it just felt that there was a referee and an assistant there that were waiting to give something, and unfortunately, we gave them the opportunity to do that.

“But it was a real dagger to the heart.”

The Bristol Rovers defender, however, believes that if the Gas can play the way they did against Birmingham on Tuesday, then the club will be able to avoid relegation to League Two at the end of the season.

He added: “We’ve got to take our chances, especially the position that we’re in at the moment.

“Those moments count, and I think the game completely changes there if we go and score a second or even a third.

“It would be a completely different interview that we’d be doing right now.

“A lot of positives to take, and I just feel that if we can match that type of performance for the remaining game of the season, we’ll be fine.”

With a trip to Toughsheet Community Stadium next, Inigo Calderon’s men are set to face sixth-placed Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, who they defeated 3-2 less than a month ago.

Bristol Rovers will be hopeful that the players will be able to replicate their performance from last month against Steven Schumacher’s men at the weekend and get back to winning ways as the club aim to secure their status as a League One club next season.

For Birmingham City, next up is a visit from a struggling Barnsley side, without a win since the start of March.