Bristol Rovers host Crawley Town in League One on Saturday afternoon with the game one of five in the division that has survived the international break cull after Cyprus international Ruel Sotiriou was the club’s only player called up for duty.
This will be the Gas’ fourth consecutive match at the Mem and are particularly keen to secure not just a win but a convincing one as they seek just rewards for a recent improvement in performances.
Rovers are currently 16th in the league table but the standings are still very much congested and victory this weekend could see them climb as high as 13th.
Meanwhile, Crawley occupy the final relegation place after 15 matches having been promoted last season on the back of an outstanding run of form that saw them sneak into the League Two play-offs before going all the way.
They’ve picked up some impressive results at home recently against Lincoln City and Huddersfield Town but, like the Gas, have struggled on the road with their sole win away from Broadfield Stadium coming against Cambridge United way back in August.
As always, Matt Taylor spoke to local media on Thursday to preview this weekend’s game. Here’s a full transcript of what the Rovers manager said…
Well Matt, what is the latest on injuries and the rest of it? Anybody back in contention for the weekend that wasn’t last weekend?
Not that I can think of. We’ve actually lost Lino [Sousa] this week. He’s damaged his hamstring so in terms of the ones who weren’t available, we’re taking Promise [Omochere] day by day. So like last week, going into last week, we’ll make a late decision on that one.
He’s been outside in the team capacity today (Thursday) which is a good sign so we’ll monitor that one in the next 24, 48 hours. So he’s probably the only one.
And then there’s still Joel Senior and Gats [Gatlin O’Donkor] who are maybe a week, two weeks away, 10 days away. So we’re getting closer. Obviously, Hunty [Jack Hunt] and Lino and one or two others we’ve got issues with.
So with Lino it sounds like it’s going to be a few weeks at least…
Yes. A minimum of a month [out]. It’s just a hamstring. [A] small tear in training. Pitches are changing a little bit. [It] wasn’t from a running mechanism, just a slip, which is strange for a muscle injury. But yeah, it’s a shame because you want everyone fit and available but that happens.
Every manager has to deal with that but it must be particularly frustrating when you look back at the teams you’ve named over the course of the season so far and I doubt there have been many that have stayed similar from game to game.
No. Obviously Taylor Moore is suspended this weekend, so probably on the back of a, what we felt on the back of Reading, another positive performance last weekend. Suspension, not ideal, that’s part and parcel of it, it’s why you have a squad of players, it’s why you have more than 10 outfielders and 11 players in terms of availability. But, yes, certainly in terms of consistency and patterns and rhythm, we’re still striving for probably a more consistent looking team for longer.
And do you think that would help with the consistency you’re looking for in terms of results because we all know there have been perhaps performances that you’ll have been very happy with, but it’s replicating that that’s proved the problem?
Yeah. I mean, the last few games I’ve been generally pleased. Even on the back of…it was Shrewsbury going into the Reading game, large parts of the Reading game we were exactly where we needed to be. I know we didn’t beat Weston in 90 minutes, but a lot to like about the character and some aspects of that performance and then probably our best home performance, bar the Charlton first 60 minutes, our best complete home performance against a tough team at the weekend.
But I can’t say Reading and Lincoln are real positives when we took one point out of a potential six. We have to win games of football but we certainly feel we’re moving in the right direction. But for the confidence and the feel good factor of the players and supporters and everyone involved in the club, you need a three points and a big three points to back it up.
Yeah, and that’s football isn’t it? It’s the results industry, all the rest of it. But I would imagine most fans would feel the same way, but I would look at it, most managers would love to be able to pick the same 11 players. You might not pick them, but you’d love to have that choice.
Yeah, it’d be great to have that option but even going back to the start of season and where Chris Martin is now, sort of, three games in his reintroduction to it and not been available for such a long period and whilst he’s come back into it, we’ve lost Promise and Gats at the same time and Ruel’s not available this weekend.
I think that’s part and parcel of being a manager and I think that the top level managers are complaining about the amount their players are playing, I don’t think we can put that towards the EFL or the Football League or whatever it may be. But injuries are part and parcel of it. Suspensions are part and parcel of it. International call ups, even when we’re still playing, are part and parcel of it. I think it’s the same for any manager across the board.
So, as always, it’s probably survival of the fittest in terms of who’s got the biggest squad and the best squad to choose from, which is why the ones with the bigger budgets generally do better.
Do you feel that what you’re having to deal with in terms of the suspensions and injuries and the rest of it, is it about normal? Is it worse than normal? Where would you sort of place that?
Even as a manager at this club, we’ve had it worse. We’ve had worse in terms of our injured numbers. I think it’s probably a reflection on the group in terms of how many in that real bracket of probably 25 to 29 who are in the prime and just churn out game after game after game after game after game.
If you’ve got the majority of the squad in that age bracket, I think there’s probably a bit more consistency in terms of selection. But in terms of where we are, we’re probably at the two other ends where the senior ones are, age-wise and profile-wise, above that bracket and the younger ones are below it. That’s absolutely fine.
You understand where they’ve come from the start of the season, but in terms of consistency, probably of selection and maybe a bit of performance and you look at that 25 to 29 year old bracket and we’ve only got one or two in that.
You talk about trying to build a bit of momentum off the back of some good performances and not necessarily the three points at the end of it, Crawley at home would seem to be an opportunity to try and do that.
Yes. Next game, big opportunity and if we play anything like [against Reading and Lincoln] we’ve got a good chance of winning this game of football. I’ve watched Crawley live three times this season. I watched the Shrewsbury game, watched the Burton game, I was there on Tuesday night and they are fantastic in terms of a certain style of play.
