Although Bristol Rovers are closing in on appointing their new permanent manager or head coach, Dave Horseman remains in interim charge and, as things stand at the time of writing, will be in charge for the Boxing Day trip to Exeter City.
The Rovers coach oversaw a solid 1-1 draw at home to Wrexham on Saturday afternoon and has had to deal with a number of other setbacks away from the pitch.
It’s currently unclear exactly when a new manager will be appointed but preparations have taken place with the assumption that Horseman will be in charge once again.
Therefore, the Gas’ interim manager met with local media once again on Monday afternoon to discuss the Wrexham draw, managerial latest, the trip to Exeter, festive plans and much more.
Here’s a transcript of every word Horseman said ahead of the Boxing Day clash…
I know it’s been a crazy few days, but at some point on Saturday was there just a bit of calm and a chance to assess things and take in what’s been happening?
Yeah, probably when I got home if I’m being honest. We had five minutes in the office afterwards where…yeah, it wasn’t just even last week. It was probably, obviously unfortunate with the previous manager’s family situation, even the period before that.
So it’s felt like a really, for me personally, a chaotic two weeks and I think probably when I was reflecting on Saturday night a situation I’ve never been in before where you’re kind of just looking after something, trying to keep it ticking along because you’re not building towards your philosophy or at the moment we’re waiting for that next period of time.
So you’re trying to keep the team going without actually building towards the bigger picture. That’s actually a lot tougher than a lot of things I’ve done in football where it’s been clear the direction you’re going and you’re always working towards that.
So sat down and probably my overriding feeling after I sat down was just that, in the end, although it was way from being perfect, I just felt a load of pride because I think at the very end everybody felt together.
Now we only got a 1-1 and the performance wasn’t particularly great for the most part but we got a draw against third in the table after having weeks and weeks and weeks of pretty poor performances for 90 minutes. You know, players, the fans, everybody, the staff all come together to get a point. It was only a point but that might be a start in the start point and that was probably my biggest reflection.
And was it fitting for the goal? Maybe two players who haven’t had it all their own way this season were involved with Luke (Thomas)’s cross and Promise (Omochere) scoring the goal?
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it’s really interesting. There’s so many ups and downs in football and particularly for individual players. Joel (Senior) obviously had the excitement of coming in and getting injured. He puts the ball in for LT who’s clearly, from the fans’ reaction, they’ve been desperate to have him out there.
Then he crosses and he’s missed loads of football for somebody who then has missed loads of football and they head it in and they probably felt really high on Saturday night and you actually, in those moments, forget all the lows and obviously you have way more lows in football than highs, but the highs far outweigh the lows and I think probably Saturday night, for quite a few individuals, probably felt that way.
And we look forward to the Exeter game, and is it a bit strange because we don’t know 100 per cent whether you’ll actually be leading the team at St. James Park in a few days time?
No, exactly that. I’ve spoken to George (Friend) and at the moment I’ll plan as if I’m taking it.
We’ll sit down tomorrow morning. We’ll go through the long list of clips. Obviously we’ve got one session tomorrow to work out a plan. How we try to press them, how we try to build to create some sort of overload somewhere on the pitch and try and continue probably the last 15, 20 minutes worth of performance [against Wrexham].
Now that’s personnel wise, but that’s also style wise. So we’ll have a little look at that tomorrow.
They’re completely different to Wrexham and I’ll have to explain to the group in the morning that I think going from Wrexham who play one style very good to Exeter who are slightly different, to then go back to Stevenage.
I think the squad will get used quite a lot for just physical reasons if nothing else, but also for tactical reasons because the challenges are so different over the three games.
And is it too simplistic to say the changes on Saturday made a difference and just giving Chris a bit more support up front, is there scope to start like that or do you have to be trailing and chasing games to maybe be bold like that?
Yeah, listen. I was really open and honest afterwards. I know I made a load of mistakes and I don’t think I quite got it right. It wasn’t the players’ fault. I said in the interview afterwards that it was definitely mine.
In hindsight, we looked really negative because we ended up having five centre-backs, actually I think that’s a bit harsh on Clint (Mola), but five centre-backs on the pitch, if some people want to say that, and there was a real reason behind it. It didn’t work and at half-time I had to fix it.
I think then, obviously, we knew we had to stay in the game. Let’s be honest, we’re not in great form. So I know everybody’s like just go out and attack, but football’s not quite that simple, [otherwise] we’d all just do it.
And then the subs made a huge impact. So no, they did change the game but that’s mainly because of the players that we brought on fitted what we actually needed in the game and they then also probably showed a huge level of professionalism because there’s nobody sulking or moaning. They’re all in it together. They support each other and you know, I know it’s a cliche, we win, lose and draw as a group and that’s what we do.
I spoke to Scotty (Sinclair) and Taylor Moore and I actually apologised to them because it feels like they get hung out to try but it was not them. If we can’t get Scotty one v one down the side of the centre-back, well that’s a big strength of his and Taylor Moore did everything he can, but he’s not right-wing-back in all fairness to him. I knew that before the game but I did want to make sure we were still in the game knowing full well we’ve got a really strong squad.
And then the changes worked so I guess if you make a mistake, fix it. I think we did and it’s a shame because I think probably a couple more minutes and I think we might have been able to nick a winner in that game which, again, shows the potential of the group.
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And just talk to me about the support you’ve received, because we saw both Scott (Brown) and Jack Hunt just assisting. You can’t do it all on your own, I guess?
It’s felt a really busy time because obviously during the week, Hunty needs to get himself fit. He’s back on the grass running now.
