Bristol Rovers progressed to the second round of the FA Cup with a 3-1 victory at home to National League South leaders Weston-super-Mare on Saturday afternoon but did require extra-time to see themselves over the line.
Jamie Lindsay handed the Gas the lead late in the first half with Weston having early chances of their own before they equalised through Jordan Bastin midway through the second half.
Both teams pushed for the winner in a cracking cup tie for the neutral before Rovers flexed their League One muscles in extra-time with Connor Taylor and Grant Ward scoring in each 15-minute half.
It was far from a classic display from the Gas against a team three divisions below them but they got through in the end. Here’s what Matt Taylor had to say to local media in the aftermath of the victory…
Matt, most importantly you’re through to the second round of the FA Cup. What did you make of the game today?
First of all, we’ve got to give credit to the opposition. Not just in terms of the way the game went to extra-time, but the way they played, the way they pushed us back at certain moments and the way they kept on fighting.
They had a constant platform at the top end of the pitch with physicality. I think that’s a fair assessment of the way to get up the pitch and get us on the back foot and then the other real times the pitch was opened up, it was probably from our mistakes and our own undoing. We gave a few balls away cheaply in an attacking sense and weren’t quite locked off behind it. So it felt worse than it needed to be.
In certain moments you felt when we went ahead, it would be the moment to then take a deep breath and just relax into a rhythm of the game. We never really got there in terms of that rhythm. That’s credit to the opposition, but also maybe a bit of the feel of the expectation on the players going into the game, because, rightly so, we’re three leagues above the opposition and expectation was there that we’d have a better day than we did. But the main thing is that we finished the game strongly and I was actually really proud of a young team on a pitch at the end in difficult circumstances.
Relaxing is probably quite a good word because at times when you did play some good football, like the first goal, you played through them really nice but just didn’t do it as often as you’d want.
Yes. We had the ball in good areas of the pitch quite often but we still had shots cleared off the line and the goalkeeper has made several good saves. So, the biggest change in a game of football is goals, the way that it feels, the atmosphere, the opposition, both sets of supporters, the players themselves. But for some goal line clearances and some good saves, it might have been more comfortable.
But, in terms of where we were today with the ball, you certainly felt that those goals would come sooner than they probably did in extra-time.
But you got there in the end and there were a few moments of quality that got you the goals today.
Yes. Jamie Lindsay, we’ve said before, hasn’t been brought in to score goals, but I think he’s our leading goal scorer now and keeps on showing why we did bring him in. I’m pushing him towards bigger minutes.
And then in extra-time, I think probably the best cross of the game. I said that to the players just then. I think we can probably count on one hand how many real quality deliveries, including set-pieces, we got in today. That was a perfect one. Connor still had to go and meet the ball, but Macca put that in a fantastic area.
And then, as the game got stretched towards the back end of the second half of extra-time, then Wardy took his moment. I’d have liked a few to go in earlier than that because it was literally chance after chance after chance, but that was expected in terms of where the game was.
So, yeah, delighted that we got through it because that could have turned into a real difficult one.
That’s it isn’t it? Sometimes winning ugly isn’t a bad thing because you’re not going to play beautifully all the time and is there something to really take from that, that your team hung in there at times and got over the line?
Yeah, and showing resilience in certain moments. We know we need to be tougher. But we’re only getting it better from this point onwards with the players we’ve got coming back and more minutes for Chrissy and Hunty and X, Y, Z.
Today was a big moment because obviously we wanted to get into the hat. We wanted to win the game, we wanted to win it more comfortably than we did but it’s also important that people are moving in the right direction.
There’s still a couple of I feel a little bit low on confidence. I think that’s a fair assessment of some of our attacking players, especially. I think there’s more to come from certain personnel, so we need to get them fit and firing.
I did think a couple of players at different ends of the pitch definitely took a big step forward today in Isaac Hutchinson looking dangerous up front and Connor Taylor defensively and obviously with another goal.
