Bristol Rovers' Mark McGhee: We could have won the game against Swindon

BRISTOL Rovers boss Mark McGhee believes his side were unlucky not to leave Swindon Town celebrating victory over the League Two leaders on Saturday.

The latest chapter in the West Country derby saga between the two sides ended goalless after a resolute Rovers denied Swindon a goal in front of their own fans for the first time in a match since October 29.

McGhee, however, insists his side should have ended Swindon's 14-game winning run on home soil by consigning them to defeat after watching Matt Harrold and Andy Dorman fail to convert good chances in the final five minutes of the game.

He said: "Swindon had a couple of chances in the first half and, perhaps, we rode our luck a little bit, but if we'd have done a bit better on a couple of occasions in the second half maybe we could have won the game.

"I wouldn't say I'm happy with the result, but I was just as interested in the performance and I was pleased that the players produced the sort of one that I expected from them.

"I expected us at the very least to be difficult to beat and also to give ourselves the odd chance to win the game and we did that very well.

"That's the way we've set ourselves out in every game since I have been here. There have been some games in which we've managed to attack better. We didn't do too badly in that regard here, but we didn't make enough of the chances we created."

McGhee's hopes of finding a breakthrough, however, were not helped by the withdrawal of Mustapha Carayol at half-time.

The winger was taken off as a precautionary measure after complaining of a slight hamstring complaint.

McGhee said: "Muzzy felt his hamstring a bit and we didn't want to risk losing him for four or five weeks.

"It was a bit of a blow because Muzzy is our real match-winner. Having said that, we were very comfortable in the second half and we managed to restrict Swindon to launching balls into the corners to try to search out their wide players. They are very good at that, but anytime they managed to get a cross into the box we dealt with it without a problem.

"I never felt in any danger that we would concede other than if we made a mistake, and, in the last 15 or 20 minutes, I felt we looked the team more likely to win the game.

"The few times we did break away on the counter-attack in the second half may have resulted in a goal had Muzzy been on the pitch."

He added: "I think it was important to put down a benchmark for our supporters to show them where we are at and what they can expect from us in the future.

"I hope the supporters will be happy with what they saw because there are a lot of positives to take away from that performance."

McGhee believes he is getting closer to finding out exactly what his strongest team is.

"I have an almost fully-fit squad and have had a good chance to look at most of the players now," he said. "I got a chance to pick what I felt was my strongest team on the day.

"I could probably have swapped a midfielder or two and still got the same result. Of course, the ones who missed out can consider themselves to be a bit unlucky."

weight loss camp in ohio girls weight loss camp fat camps in pennsylvania