Dave Horseman has labelled Bristol Rovers’ 3-1 defeat at Exeter City as a “sickener” after the Gas shipped three goals having taken the lead through Promise Omochere just after the hour mark.
After a pretty even first half, Rovers improved after the interval and seemed to have taken the lead through Isaac Hutchinson, only for the goal to eventually be ruled out for offside.
Just moments later the Gas had the ball in the back of the net once again with the goal this time standing as Shaq Forde forced a terrific save from Exeter goalkeeper Joe Whitworth but the rebound was gobbled up by Omochere for his second effort in as many games.
However, the hosts went on to score a trio of late goals through Jack Fitzwater, Millenic Alli and Jake Richards. At 1-1 though, substitute Scott Sinclair squandered a brilliant opportunity with one of his first touches, firing over the bar before the Rovers captain should have been awarded a stonewall penalty at 2-1.
Reflecting on the contest after his final game in interim charge before new head coach Inigo Calderon takes the reigns, Horseman admitted: “That one’s a bit of a sickener to be honest. I thought first half it was a cagey-ish game. They maybe just shaded it in terms of getting behind us on the left hand side a couple times but we had a couple of moments.
“Then I felt when we came out second half, we addressed a couple of bits and I thought we created probably the most we’ve created for weeks but always looked a threat. Then the game kind of descended into madness, i think, with no particular help from the referee today because, I mean the first offside goal seems very harsh, particularly as they said it was Isaac that was offside and he’s definitely not.
“Then there’s a stonewall penalty on Scott. He’s about to kick it in. The boy don’t touch the ball, he just takes his leg and we’re not in a place at the moment where actually we’ve probably come back from that quick enough and then obviously we have to look at ourselves.
“The marking for the first goal, the corner is not quite good enough and Taylor Moore gets two v one so we can look at that to addres that.
“But I thought we actually played really well for large parts of that today for the first time for a little while and hopefully the new manager can see there’s potential to work with within the group.”
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Calderon’s appointment as the new Gas head coach was officially announced before kick-off with the Spaniard taking time to meet travelling Gasheads pre-match by taking the opportunity to complete a lap around the away end, stopping to shake hands and pose for photographs.
The 42-year-old arrives from Brighton and Hove Albion where he had been the Seagulls’ Under-18s manager for 18 months and will begin work on Friday ahead of Sunday’s trip to Stevenage.
The Spaniard watched on from the stands at St. James Park and Horseman, who will remain at Rovers as part of Calderon’s coaching staff, insisted: “It’s been a real tough couple of weeks for everybody concerned but I think what the boys have shown is some real potential and I would imagine our new manager would be licking his lips.
“There’s a couple of areas we definitely have to get better at but there’s definitely plenty to work with in the dressing room.
“I’m here to support and help and whatever he needs from me, I’m absolutely ready. But he has watched plenty of the games back previous. He was here today so sometimes when you watch on video you don’t get a sense and today you get a feeling from the game. So I think he would probably go away tonight with lots and lots of ideas and lots of excitement.”