Jon Whitney was happy with the performance but not the result as Walsall went down 2-1 at ten-man Bristol Rovers.
Rory Gaffney capitalised on a Jon Guthrie error to give the Pirates an early lead but James Wilson equalised with a second-half header.
Rovers were reduced to ten men on the hour when keeper Sam Slocombe was sent off for bringing down Amadou Bakayoko.
But instead it was the hosts who grabbed all three points when Ollie Clarke fired home from inside the box.
“We’re disappointed with the result but happy with the performance,” said the 46-year-old.
“I thought our performance today was better than the Portsmouth one – we contained Portsmouth but today we were the team on top.
“We make mistakes together and we got punished for them today.
“But I thought we were the better team. We created some great chances and came out in the second half really well, started on the front foot. They sat in and couldn’t really contain us.
“We got the goal and it looked like only one team was going to do it.
“Sometimes the sending off can help you – look at us when we beat Bolton 1-0. It takes the pressure off and expectancy gets put on us.
“We should, first of all, not lose the game – that was a kick in the teeth – but we’ve got an opportunity now on Tuesday night [at Rotherham] to put it right.”