Bristol Rovers coach Dave Horseman has insisted that the Gas will be “trying to do one for the manager” when they head up to Barnsley in the FA Cup second round on Saturday after Matt Taylor had to take a leave of absence following a family emergency.
Horseman and assistant manager Wayne Carlisle will be taking care of footballing duties until Taylor’s return, when that is is currently unclear. However, what is certain is that the pair will be leading the team up at Oakwell as the Gas look to progress into the FA Cup third round for a second consecutive season.
Both have experience of leading senior teams with Horseman previously manager at Forest Green Rovers while Carlisle took interim charge of Rotherham United for a couple of weeks last term following Taylor’s departure from the then-Championship outfit.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s game, Horseman said: “Matt has a family emergency. He needs to be with his family and look after them in the club are fully supportive and we know in times like this family comes first and it’s important. So yeah, we just wish him and his family well and obviously it’s business as usual for the rest of us.
“What ends up happening is obviously people forget that football’s about people and the manager’s a brilliant guy. I’m really grateful that he brought me here and you don’t want to see people suffering and get hurt.
“We try to do the best job we can while he’s away and look forward to getting him back as soon as possible, hopefully Monday or whenever he sees fit. So yeah, we’re disappointed he’s not there, but we’ll do the best we can without him.
“So, actually, we’re trying to do one for the manager on Saturday I think and try and get us through to the next round.
“We obviously played Barnsley not long ago, so good team,” the Rovers coach added. “We kind of know what to expect from them. We know what we’re getting from our players.
“So yeah, it’s business as usual. Nothing hugely changes. Training was exactly the same today. Obviously the manager would lead a lot of the prep on Friday so me and Wayne will do that tomorrow and we’ll make sure the boys are organised and ready to go for Saturday.”
Saturday will be Rovers’ third trip to Oakwell of the calendar year and their previous two trips in League One have ended in 2-1 defeats with the Gas ending up rueing missed chances.
Taylor’s men started poorly in the league game this season back in September and went 1-0 down and could’ve found themselves further behind before Ruel Sotiriou capitalised on an error at the back to score his only Rovers goal to date.
The Gas then had one particularly outstanding chance amongst a couple of opportunities, a close-range header falling to Promise Omochere that the striker couldn’t convert before Barnsley re-took the lead and ended up holding on to win the game.
Although they started poorly, Rovers were more than competitive for the majority of that contest and, even though their League One counterparts will be the favourites going into Saturday’s cup tie, Horseman believes that they can take confidence from their performance almost three months ago.
“Obviously we’ve got to put Tuesday night right first of all,” the former Forest Green and Southampton Under-21s boss declared, referring to Rovers’ 2-0 defeat to Blackpool on Tuesday night. “Let’s not mess around, we weren’t good enough Tuesday night. The players know that we know that, we have to make sure we come with loads of energy. We have to be really tough away at Barnsley because they’re going to stick it on us and try and beat us up and actually, the Mansfield game gives me a lot of confidence that our players can rise to that.
“Against Barnsley for the first 20 minutes, I thought they were very good but we were also not so good. Once we got over that period, I thought for the 20 minutes before half-time and 15 minutes after half-time, I thought we were absolutely excellent. Should have been out of sight. The ‘keeper made a really good save from Prom, or we should have scored in that situation. I think it looks a completely different game.
“I don’t think their home form has been hugely brilliant. Now, that really means nothing to me but, we might, if we can hang in there, start the game a little bit quicker, the anxiety in their crowd on the pitch might give us just a little boost and give us a helping hand.
“But I mean, we’ve got no problem with Barnsley. We want to beat them like they want to beat us. But we’ve got to put Tuesday night right, I think, on Saturday and start the game fast.”
Naturally, Rovers will be focusing on the initial task at hand which is to win the game on Saturday but, with it being the second round, it’s impossible to not think in the back of the mind about the possibility of coming up against one of England’s biggest clubs in the next round.
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Of course, the third round is when Premier League and Championship sides enter the fray with the Gas extremely unlucky not to win away at Norwich City last season before losing the eventual replay that, with victory, would have set up a dream tie away at Anfield to face Liverpool.
For Horseman, although he will be ensuring his players focus on the initial task at hand, he’s well aware of the potential prize should Rovers prove victorious in South Yorkshire.
“Yeah, we focus on what we do,” the Gas coach insisted. “I mean, I have a bit of a laugh because I was really fortunate at Southampton. I’ve been to Old Trafford, I’ve been to the Emirates. I’ve held the subs board up at all the Premier League grounds – there’s still a couple I need to tick off. I actually get a lot of stick for that.
“But I think we should be excited. I don’t want to calm anybody down. I think this group’s better when they’re energetic and vibrant.
“There’s not been any of that talk yet but there’s so much that’s happened in the space of a week. We have league games, we have to concentrate on the next game which is Barnsley. I’m very aware we have Leyton Orient away on Tuesday, then we have Bolton at home.
“Let’s try and put the best team we possibly can out on Saturday, win the game if we can, ideally in 90 minutes would be lovely, and then we prepare for the next one. That’s the beauty of football. There’s always the next game pretty quick and our boys are brilliant lads. They’ll go for it, I’m sure.”