Bristol Rovers first-team coach Dave Horseman conducted media duties once again on Tuesday night after the Gas’ 3-0 defeat at Leyton Orient with manager Matt Taylor still away dealing with a family emergency.
Horseman and assistant manager Wayne Carlisle led the team for the second time at Brisbane Road in what was a desperately poor night for Rovers.
From the first minute until the last, the Gas were second best in every single department and produced their worst half of the season in the opening 45 minutes, conceding three goals, one of which coming from a set-piece and the other two clinical finishes following individual errors.
Although they didn’t concede any further goals in the second half, Rovers still massively struggled to get anywhere near the Orient penalty area, coming away with just one shot and zero on target, the second consecutive league game in which they’ve failed to test the goalkeeper.
Horseman was visibly incredibly disappointed by the performance post-match when he spoke to local media. Here’s everything the Rovers coach said…
Dave, is it possible to sum up what is obviously a difficult night?
Listen, I think first of all we have to apologise to our supporters as a group. That was nowhere near acceptable. I take full responsibility for the performance because you can’t perform that bad.
So, to put your finger on it, I have to do better than that because that was a really, really poor…that’s as bad as I’ve seen and I’ve got to look at myself first. That’s just not good enough from me. So I think we’ll leave it at that.”
And I think the players will look at themselves as well. I mean, you started quietly, Orient on the front foot, three goals at half-time and second half you would’ve wanted a reaction and you didn’t really get it.
Again, it’s got to be on me because they’re good people and they try hard. Now, yeah, there has to be better quality and bits and pieces like that but we had such a spirit about us, I don’t think we had much quality on Saturday, but we had such a spirit about us and not tonight.
So I’ll have to reflect on that. Once I’ve reflected on that, then maybe there’ll be plenty of stuff that I could do better and before I do that, I can’t look at any players.
How do you assess the first half? Orient capitalised on mistakes, their finishing was clinical – it seemed everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Yeah, it’s probably a good way of summarising it really. The weird bit is I thought we were poor, but they hadn’t actually had a shot and had a few threatening moments.
We give a sloppy free-kick away and then there’s a free header and from there, that kind of set the tone. We missed too many tackles. We didn’t slide across the pitch quick enough and then when we actually got it, we didn’t look after it at all. So you don’t ever give yourself a breather or any field position or anything to get your teeth into the game and when it’s like that, then you have to be really spot on with your distances, with your marking and we didn’t get any of that and they capitalised on it.
The truth, I didn’t think they had to work very hard for their goals but they took them very well. So I think it was a lot of poor play by us, as much as it was good play from them.
You eventually made changes in the second half, were you tempted to do it at half-time or was the message to the players kind of, you’ve got us in this position, try and get us out of it?
No, like I said, I got us in the position. I thought I’d give them five minutes. We tried to go man for man all over the pitch and that would have been risky because we thought we’d get some ball wins and we did.
And then obviously we thought we might be able to get a first pass forward and quickly run forward from there and it didn’t materialise. So, then as that went, it was clear that Clint and Taylor Moore were knackered from Saturday’s game. Again, I should have probably gone with Joel, maybe Bryant, because they’re great people, they’re so honest and stuff but probably I could have made a couple more changes just to give us a bit more energy in the first half.
Yeah, like I say, and then not much happened. They had a few shots towards the end and we never looked like even getting in their penalty box. So, yeah, it was a poor night for us.
Is that a disappointment where we know there’s creativity and goals in the team but you didn’t have a shot on target tonight?
No, and let’s be honest, it’s three weeks on the trot where we’ve not produced enough in the final third. So, it’s something we need to look at. We have to take the shackles off. We don’t think we have got the shackles on but clearly we’ve got to find ways to create chances and at the moment, the last couple of weeks, that’s not been the case.
At Mansfield we were really clinical with what we did have but maybe we’ve got to work off volume a little bit more and get the ball into the final third quicker, get more balls in the box, try and actually play on defenders’ mistakes because at this level, defenders do make mistakes and it might be a volume.
