LEE Bell hopes the heavy defeat at Bristol Rovers can give Burton Albion a “kick up the backside” as they chase promotion from League Two.
The Brewers skipper was disappointed with the performance of himself and his team-mates at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday as they sank to a 3-0 defeat.
“It’s disappointing when you lose games, especially in the manner we lost it,” said the 30-year-old.
“We’ve been on a good run and maybe this defeat – it’s not affected us too badly in the league – maybe it’s a kick up the backside we might need to remind us what we need to do.
“It’s the old cliche that it’s one of those days.
“We were saying beforehand that if they were better than us, we’d accept it. We’d try our best.
“I think we all did and it was just one of those days when they were just a bit better than us.
“They scored a couple of good goals (and went from there).”
Now, Bell is calling for a reaction when Albion host promotion rivals Cheltenham Town at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday.
“You can’t sit around and mope,” said the midfielder, who has forged an excellent partnership with Robbie Weir this season. “You’ve got to get on with it.
“You’ve got to take it on the chin.
“You take the pats on the back when you’re doing well.
“And you take on board what people are saying to you (when you’ve not done well) and get on with it.
“Today was one of those things. I’m sure you’ll see a positive response with a performance on Saturday.”
A hard pitch at the Memorial Stadium – where Bristol Rugby Club also play and churn up the turf – did not help the Brewers, but Bell refused to blame the pitch for a disjointed and tired-looking Albion performance.
“The pitch wasn’t great,” he said. “It was one of those Easter-time pitches.
“It’s a bit hard but it’s the same for both sides.
“Although it looks okay, when you get down on it, there’s not a lot of grass on it.
“It was one of those pitches that was rock hard.”
Despite the result, Bell is confident the Brewers can bounce back quickly – and still has the upmost confidence in the Albion squad.
“(I) never (thought the run would come to an end),” he said. “I felt the same as when I was at Crewe last year – I felt we were never going to lose.
“I felt that confident at Crewe and I feel the same here. I just don’t see us losing many matches.
“That’s not to say I think we’re better than everybody else, that’s the confidence you get from winning games.
“We’ll bounce back and will work hard in training from Monday to correct what we did today.”
Despite Burton’s superb seven-match unbeaten run and continuing excellent home form, the bookies are still unconvinced they will last the pace.
Bell says the players will stick together and show they can finish in the top seven come the end of the season.
“I was looking at the odds when they came on Sky the other day,” he said. “We’re only seventh favourites to be in and around it.
“What we’ll do is stick together – we’re tight-knit and we’ll prove people wrong.”
When asked if he thought any of his team-mates had peformed well on Saturday, Bell struggled to name any, including himself, eventually settling on centre-half Marcus Holness, who never stopped fighting for the cause.
“I think Marcus was good – he was decent today – but on a whole we were off it,” he said.
“Anyone walking away thinking they did well would be kidding themselves.
“You’ve got to get over it quickly – it’s got to be quick.”
