Chris Martin has insisted that he has been impressed by new Bristol Rovers head coach Inigo Calderon, suggesting that he thinks the Spaniard can help the Gas “an awful lot.”
The veteran striker scored the opening two goals of the Calderon era at Rovers against Leyton Orient on New Year’s Day but the brace couldn’t prevent the Gas falling to an unfortunate 3-2 defeat at the Mem.
Martin, who hadn’t scored this season before kicking off the new year with a double, could have had a hat-trick late on but saw Gatlin O’Donkor race ahead of him at the back-post from a yard out, turning the ball home with his arm while tripping over.
Having played for a number of clubs throughout his career, mainly in the Championship, the 36-year-old has worked under an array of different managers and admitted that first impressions of Calderon have been strong in the Spaniard’s first week.
“I’ve been impressed with his ideas and how he’s getting that across on the training pitch,” Martin told Bristol Live. “He’s very, very hands on. He’s taken a lot of it and is giving us as much information as possible.
“It always can be a little bit difficult for a new manager and how much he tries to say in the beginning. There’s been a lot of games so we haven’t had loads of time to work on too much and he has stressed that as well. We’re trying to focus on three or four key points here and there in each game and for us as a squad.
“But from what I’ve seen of him, I do think that he’ll be able to help us an awful lot. We just hope that it happens sooner rather than later. I think that’s always the million dollar question I guess. How quickly can he impress his ideas on us and how quickly can we put him into practice out there on the pitch.
“I think, well I hope, that he would be slightly encouraged by what he has seen but obviously we have to temper that with looking at the results. They haven’t gone our way. So we know there’s still a hell of a lot to work and a hell of a lot that we’re not doing correctly.
“I think as a senior player, that’s a responsibility of mine and the other lads and obviously also the manager as the leader to try and help in any way we can to get us functioning better as a team.”
Calderon was officially announced as Rovers’ new head coach on Boxing Day, 10 days after the sacking of Matt Taylor was confirmed with the 42-year-old emerging as the Gas hierarchy’s stand out candidate after failing to acquire a work permit for German coach Michael Wimmer.
Martin was at the club the last time they were searching for a new manager after sacking Joey Barton, a process that ended up taking five weeks before they hired Taylor.
“You want it to be as quick as possible,” the striker added on the swiftness of the process. “I know it’s not always the case for a club, depending on what the situation is that they’re in in terms of the managerial sackings or appointments and stuff. Sometimes you have to wait until one’s gone before you can start the search. Sometimes it might be already underway.
“I think from our point of view it just cuts out more distractions. The quicker it can get done from a club point of view, you can move on and start to and start to plan and look ahead. So that’s what we would prefer, I guess, as a group.
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“The decision’s obviously been made and I think he’s made a good impression on the squad. But now it’s kind of over to the playing staff to put that into practice.”
There has been frustrations and disappointment in numerous places so far this campaign with one of the stand outs being Martin’s lack of goals prior to the Orient defeat.
The senior forward, who has played hundreds of career games for the likes of Derby County, Bristol City and Norwich City, ended last season as Rovers’ top scorer with 16 league goals, a tally that put him fifth in the League One golden boot standings.
However, having endured a disjointed pre-season before sustaining a broken fibula in the Gas’ third league game against Stockport County, the striker missed two months of action, returning in October.
A mixture of struggles for service and some under par individual performances meant that Martin had to wait just shy of eight months for a goal with his previous effort coming against Cambridge United in a 1-0 win towards the back end of last term.
“Yeah, it’s taken far too long for me to get off the mark,” the front man confessed. “I’ve been very disappointed in that and I need to find a way of getting more chances for myself, scoring more goals, helping the team more, contributing both goals, assists and in any other way that I possibly can.
“It never stops. You’ve got to continue to try to evolve and improve and I’ll be looking to do that.”