THE GAME
Capitulation of the highest order from Rovers saw them drop into the relegation zone for the first time this season following a home defeat at the hands of Exeter City, and a home win for Burton Albion.
Inigo Calderon made two changes for this must win game, as Jack Hunt and Grant Ward replaced Taylor Moore and Shaq Forde.
Calderon’s side began well and enjoyed a great deal of possession, without hurting their opponents before allowing Exeter to take a tenth minute lead with their very first attack.
Ilmari Niskanen burst down the right, past a leaden footed Sil Swinkels, before crossing into the box where a weak clearance by James Wilson reached Caleb Watts who confidently stroked the ball past Jed Ward. The goal came a minute after closest rivals Burton Albion had taken the lead against Huddersfield Town and saw Rovers drop into the bottom four.
It took another ten minutes for Rovers to respond and then Ruel Sotiriou was denied by a fine save by goalkeeper Joe Whitworth, though the striker should really have buried the chance as he only had the keeper to beat.
He was denied again by Whitworth on the half hour mark, but the second goal of the game arrived at the other end of the pitch as, with three minutes of the half remaining, another ball in from the lively Niskanen was met by Reece Cole whose volley entered the net off the underside of the bar.
Rovers were 2-0 down at the break, Burton were 2-0 ahead and so at least three goals were needed after the break, when they had barely looked like scoring one in the opening 45 minutes.
Two half time substitutions by Calderon livened things up a little bit but Exeter’s gamesmanship disrupted the flow of the game. Going down and feigning injury certainly conned an inexperienced match official.
At last, and with 70 minutes on the clock, Rovers pulled a goal back through Sotiriou who took advantage of some hesitancy in the Exeter defence before beating Whitworth with a low shot from close range.
Kofi Shaw almost equalised moments later but his fiercely struck effort from thirty yards out hit the side netting.
However, the anticipated fightback didn’t materialise and Exeter comfortably saw out the rest of the game without really being troubled and a miserable afternoon was made complete with the news that Burton had won 3-0.
The question ow id this; has this team got the character, commitment and passion to escape the ignominy of having a relegation on their CV?
THEY SAID WHAT?
‘I’m really frustrated and disappointed. It’s difficult to explain because I think I had a great feeling during the week, even in the dressing room before the game. You think we have done everything and everything is in the right place, and after, the goals again, especially the first one that early, that killed us a little bit because we are not in the best moment of the season. You can see that. So, we are a bit weak mentally, and that’s normal, and that killed us. That killed us a lot.
‘I think we created chances, and you could see the [second] goal could come for us, but it didn’t come, and after the second goal before half time, obviously, it was tough to take. I could see the boys at half time were really down. It’s true that in the second half, we tried to find the way because it’s what we had to do to do our best again until the final whistle. We scored the first one, so there was a bit of hope in there, but again, it was a difficult game. You could see the players were feeling the pressure. We kept trying, but probably not in the best way. It was more about wanting to score than really doing things right to score the goal. I think we have to improve because now until the end, it’s going to be like that.
‘The dressing room is really, really down. I think we’ve touched the bottom. I think if someone didn’t realise, I think they have realised now because it’s obvious that we are down there. The way we are going, we are League Two. It’s as simple as that. I don’t know if they already knew. I knew that. We are going to be fighting for that, and now we are in League Two. We have four games to go up. It’s as simple as that.’ (Rovers Head Coach Inigo Calderon)
‘The harsh reality is we’re in the situation that we’re in, and we’ve got to take accountability, to a man. I think we’ve had an open and honest conversation. It’s about trying to react and bounce back because we’ve been poor for the last five or six games now, and although performances might have been close, we haven’t got any points on the board. So, it’s irrelevant how well we think we’ve played or thought we played. The league table doesn’t lie. We need to look at ourselves as individuals and as a team, and we have to do something about it, and we’re running out of games.
‘To a man, we’ve got to take accountability. Could we have run more? Could we have had more quality? Could we have defended both our box better and been more clinical in their box? There are many things we can point our fingers at. We’ve got to realise our position and our roles in the team as individuals, and if eleven working men are working well, it will make it better.
‘Nobody’s confidence is high at the minute. We have to find it from somewhere. Find the purpose, the reason why we do it, the reason why we come into training every day. We’ve got to create a standard. We’ve got to cross the white line and put everything out there. We’ve got to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror after every game and say we did our all, and I don’t think, me included, we can do that today.’ (Rovers midfielder Romaine Sawyers)
‘It’s a fantastic result, as this is never an easy place to come which you could see before the game as it was all or nothing for them. In the first half we were clinical and when we played, we hurt them.
‘Our two goals were sensational, in terms of what we had worked on in the week. Caleb’s was a good finish, Reece Cole’s was an outstanding finish, and I wanted us to play more as I thought we could have more moments like that in the second half.
‘We could have scored the third with so many counter attacks where our quality and decision making has to be better. If the game goes 3-0 it’s finished, but we knew what was coming when it went 2-1. Since January, this team has been incredible at seeing out games.’ (Exeter Manager Gary Caldwell)
