Bristol Rovers (H): Press Conference Notes

[The Joker]

Andy Scott Quotes:
“I’m not really sure lethargic is the right word. We didn’t start the way we usually do. It wasn’t lethargy, it was us going away from what we’ve done in the past.

We played too deep. Wide players were too deep. We hit too many long balls. Not taking touches. Giving the ball away in poor areas. Defended extremely poorly. And you then get punished.

It could have been a lot worse. They had four shots on our goal in the first half so it could have been four goals.

We had a couple of chances but defensively for the first two goals it was totally unacceptable and the third equally so. Unfortunately you get punished and in the second half we didn’t make those mistakes because we played further up the pitch, kept the ball and were positive with the ball. But when you are 3-0 down it is a tall order.

We worked on it. We worked on it before Huddersfield. We did defensive work the same as we did the week before, but the galling thing for me is I knew exactly how they were going to play.

We told them that they were going to try and counter-attack and hit balls over the top. We told them how to deal with it and if we were as strong and organised as a back four as we normally are [we would have coped]. But we were all over the place.

We believed that our defenders would win headers. You’ve got to anticipate that your players will lose the ball but be in the right position but none of the back four did that and you concede goals that way.

He’s [Dickson] a good centre forward, but defensively as a back five, goalkeeper included, we didn’t do enough.

Not concentrating, not doing your jobs, not wanting to be ruthless, not accepting how teams are going to play, thinking you are better than you are; all of those things were a factor today.

I just said to them in there. We’ve got to take the last 45 mins today to Yeovil and forget the first 45 mins. But if it happens again I’m not going to tolerate it. That is not defending in any shape or form of the word and I’m not going to accept it.

You’ve got to show a bit of character. The crowd was on their backs, quite rightly. We weren’t passing it and were conceding poor goals. But they did show plenty of desire and passion and we got clapped off at the end.

All the crowd want to see is you giving everything you’ve got and doing what you can for the Brentford shirt. We weren’t doing that in the first 45 mins and that is not acceptable.

We dominated the second half and it would have been quite easy for the players to go out there and be scared and worry about what the crowd were going to do, bit they showed a lot of character and fair play to them.

It could have been any of the 11 who came off just before half time. In fairness to Hunty it is difficult to win a lot of second balls and to get on the ball when your wide players are 70 yards from their goal hitting long balls into the channels to two players against their back four.

Both Myles and Hunty were unfortunate victims of the first half performance but I had to change it and the changes worked. They all know they were very close to coming off.

It is easy to win the first ball when you hit long straight balls up front to Charlie MacDonald and Steve Kabba against their back four and two holding midfield players. We give the ball back then we can’t defend their long balls forward.

I don’t think they created anything with nice patterns of play or movement, it was long straight balls that we didn’t defend well.

Fair play to Paul, he set his side up. We briefed the lads yesterday and in training Thursday on how Bristol Rovers would play but we didn’t pay any heed to that. It is very frustrating because that is a game I think we should have won.

In the second half Charlie got the goal, we created several chances and possibly the keeper could have gone. We played on the front foot and we looked like a team that could attack and create chances and stay on the ball and take care of it, which we didn’t do in the first half.

You make your own mind up [on whether the keeper should have received a red card]. From my point of view 99 times out of a 100 he probably goes. I think he [the referee] said he was going away from goal and there were two players either side of him, but he’d actually gone past those two players to get in that position and there is no reason why he would not have continued on going and the next time he touches the ball he would have been shooting for goal.

I don’t think the linesman help him out too much by keeping his views to himself. But that is all irrelevant if you concede goals like we did.

They are young players and it is a newly formed team. Our levels of performance over the last six or seven weeks have been exceptional. There are going to be times when maybe it doesn’t click. But when they don’t, you’ve still got to get the basics right and be organised and we weren’t in the first 45 minutes today and we got punished for it.

To be a good side you’ve got to be consistent and work hard and be organised week in, week out and that is when you can take the plaudits at the end of the season.”