Yes. Really pleased for both. Both have had difficult moments at different stages this season. Both are still young and learning the game, but Isaac seemed to be involved in every attacking opportunity or every quality attacking opportunity. So he’s given us a real option on that left-hand side and roaming, especially with Clinton now in a marauding left-back role. I’m pleased for Isaac.
And then Connor, obviously we kind of know what’s happened recently in terms of some of the chances and goals against but those boys at the top end of the pitch were a handful, they were a handful. You’ve got Connor and Michael on the pitch at the end. He’s just turned 23, Connor and Michael’s 20.
I know it’s non-league level, Reuben Reid, Nick McCootie, they’re a handful and I thought he actually dealt with them pretty well and then to get the goal, it’s Connor who had the chance in the first half cleared off the line, but to get the goal and to meet that ball, big confidence boost for him.
And now it’s about taking that forward, not just those two individuals, but the team trying to get what you haven’t managed this year, which is string a load of results together.
Yes. We’ve got a couple more home games coming up, so straight away we look forward to Lincoln, but we just take a little bit of a deep breath and know that we’re in the hat for tomorrow night and we’ll see who we get and we’ll look forward to that cup competition progressing or continuing.
But then yeah, quickly our focus will turn to Lincoln and like I say, we’ll hopefully have James Wilson back on the training pitch. We’ll definitely have Shaq. Hopefully we’ll have James Wilson back on the training pitch. Potentially Promise. Potentially Chrissy in a better state. Joel Senior is training.
And it’s important that Shaq one because we mentioned about Isaac’s link up play, not many times did we run past the player one v one today.
That was probably one aspect of the game, on top of set-pieces, where you’re looking at who’s going to really beat a player one v one and really create a bit of space. I think there was one from Hunty in the first half.
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What was the message to the players when it went to extra-time because you had a young team finish that game and there were boos?
They’re moaning at me, not the players, hopefully. But the players feel it and that was a young group who just needed to stand up, keep the game simple, keep understanding it. We’ve got Bryant Bilongo playing centre-forward and I actually thought he did pretty well. I thought he affected their back-line and ran and competed. So, full credit to him.
I just wanted them to take a deep breath. They’d fought their way back into a control element at the back end of the second half and you just felt if they could keep that going, then we were in a good place in extra-time. Plus, physically, we should be stronger than the opposition team.
I tried my hardest just to get them to take a deep breath in, keep their game simple, keep moving forward and keep locking off the pitch from behind. The message is really simple. But it also showed how much they wanted it.
Have you said anything specifically to Jamie Lindsay? I think he’s already tripled his goals tally from last season. It seems to be a trait that now he’s added to his game.
Every time we’re working on attacking play, we have to get one of Kamil and Jamie involved in that. If that’s running to goal, then it’s running to goal. If it’s involved on the outside of the pitch, it’s involved on the outside of the pitch. It’s everything that we need to do and I want more from Kamil. He had a couple of drive forwards and shots on goal but Jamie’s just shown that if he trusts his midfield partner to cover the middle of pitch behind him, then he can get on the edge of the box.
And it’s the hardest one to defend because he’s meeting the ball as the ball’s arriving. Exactly like his three goals he’s scored so far this season.
But he’s also got enough quality to hit the target. There was some chances today where you’re thinking just hit the target, hit the target, hit the target and he did that today.
After having extra-time, does the clear week come at a good time?
Yes. Certainly in terms of the bodies we’re expecting back on the training pitch. In what capacity they’ll be like Monday, Tuesday remains to be seen.
But we’ve got fitness on our side because we’ve got youth on our side and the ones who need looking after, the Jack Hunt’s and the Chris Martin’s of the world, I think they’re still fully fit, which is the main thing in terms of their return back to full fitness, so to speak.
So we’re not in a bad place. I’m looking forward to some more bodies on the training pitch this week and a good week’s training going into Lincoln.