THE GAME
At the third time of asking Rovers won their first game under new Head Coach Inigo Calderon, beating Cambridge United at the Abbey Stadium 1-0 thanks to a first half Luke Thomas goal.
Calderon made three changes to his starting XI, as Scott Sinclair, Chris Martin and Luke Thomas all started in place of Isaac Hutchinson, Promise Omochere and Top of FormBottom of Form
Rovers created two early opportunities, but Jamie Lindsay’s shot was comfortably saved by Jack Stevens, while Chris Martin fired a free kick over the bar.
At the other end Korey Smith’s volley was deflected behind for a corner which led to an opportunity for home skipper Michael Morrison but his header was pushed away by Josh Griffiths.
After these scrappy opening exchanges, Rovers opened the scoring on 26 minutes following a delightful move that saw Lino Sousa play the ball out to Sinclair out on the left and his cross to the back post was met by Thomas who headed past Stevens.
The hosts pressed for a first half equaliser and went close through Dan Nlundulu whose left foot shot was blocked and the striker headed the rebound wide of the target.
Play was then held up for five minutes due to an injury sustained by referee Sam Mulhall. One of his assistants, Graham Horwood took over in the middle, fourth official Andrew Humphries replaced Horwood running the line and Mulhall took on fourth official duties. Unfortunately, the changes didn’t improve the standard of refereeing and things gradually went downhill!
There were two further opportunities for the home side after the enforced break, both of which fell to Josh Stokes but on both occasions he sent his shots over the bar.
Cambridge continued to probe for an equaliser in the second half and Stoked might have provided it on 54 minutes but shot into the side netting while Elias Kachunga fired over the bar before Rovers scored a second goal through Hutchinson, on in place of Sotiriou.
Taylor Moore’s cross found Martin who headed it on to Hutchinson and he swept the ball home at the near post. Once the celebrations had died down, though, the assistant referee who had been the fourth official and the referee who had been the assistant referee combined to rule the effort out for offside. They took longer than VAR to make their decision!
Gatlin O’Donkor saw his effort hit the base of the post following a Rovers corner, while the hosts almost conjured up a late goal when Stokes found himself in a good position but shot wide of the target.
The game ended after a brawl in the Rovers area saw Morrison collect his second, and subsequent red, card and Wilson pick up a yellow for his part in proceedings. It might not have been pretty, but this was a battling performance from Rovers who picked up three very much needed points.
THEY SAID WHAT?
‘I’m so relieved. I like to win because it means that I don’t lose, and I hate losing. So, I feel a big relief because I think the boys need that, the Club needs that, I need that. It’s been chaotic but the boys have been good at the training ground. I could see the improvement in the atmosphere. It was a bit more positive. Even losing the other day against Leyton Orient, I thought we were in a good way. But at the end of the day, you need to win games.
‘The boys did well because they knew when to play and when not to play, when you have to defend and when you have to do the ugly stuff. I think they did it perfectly. It is not easy to come here with the condition of the pitch and play the way they did. I’m so, so proud of them and I think they deserved it as well.
‘I said when I arrived that all the players are going to have a chance. I think that’s the good thing with that many games, they will have a chance, and everyone is taking their chance. That’s great for the team so that competition is going to be great. When I arrived, a few players were a bit down because they were not feeling part of the team and I didn’t like that. It’s great as we have problems to pick the 11, and that’s great for the coach. (Rovers Head Coach Inigo Calderon)
‘It was a good feeling to play a part in it and play a part in the winning team as well. It’s things we work on at the training ground, and you obviously try and implement it on the pitch on game day. It’s been tough for me with injuries and being out. It’s mental resilience and things in football change very quickly. I kept myself fit to the best shape I could be, and a lot of work done behind the scenes. It’s finally paying off. I’ve just got to keep the momentum going.
‘We are where we are and there’s no shying away and hiding away from that, but we know we’re good enough as a group, as a team, to get out of it. So, all we can do is stick together, keep getting three points where we can and keep moving forward.
‘The Head Coach has implemented his playing style and how he works early doors. The team trusts what he does, and I think you can see that by how we play. He makes things simple for us, and he knows what he wants out of us, and we just try and deliver for him. He came in at a busy period, so it was hard for him to properly implement what he wanted us to do, but given that the next game is a week away now, we’ve got a few days on the training pitch to properly go through things and go into a bit of detail, which will only help us on a matchday on the pitch. (Rovers defender Lino Sousa)
‘I’ve been a fighter my whole life, there’s no lying down for me. I’m just not that character. I feel like I work hard and do the right things and I’ve got no complaints with the players. It would be different if you saw a team that was just flat and giving up. We’ve seen a lot of teams like that in these situations, but I don’t think that’s the case.
‘I’ll continue to work as hard as I can, push the players, give them all the experience and belief I can and trust that they can turn it around. I have no complaints in terms of application, determination, effort and endeavour, but we’ve come up short in the critical areas of the game.’ (Cambridge manager Gary Monk)
