GARY Waddock admitted his players had a let off from what he called a disappointing defensive performance in the first half of Wanderers' abandoned match against Bristol Rovers.

Before the heavens opened and the match was called off the visitors - without a win from either of their first two games of the season - had pounced on a series of errors in the Blues backline to go 3-1 in front.

Waddock said he was most disappointed by the fact his side allowed the Pirates to re-take the lead after Richard Logan had hauled Wanderers level with his first goal for the club.

He said: "We did the hard thing by getting back into the game and make it 1-1.

"The hardest thing was to get back into the game and we did that. Then you want to kick on from there, or at least stay in the game. To go two and three-one down was very disappointing considering during pre-season and away at York, and even against Gillingham, we defended reasonably well. To concede those three goals was very disappointing.

"It certainly was a let off. The scoreline tells you they are in a position to possibly go on and win the game, as much as you are trying your best to get back into it, but the game's abandoned and we can't do anything about it."

Waddock made four changes from the side beaten by Gillingham in midweek, including making two alterations to the defence, and the Blues boss admitted the move backfired.

He said: "We put some fresh legs in the team to try and freshen things up but it wasn't the case and it was a very disappointing first half performance. There's no getting away from that regardless of the conditions. We were very, very poor, which was very disappointing."

Injuries robbed Waddock of some of his key men and youngsters Charles Dunne and Lee Angol were both handed their first league starts as a result, but the Blues boss refused to use the low numbers as an excuse for their performance.

He said: "That's what we've got and that's what we are going to work with, but we need to still do better than what we showed."