Top of the league in terms of possession and combination play in the opposition half so they move the ball and move the ball really effectively. But we have to respect that, acknowledge it and counteract it but then also take the game to them.
Our best performances at any stage of the season, home or away, have been when we’ve had the ball and we’re going forward and putting the opposition under pressure and asking their defenders and their goalkeeper questions about how to defend their box and Crawley are no different.
That will be our aim, always easier said than done, but that’s certainly our aim this weekend.
Last season they had that amazing run that got them promoted into League One, lost a lot of those players. They do, as you say, play some really neat football and if you let teams like that play, that generally is not going to bode well for whoever they’re playing.
Yeah and in every game I’ve watched them, and those games I’ve watched them in, they’ve lost two out of the three and drawn the other one 0-0. They’ve been the better team for large parts of it, they’re just probably missing that final edge in both boxes which I’m sure will come over time.
I know Rob [Elliot] from my days at Charlton, so they’ve got a good guy at the helm. So yeah, a really interesting team to prepare for but as we always do on these Thursdays and even Saturdays before the game is [the] focus has to be on us. If we put our best performance and our best out there, we’re a match for anyone. We’ve shown that, but then we need to back that up with goals and a clean sheet and a win and it’d be great if we could get a resounding one which just changes the feel around the place.
Having had five days now post-Lincoln to reflect on it, what were the major aspects that you were really pleased with and then maybe the ones that you still want improvement in?
Look, we were tough. I thought we were tough. I thought we competed across the pitch, all over the pitch. We stood up to set pieces so, so well against a team who have had the best record in the Football League. So, so many pluses in relation to that.
We actually moved the ball better than we have majority of the season without really creating that final third clear moments. But I think there’s a game context as much as anything else. I don’t think that was as much down to us. I think Lincoln set up fantastically well, defensively so strong, midfield in the middle of the pitch.
So, like we spoke about after the game, it was running moments of quality or a slip or a ricochet of a ball, which was going to create space on that football pitch.
Probably Macca’s header in the first half, Chrissy’s miscontrol in the second half were the best opportunities of the game. You wouldn’t say Shaq [Forde]’s was a direct chance and you wouldn’t say their goal was a direct chance, bar the one before half-time where, like I said, we felt it was a foul on our centre-halves. A game with very little creation moments in the final third and space moments in the final third.
Testament to the way both teams were set up, but then you are looking at who’s going to unlock the door in those tight games and I said afterwards, unlocking the door could look like a set piece goal. Set piece pressure or sustaining field position on the back of set pieces and probably on the course of the 90 minutes.
That was a big focus to the players on Monday alongside then once we find the space on the pitch, how we use it in attacking sense.
What have you made of Rob Elliot’s early couple of years in management because he had a really impressive Gateshead team and now he’s got his League One chance?
I can’t say I’ve watched Gateshead live an awful lot, but their reputation is of a footballing team at National League level. So the similarities in terms of, probably Rob’s progression to Crawley, very similar in terms of their style of play and the way they play. So it kind of worked in relation to that.
But yeah, he’s in the world of League One football where he’s gone into the best League One it’s ever been, which is where we all are, which is an incredible one to experience. It’s fantastic to be part of. But week in, week out, it’s just a constant challenge and as a manager, you always want your team to be competitive and he’s getting that out of his group of players at the moment.
But there’s always that aspect like we’re trying at the moment, is then how you get goals in the back of net and wins on the board and points on the board and three points always makes you feel better and where they are in the league is a position where they’ll want to improve that, as we do.
He’s a good character. I spent a bit of time with him at Charlton and he’s played at the top, top level of English football and obviously earned his stripes in terms of the coaching and managerial world at Gateshead and now he’s doing it at League One. I’m sure it’s a different challenge where he’s learning on the job and learning something different every single day but I’m doing the same and I’m seven years into it. No manager is different in relation to that.
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Do you think having clear gameweeks has helped? This is one of the few fixtures that has survived the international call-ups and it seems that, before you know it, it’s going to be March and you might not have had a weekend free between now and then.
Yeah, in terms of maybe getting players back and not missing games. If Prom does make it this weekend, then he’s missed one less game having not had a midweek game. So players are getting closer and closer to it.
It would be a good week, a good free week if we win at the weekend and we’ve got an opportunity when maybe other teams aren’t playing to get in the mix in terms of our league position.
You’re right in terms of that because I do think a lot of teams, including ourselves, will have call-offs throughout the course of the winter months, weather-related or other internationals or cup competition-related. And then if you get a backlog of fixtures going Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday throughout the winter months and certainly back end of Christmas and early January, February, it’s very difficult for any squad, let alone our squad. We’re talking about inconsistency at the moment for any squad. So, yeah, I’m pleased the game is still on and we’ve got to make it worthwhile.
Just for a bit of clarity with Promise, you said last week that he was still feeling pain and discomfort in the ankle joint, is that still the same issue?
He can still feel something. It’s where the pain threshold is but also, when he’s trained, maybe last week, there were moments where there was a collision or a slip and it opened up the ankle joint again.
So, you know, you can’t go into a game thinking one moment like that pushes it back another week or so. But the decision not to involve him last weekend and, not deload him, but just do individual style work at the start of this week has allowed him to train to a certain capacity today. Now, Thursday, Friday is very minimal in terms of opposition aspects.
So we’ll make a decision, but he’s got a chance and I’d say he’s got a better chance than he did this stage last week. So we’re hopeful in relation to that, but we’ll only know after tomorrow (Friday).
And Luke Thomas, is he still out?
He’s done a little bit. He featured in the game on Tuesday so that initial groin doesn’t seem to be too serious. He’s still feeling something in there or in around that area. So every day we’re just wary of what that will bring but he could be available as well.