Manager Gary Johnson praised the spirit shown by the Robins as his nine-man Cheltenham Town side went down 3-2 to Mansfield Town at the One Call Stadium.
The Robins went ahead in the first half through Harry Pell’s penalty, but CJ Hamilton equalised before Taylor Moore was shown a straight red just before half-time.
Mansfield were then reduced to ten men - when Hayden White was dismissed for a two-footed tackle - and Elijah Adebayo put Cheltenham back in front before another home equaliser was followed by a red card for Danny Wright.
Hamilton then hit a 94th minute winner for the Stags to confirm a first away defeat at Mansfield in 15 years for battling Cheltenham.
“The lads put in a good effort and when it went down to 10 versus 10 it looked like we could stay in it and keep the game, but when we go down to nine then it became a bit more of a problem,” said Johnson.
“I was really pleased with the way we played with 11, but in my opinion the FA have got to look at the whole game today.”
“I was pleased with our performance today, I wanted a performance and a competitive spirit, and I thought we had that without being over the top.
“I didn’t think it was a dirty game at all, but unfortunately the technical area makes it a dirty game.
“We played our football and their crowd were getting a bit disgruntled because we were getting a lot of the ball. But all crowds liven up when their team is a goal up, which they did at the end.”
Adebayo came off the bench and scored his first Football League goal since joining on loan from Fulham, and Johnson was pleased with the impact the young striker made.
“He took his goal very well and from that point we thought lovely, we are on for three points here,” added Johnson.
“But six minutes were added on and obviously when a team is a man down and the other is a man up then they are going to put the ball into the box.
“It’s just an unlucky couple of situations, the ball got caught under Manny’s foot for one of them and another one just fell to somebody.”
“They earned their luck because they got numbers in the box.
“I’m really pleased with my boys though, and I will tell them that.”