Ismael on controversial Blackburn decision and top-six hopes

With the score at 1-1, Dolan arrowed a shot into the bottom corner but the linseman's flag ruled it out. The Rovers head coach felt his forward's goal should have stood and that was one of a few close calls that went against them.

That said, Rovers' defending for both goals was poor. Yousef Salech was given time and space to head in after four minutes. Yakou Meite got the winner from another ball into the box after Yuki Ohashi had drawn them level.

Rovers thought they'd been given a penalty in stoppage time after Makhtar Gueye went down in the box. However, after consultation with the other officials, that was overturned.

Blackburn Rovers player ratings: Tyrhys Dolan bright but defensive errors costly

"He took the decision due to the linesman. I think he's five yards from the situation so he has a clear decision, a clear view on the situation," Ismael explained.

"Then he recalled due to the linesman so it's difficult to take because in the first half we cannot recall the situation with the offside because I saw clearly Tyrhys is onside.

"At the minute those decisions are not going in your direction so you have to accept. The game today was a very strange feeling because you were more the feeling we are on top and we can score but at the end of the day in those games when it's 50-50, the bench makes the difference."

"I think that maybe this one is the most disappointing because it was a better game we had. We played well," he added.

"With the belief, the conviction on the pitch, we tried to do the right thing. Really a step forward from what I wanted to see and expected. Especially in the first half, we scored goals, chances, offside call.

"I think the first goal we defended badly on the left side so we should do it better. The second one, we just lost the ball. We had the ball in a transition situation and we gave the ball easily away.

"At the end, you get punished. As always in football, the details make the difference. We invested a lot in that game. But at the end, it doesn't drop on our side what we expected."

Rovers are now five points adrift of the play-offs with many supporters writing their season off. Ismael wanted to focus on the next game as, without wins, Rovers won't make up any deficit.

"I think that the first thing is more to win the next game. As long as you're not winning games then it's difficult to compete," he said.

"We saw an improvement today when you play against the team at the bottom of the table but I think it was a problem throughout the season so it's nothing new.

"Now we just have to make sure that we first recover properly, we get some players back to prepare the game and we refresh and reset for the next game to get the three points and this is what we need. This is the first step."

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