THE GAME
Following the weekend win against Huddersfield Town, Inigo Calderon made four changes to his starting XI for the match against Bolton Wanderers, another team with play off aspirations.
Joel Senior, Chris Martin, Kofi Shaw and Taylor Moore all started the game and it wasn’t long before Shaw and Martin made an impact.
Shaw was hauled down in the area by Alex Murphy and Martin duly converted the resulting penalty. There were only six minutes on the clock and for the third home game in succession Rovers found themselves in front early on.
Bolton then impressed with a pacey first half performance in which they threatened to overrun their hosts. That they didn’t was down to Jed Ward and his defenders standing firm under pressure, though their hosts did draw level in the 39th minute when Aaron Morley rifled home following a corner on the right.
All square at the break, the half time terrace talk centered around the possibility of Rovers holding on for a valuable point in their battle against the dreaded drop.
However, Inigo Calderon and his players had other ideas and they took the game to Bolton and deservedly took the lead again in the 63rd minute after Shaw had played in Sotiriou down the left and his ball to the back post found martin, who had impressed with the speed he manged to arrive at exactly the right time to net from close range.
The visitors managed a second equaliser seven minutes later when John McAtee scored following another corner, this time from the left.
Rovers, though, who had shown passion, pride and commitment throughout the contest and were backed by a vociferous home crowd, conjured up a winner. It was the 88th minute when Connor Taylor rose at the back post to nod in Isaac Hutchinson’s free kick.
Cue scenes of wild celebrations, on and off the pitch and the three points gained opened up a nine point gap between Rovers and the bottom four and moved them three places up the league table.
THEY SAID WHAT?
‘I couldn’t expect that at the beginning of the week. To have the six points against Huddersfield and Bolton. They are a great side, and they showed that in the first half. I think the second half was great, the best we played this year. Especially the passion. The boys showed passion, and especially because the opposition is probably the best we played against. So, credit to the boys because I was so proud of them. We started better in the second half and on the front foot, and then you get the fans behind you again was good, and especially finishing the way we finished, it was great.
‘One week ago, we were thinking we couldn’t play Chris Martin anymore because he had a small problem in the knee. All of a sudden, it was not that bad, and after Chris tried to train yesterday because he wanted to be involved again and after, he was great. We changed him because we don’t want to force him too much. He wanted a hat trick, but we have to protect him, and we have to think in the long term. But he was great.
I was confident with Kofi Shaw, but at the same time, you never know how he’s going to react because it’s not the same when you’re playing 15 or 20 minutes when you’re starting it’s different. It was a difficult game. He’s better when we have more control, and today was not going to be that. We knew it was going to be a bit more about defending, and we would have to run. It’s not going to be an easy one, but he did it perfectly. Even in the second half, I was thinking about changing him because it’s his first game, but every time I was thinking about changing him, he did something special.’ (Rovers Head Coach Inigo Calderon)
I think the first half, I think they dominated, to be fair. They didn’t really create too much, but we couldn’t really get near them. We came in at half time and said we would lock onto them more, and I thought we caused them all sorts of problems in the second half. I thought we could have scored three or four. I thought we were excellent to a man. Disappointed with conceding two set plays, but a win is all that matters.
‘Tactics and everything go out the window if you don’t have that passion, that desire, and that eagerness to be successful for each other, and I think we showed tonight that we’re starting to have that togetherness, and I think that was the main reason why we got the three points tonight. We stuck together, kept plugging away and got our just rewards.
‘You think it’s probably going to be one of the last chances of the game, and you just hope the ball lands to you. You’ve got to want to head it. The ball gets flicked up into the air, and I’m just thinking, ‘help it back across the goal.’ Luckily, it went in. It’s been a while. I need to score more goals. The Scunthorpe game was my last goal in the league, and to do it in front of the Thatchers’ End is brilliant.’ (Rovers defender Connor Taylor)
‘I thought we were excellent in the way we played in the first half. I thought we were excellent, apart from the penalty which we gave away immediately in the first few minutes. We were in control in the first period and we should have been ahead probably at half time. We expected Bristol to come and respond in the second half and put up probably more of a fight, which they did for five or 10 minutes to put us under a little bit of pressure.
But after the first 10 minutes when we rode that pressure out, I think the second half was a little bit scrappy, a bit too transitional, not enough control from our point of view and, unfortunately, we haven’t managed to get anything from the game. We had a few really good moments when we were under that pressure when we managed to intercept the ball and land on the second ball. John McAtee got himself in a one-on-one and the form he’s in, you’d expect him to hit the target but unfortunately the ball just went wide of the post.
‘Then the big chance that we had when Szabi got put in by Josh Sheehan and obviously it’s got to go in the goal. So, yes, we’ve been punished for small mistakes and punished for not taking our chances when we have them. Football can be cruel sometimes and we’ve come out of it on the wrong side. But it’s not the end of the world and we’re still in the top six tonight.’ (Bolton Wanderers Manager Steven Schumacher)