On Saturday I was immensely grateful for, not just him, but all the staff. They really dug in because it was only me. The fans that were there early knew I had a couple of interviews, set the warm up up, lead the warm up, do the team sheets, deliver the team message, then go out. Now obviously once you get to the bench, you need a sounding board. There’s a lot and there’s also a lot of pressure.
Obviously you’re desperate to win and you have a plan but you need the sounding board and people that understand football and Scott Brown and Jack Hunt have got probably between them close to a thousand games, I would imagine.
So to have that support, that knowledge on the bench, I thought they were both really, really good, really useful and they were as much to do with the draw as anybody else.
I’ll try to avoid you answering any questions with no comment or I don’t know, but do you have any idea when Rovers might appoint a new manager?
Unfortunately not. So at the moment I’m planning on taking the game on Thursday.
And if and when the new guy comes in, is it a case of you sitting in a room and finding out what your responsibility is going to be?
It’s not all about me. I’ll fit into the club. I was told I was a club appointment. I’ll come in and I’m here to support any managers in place and I think I did a good job in supporting Matty (Taylor) and Wayne (Carlisle) and a new person, man or woman, we don’t know, I’ll do the best I can in whatever role they need me.
I said on Saturday, I’ve not got a huge interest in being a manager. There’s some of the stuff that I learned from when I did it before, it’s not for me, I’m not interested. I want to be the best coach at developing players and helping develop a system. Dealing with recruitment, boards, team selection, that’s just boring for me. I’m not interested. I want to be a really good coach on the grass.
So hopefully when the new person comes in then I’ll go back to what I probably think my strength is which is coaching.
You’ve mentioned Exeter, a different test to Wrexham and they had a much-needed win against Burton in their last outing, but it’s always a tough game down at St. James Park.
Yeah, exactly that and they’re a really good team, really well coached, really organised. I know a few staff down there. I picked the brains of one or two before the Wrexham game because obviously they got beat quite heavily by Wrexham and they made a few fundamental mistakes, like being really open and attacking early on and were out the game before they were in.
So I know we all want to play the perfect game but it’s not always that possible.
So, yeah, they would have watched us. I think at the moment we’re probably quite unpredictable. It’d be hard to predict what’s going to come. I think it’d be safe to say that how we finish the game will be not too far off as it currently stands from that type of team.
But we’ve got a couple of little knocks, niggles. We’ve got a couple of games in a short space of time so we’ve just got to make sure we get the balance right.
A bit of housekeeping, the main one with Michael Forbes who obviously had to come against Wrexham. What’s the situation?
He felt his hamstring, it is a bit sore, still sore today. So he’s got a scan tonight. Hopefully by tomorrow morning we’ll have a good idea of the severity of the hamstring injury.
And Lino (Sousa)?
Lino did his first full training session today. So officially signed off. He’s back and available. Now whether this game comes a little bit quick for him, but officially back training with the squad and available for minutes if selected.
It seemed as though after the game fans were quite pleased with the fight your players showed, not only to get back in the game but obviously there were some scenes at the end. How do you assess that? Is that a good thing to have?
I think probably we haven’t shown any at times. Whether we don’t really want those scenes at the end, I think there’s some context behind what (Ollie) Rathbone did to Willo (James Wilson) and then actually then the boys just wanted to support Willo which I think probably right now where we are as a squad, that’s probably a positive thing.
Now ideally it doesn’t boil over into what happened and hopefully there’s no suspensions or anything like that to come from it. But I do think it did show that we’re together as a squad and we’re gonna fight for each other and I don’t think that’s a bad message. I just think there’s just got to be a level of control behind it as well.
How different have the last few weeks and I guess the next couple of days been because not only have you got the hectic Christmas schedule but, on top of it, there’s uncertainty around the managerial situation?
Yeah. It’s a challenge but for me it’s brilliant learning. I try to embrace every challenge. I think last week was really tough. Listen, me and Scott Brown had the flu. I was struggling to get out of bed on Thursday. I was sweating and I felt horrendous and as you can probably tell from my voice, I’m still not fully over it now. So you’re battling that.
It was only really me and Scotty Brown on the grass. We got through it and sometimes you just got to get through stuff and then the uncertainty about what’s going on in terms of the head coach don’t really mean…that’s just a lot of noise. The club are going to appoint somebody they think is going to be best to take us forward and we’re all right behind that.
So, in the meantime, I’ve got to try and keep it in an okay place. I think we said psychologically more than anything until the new person comes in and give them a nice neutral place to start from and hopefully, I’m pretty sure they’ll watch plenty of our games. They would’ve watched Saturday and then they can start to form their own opinions on who they pick, why, what system they have, and then which players fit in there. That’s just natural when you’re a new manager going into a club.
What does the build up to this game look like? I would assume you’re in Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but I guess also the fact that you’ve been given, albeit an away game, the shortest one of the season probably helps with the festive period?
Yeah, we’ll just travel on the day. It’s probably the first one this season. We’ve travelled overnight to all the others. So it’s quite nice actually to spend a little bit of time at home because obviously Christmas isn’t a family time for footballers. We appreciate how lucky we are, but we still have young kids. So it’s quite nice to see them.
So to have a local one and not have to travel on Christmas night, which I’ve done previously, that’s actually really good.
So yeah, normal prep. A majority of work will get done tomorrow and then yeah, we’ll travel down early Boxing Day morning. Have a bite to eat in a hotel pre-match and then head off to the game. We’re looking forward to it.