I spoke to the Lincoln manager and that’s what they went to. They went to volume. Playing in the final third, crosses in the box and eventually something will drop to you. I think it might be something we have to look at where we have to force the issue because at the moment we’re not working the goalkeepers enough.
Is Bolton a kind of game that you need on Saturday? On one hand, it’s a daunting challenge but it might just bring out the best in you.
Yes, exactly that and it has to. And listen, I just said to the players then that you can’t perform worse than that. I’d be surprised if anybody did. I’m sure we’ll have a boost with maybe having full staff up to place and we’ve got a bit of time now to look at the Bolton game and watch this one back tonight and then obviously get ready for Bolton and a big team.
We need to show our crowd that actually there’s a consistency with the fight, not just every now and again where I think we suck everybody in. They think, well, Barnsley they put their bodies on the line, Mansfield you do, and then you come to Blackpool and you come to Leyton Orient, and you don’t dog the game out.
It might not always be a pretty game but you can actually show a little bit of fight and passion. That’s what really disappointed me tonight because I think if you go down, but you go down with a fight, I think people are disappointed, but they understand. I think when you look at that and you go out with a whimper, it’s just not of the level.
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Dave, would you say Orient possibly wanted it more than your players?
No, I wouldn’t say that because I think that’s then questioning the attitude and mentality of the players. I don’t think that at all. I think they started bright and I think we struggled to recover from it and I think because of that, the enthusiasm level for them stayed high and ours started to drain away a little bit.
And then I think what happens if you don’t take care of the ball enough, you don’t ever get a breather. You don’t get a foot in the game. You don’t get a field position so you don’t make them feel under pressure.
So I think, if I’m being honest, the technical level tonight was the bit that was very disappointing because if you get a ball in, if you get a bit of possession and we had one play out and then we’re under no pressure, we give it away and they’re almost through one on one and that builds anxiety in yourself and builds energy in your position. I think that’s something that we’ve got to do much better with.
You’ve had Chris Martin back for over a month now. I mean, no doubt one of the best finishers in this division, but how frustrating is it that, whether it’s down to him or the players around him, no attacking quality really has been drawn out yet?
As a team, we’re in an area we’ve got to work out. We’ve got to score more goals, create more chances, not just for Chrissy, but for everybody. So, yeah, it’s definitely something we’ll look at. It’s something that when I spoke to the manager Sunday morning, it’s something we’re very, very aware of and obviously we’ve had very limited training time in the last two weeks.
Hopefully after Saturday we get some training time and creating chances for the team is something that we’re definitely going to look at.
Luke Thomas wasn’t in the squad. What you can tell us about that?
Yeah, he just felt a little bit in training yesterday. So at this point in the season where you’re playing every five days, not one to be risked.
Obviously, there were boos from the away fans at half-time and I appreciate this is a bit of an awkward situation for you but 18 games in now, and there were obviously questions about this being a new team, players gelling, but at what point does it get to the stage where players should have gelled by now? Because there’s always going to be impatience as there always is in football, but is it unrealistic to expect it all to be put together by now?
It’s really interesting because, I think tonight, of course, so they should boo. That’s nowhere near acceptable. They spend good hard money. I’m a Bristolian, it hurts me far more than probably most.
I haven’t felt that disappointed and hurt for quite a while so I totally understand that. I agree. I’ve got no problem with that bit. We have to show a level of commitment to trying to create chances to try to win tackles.
It’s really interesting that if, after certain games, that everybody would say it did gel. Now what we have to do is find a consistency. I think consistency is the word.
You know, we went Saturday, Mansfield, everybody thought we gelled. Blackpool, they didn’t. Then we went to Barnsley. Okay, not so much with the ball, but in terms of the defensive resolve and a good goalkeeper. Then tonight, they wouldn’t.
Who knows what’ll happen Saturday? We have to put back to back performances together. I think that’s the key to what we’re doing or what we need to do.
So yeah, I understand what everybody’s saying but I think that’s sometimes dependent on the result and I totally get that and until you put together consistent results then everybody says gelling and it’s consistency that we have to do better with.
And is there any latest from Matt in terms of when he might be back to work?
Not yet. I spoke to him Sunday morning and we’ll see what happens over the course of the week.