Nick Tsaroulla’s 27th-minute goal gave County the lead in a match they had to win to have any chance of snatching a top-three finish – but Ellis Harrison’s 55th-minute equaliser earned Rovers a draw.

As it turned out, even a win would not have been enough for Paterson’s side to catch third-placed Cambridge, who ensured their promotion with a 0-0 draw at Crewe.

It means County will now face a play-off semi-final against Chesterfield, with the first leg at the SMH Group Stadium on Sunday, May 10, and the return at Meadow Lane the following Friday.

Paterson said: “There are two sides to it. I’m gutted that we didn’t go up automatically, but then also there’s another opportunity and we have to be positive.

“We have to just iron out the creases, go full steam ahead and play like we did in the first half today. In the first half, we were aggressive – that looked like us.

“We need to use this disappointment as fuel. I thought we should have won the game today. We had so many chances in the first half, so many entries in their box. But we didn’t, so that’s the lesson for us. We’ve got to be better in those moments.

“And let’s put some context to it. Bristol Rovers are a massive-spending team in this division, and they’ve been on an eight-match winning streak, so they’re no mugs.

“But I just thought we did enough in the first 45 minutes to put them to bed. So that’s a positive. The next bit comes with how we deal when things get a bit messy, and I’ll deal with that this week, and we’ll be ready to go at Chesterfield.”

Rovers, who have been revitalised since Steve Evans arrived as manager in December, finished in 14th place, having won eight matches in a row before their draw at Meadow Lane.

Evans said: “If you base it on position, Notts County win. If you base it on clear-cut chances, we win by far. We had four or five good clear-cut chances. So it’s a difficult place when you go behind here and you need a reaction. We should score twice very quickly.

“We said we were going to go with a different style in a certain part of the game. We changed it and after that it looked like Notts County were a counter-attacking team and we were totally dominant, and got a great goal.

“We’d probably go away in reflection thinking we should win the game but we’ve come a long way in a three or four-month period. I certainly wish Notts County every success in the play-offs – I think the Chesterfield semi-final is going to be a fantastic occasion.”