Strictly's Ashley Roberts admits she's hurt by hat-trick of bottom two appearances

Strictly Come Dancing’s Ashley Roberts has admitted she’s disappointed by being placed in the bottom two for the third consecutive week.

Despite earning a perfect score in the semi-finals, the former Pussycat Dolls member has said she didn’t expect to find herself in yet another dance-off.

Speaking on It Takes Two about the disappointment of being in the bottom two again, Roberts said: “I mentally prepared myself just in case, because being in the bottom two twice in a row, I think you have to do that.

“I obviously wanted to make it through to the final, but we had to battle it out to get there. It’s not a good feeling, but I just looked at him [her dancing partner Pasha Kovalev] and said ‘we gotta go out there and enjoy ourselves.”

Much has been made of the ‘unfair advantage’ those with previous dancing experience have in the competition, which could play a major factor in the public vote.

However, last year’s finalist Debbie McGee has said on Wednesday that she doesn’t believe the likes of Roberts or Faye Tozer have an unfair advantage.

Speaking on the Telegraph’s Talking Strictly podcast, she said: “The only advantage that someone who danced before has is that they probably understand the music, you can’t dance if you’re not musical.

“And you point your legs and feet naturally where someone like Lauren [Steadman] wouldn’t be able to point their feet as nicely as Ashley or Faye and you learn how to accept choreography.

“But it doesn’t mean your brain works faster than someone like Lauren who has been someone who has competed and has learned sports. So I think it all evens out in the end,” she said. “It’s unfair to say well they’ve had dance training because it doesn’t give you that much of an advantage.

“And like for me, I hadn’t danced in such a long time. I didn’t have the muscles left, I just built muscles through the series. You have disadvantages having danced before because you have to unframe things in you brain to pick up all the technique of ballroom and latin,” she said.

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