Matt Taylor has labelled the current feel at Bristol Rovers as “interesting” while admitting his side are “moving in the right direction” as pressure on the Gas manager was eased following a 1-0 home victory over Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday night.
The win was Rovers’ third in their last four League One matches, although they had lost four in a row prior to this recent upturn in form. Pressure on the manager has grown in recent weeks with a number of supporters voicing discontent towards the Gas boss, particularly after a 3-1 defeat at Huddersfield Town on Saturday in which Taylor’s side were notably second-best for the vast majority.
Despite victory, Rovers didn’t produce a vintage display in what was a scrappy, nervy game against Shrewsbury with a cracking goal from Jamie Lindsay in the second half enough to earn the hosts three points and a first clean sheet since late August.
Salop did see a goal from substitute Tom Bloxham dramatically ruled out with a minute of the 90 remaining, seemingly for former Rovers striker John Marquis being in Josh Griffiths’ line of sight while being in an offside position. The visitors previously had golden opportunities to score in the first half through the returning ex-Gas front man while ex-Cheltenham Town forward George Lloyd squandered a couple of his own.
The Gas had good chances of their own falling to the likes of Promise Omochere and Shaq Forde in particularly but, with the recorded attendance standing at just over 6,300, it was a notably small home crowd for a league match with the atmosphere not matching one of a side who had secured a home victory.
This evidently befuddled Taylor who said post-match: “The feel of this football club is an interesting one. I’m constantly learning about expectations, realistic expectations. Where the players expect to be playing, fans expect to be, the whole club.
“Three out of the last four is not a bad return. Nine [points] out of 12. Scored some goals in that time, albeit not tonight, but we looked like a good attacking team tonight.
“We’re moving in the right direction. We’ve got to remember that the Chris Martin’s of the world are only a week, 10 days away. Gats is only a couple of weeks away. We’ll be adding to this team in the next couple of weeks. We go to Reading on the back of this result and we need another result to make it a positive week. Then I think we’ve got a couple of cup games after that so we get a little bit of a breather from the league. I hope when we get that moment that, league table wise, we’re in the middle at least and looking up as opposed to down.”
Set up with a back-four that saw Connor Taylor come in next to James Wilson with Taylor Moore shifted out to right-back and Lino Sousa coming in at left-back, Rovers started the game fantastically with Omochere winning a corner within 10 seconds. There was a pleasing zip about the Gas’ forward play with Omochere, Forde, Ruel Sotiriou and Scott Sinclair all starting but they just lacked the final moment of quality to break the deadlock.
However, the hosts should have gone behind when Marquis was played through in front of the Thatcher’s End and tried to round the ball around Griffiths, who then smothered the former Rovers striker’s effort before his follow up was blocked.
Lloyd also squandered first half opportunities before Lindsay bundled the ball home in the second half for his second goal in as many home matches, converting a square pass across the box from Forde.
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Omochere had a golden chance to make it 2-0 with an effort hitting the crossbar with substitute Luke Thomas also rattling the woodwork with the last kick of the game.
In between those moments though, Shrewsbury thought they had a late equaliser through Bloxham before discussion between the referee and linesman eventually saw the goal ruled out with Rovers eventually holding onto the three points which sees them up to 15th in what is a congested league table with Taylor’s men also just three points off the play-offs while also six points clear of the relegation zone.
“It was important we bounced back tonight,” the Gas manager reflected. “It sounds strange with the atmosphere before half-time and after the game. We’ve won three out of the last four league games which isn’t bad form. We know what we were leading into that but this group will be continuously up and down and I have to acknowledge that and make the people around the club, including the fans, understand that, but they’re really trying.
“Delighted to get the three points,” he added. “I thought we started the game really well. [We] should probably have been ahead in the first half an hour of the game and then there was a strange period before half-time where the game kind of plateaued a little bit when then the whole air and atmosphere and maybe our energy levels were at a little bit of a lull and opposition can always come in back into the game.
“But I was so pleased with the first half an hour of the game and then the message at half-time was pretty simple. You’re doing all this hard work and effort and endeavour and the nuts and bolts of the game. Now add a little bit of quality in that final third to get the end product and the moment to say we’re ahead in the game and we feel a lot better about ourselves and that goal was a big goal. We should have added to that goal tally even before the last 10 minutes, which were always going to be nervy when it stays at one.”