Matt Taylor has admitted that there where too many moments where Bristol Rovers came out second best in their 3-1 defeat to Huddersfield Town in what was a largely passive display from the Gas.
The hosts had the best part of three quarters of the possession in the first half and, after knocking on the door for most of the opening period, eventually broke the deadlock as Matty Pearson fired home from close range following a corner.
West Ham loanee Callum Marshall quickly doubled the hosts’ lead with a good finish before Huddersfield added a crucial third through Bojan Radulovic early in the second half.
Rovers once again experienced improvement after making substitutions with two changes combining for their consolation goal in Shaq Forde and Isaac Hutchinson with the former cutting back to the latter but ultimately were second best for the vast majority of proceedings at the John Smith’s Stadium.
“The first half an hour of the game, every moment of it and every minute of it seemed to go away from us a little bit, even before the set piece goal,” Taylor reflected. “It was just too many moments within the game where we came out second, or didn’t retain possession, didn’t hold the ball, or didn’t have any control for long enough.
“And then the goal came and it knocked us into a not a nice place to be, or not a nice place to witness in terms of our effort and endeavour and our will. For 20 minutes before half-time and up until their goal in the second half before we made the changes, the team looked lost. In terms of the way I saw the game, we couldn’t quite meet the standards of it.
“They’re a good team. They’re going to be a good team, especially at home. Sometimes you’ve got to respect that. As much as that half an hour was moving away from us, the scoreline was still okay.
“But the Achilles heel of the team at the moment is weak moments and that defensive one from the corner is certainly that. A landing ball in the back area of our goal and then a second ball moment. But that was a picture from a lot that happened where Huddersfield, a blue and white shirt or blue sock, whatever it was, got there first goal on too many occasions. Then the second goal compounds it going into half-time.”
Rovers struggled to string more than a couple of passes together throughout the majority of the first half with their best moment coming at 0-0 when Promise Omochere latched onto an up-field ball from Clinton Mola and played it out wide to Scott Sinclair who shot wide from a tricky angle.
Admittedly, they did improve after conceding the third goal with Lino Sousa firing wide from a one-on-one position soon after Hutchinson’s goal while Taylor felt that his side should have been handed a penalty when Huddersfield goalkeeper Jacob Chapman seemingly made contact with James Wilson in the area.
However, from that point on the game seemed to fizzle out with the Rovers manager admitting: “The third goal was a killer. The irony is if Lino’s chance goes in or we get the penalty when the ‘keeper rugby tackled Willo, it’s 3-2 with a long time left in that game and then the whole feel of it changes a little bit. But 3-1 still felt a little bit far away, despite us being a lot better than we had been previously.
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“In terms of our start, yes,” Taylor added when asked if being five points off of the relegation zone as well as the play-offs reflects where his side are at. “But within that, there’s been too many performances which, you know, we’ve not had enough out of us.
“Maybe we’ve got to realise that coming to Huddersfield is a really tough fixture and I mean tough and for half an hour, they can have half an hour’s worth of football but mentally, after that goal went in, it was just not enough fight, not enough spirit, not enough connection. Maybe I should have made the changes half an hour in as soon as that goal goes in.
“But they are significant changes in terms of personnel and formation. So it’s a difficult one to do. But yeah, in hindsight, maybe I should have done that just for the mentality of the group.”