Inigo Calderon has confessed that it feels as though he’s been at Bristol Rovers for “so long” despite not even being at the club for a month following his team’s 3-1 win over Barnsley on Saturday.
The victory was the Gas’ first at home under the Spaniard having picked up their first win since his arrival two weeks prior away at Cambridge United, winning 1-0 in a scrappy affair at the Abbey Stadium.
Already, improvement under the 43-year-old has been clear since he replaced Matt Taylor at the back-end of December with Rovers securing back-to-back league wins for the second time this season. Those successes have made their position in the League One table slightly less concerning with the gap between them and 21st place Crawley Town now seven points, although Crawley do boast a game in hand.
Saturday’s victory over Barnsley was the Gas’ first league win at the Mem since beating Shrewsbury Town 1-0 on October 22 with the atmosphere considerably more positive in response to an entertaining match on the pitch. That led to pleasureable scenes post-match as Calderon ensured all four stands hosting Gasheads were applauded.
The Spaniard’s position as Rovers head coach is his first job in senior management having had a period as Brighton and Hove Albion’s Under-18s boss while also coaching his boyhood club Alaves back home in Spain. When asked what the post-match support from the terraces meant, Calderon told Bristol Live: “I mean, a lot.
“It’s like I’ve been here so long. I haven’t been here that long but still it was the second game at home and we played so many away and we go again away and away again. So, for me playing at home is always special and you know everybody was over there in the stadium and I wanted to be here.
“Leyton [Orient] was not that experience because we couldn’t win it. So today was finally a great win with the fans.
“As I say, this is really important because I think the connection between the players and the fans was there and for me, it’s key because to play at home has to be an extra point and I think we had that today.”
Although it was the first time Rovers had scored three goals in a league game since their 3-1 win at Burton Albion on October 5, there were moments where they rode their luck as Barnsley squandered a number of good goalscoring opportunities while Josh Griffiths also had an outstanding performance in goal.
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The visitors registered a whopping 25 shots, of which nine were on target, but could just convert one when Josh Earl halved the Gas’ lead with a header midway through the second half after Gatlin O’Donkor and Isaac Hutchinson and scored either side of half-time.
They also saw a goal from Luca Connell disallowed at 0-0 which could have changed the entire outcome of the game which prompted some Rovers supporters, at the time, vent frustrations with their team second-best.
However, once their players got into the groove of things, Gasheads responded by producing one of the best atmospheres at the Mem so far this season, offering Calderon an idea of what the home crowd in BS7 can be like at both ends of the scale.
“If I was a fan, I would be the same,” the Rovers head coach insisted. “But at the same time I think when we give them something, they give us something back as well.
“I think the next time it’s going to be a bit easier because, as I say, we are in a transition mode in the way we play and sometimes I can understand that they don’t like when we play backwards. But I will say that the first goal came from a long possession. It’s part of the way we want to change things.
“It will take time as well, to the players and to the fans, but obviously when we win it’s a bit better for everyone to be on the same page.”