THE GAME
It seems to one step forward two steps back for Rovers at present; they slipped to another defeat on the road when going down 2-1 against Northampton Town at Sixfields.
Inigo Calderon made two changes to his starting XI for this game and Jack Hunt and Matt Butcher returned in place of Joel Senior and Jamie Lindsay.
Calderon’s side might have taken the lead in a frantic opening spell as Scott Sinclair was close to scoring from a Luke Thomas cross while Ruel Sotiriou forced Nik Tzanev into a smart save shortly afterwards.
Dara Costelloe and Sam Hoskins went close for the home side and almost took the lead when a Cameron McGeechan effort deflected off of Isaac Hutchinson. Northampton’s best chance of the half, though, arrived on 40 minutes when Jed Ward made a fine save from Mitch Pinnock’s well struck half volley.
The game burst into life in the first minute of the second half when Sinclair sent a low shot into the Northampton net after collecting a through ball from Hutchinson.
Terry Taylor and Liam Shaw were close to finding an equaliser before Sinclair was denied a second goal by Tzanev.
Northampton did get back on level terms just after the hour mark, though, when Costelloe was on hand to head home at the back post after good work by Max Dyche.
With 12 minutes of the game remaining the hosts edged ahead. Substitute Nesta Guinness-Walker, on for Tariq Fosu, scored with his first touch following McGeechan’s cross.
Rovers were unable to get back on level terms and their dismal away performances, and results, continued.
THEY SAID WHAT?
‘It hurts a lot. Obviously, winning away, 1-0 up, it’s a difficult one to explain. There was nothing in the game. It was a bit dead. Sometimes, that is risky as well because you can switch off. The second we switched off, they cost us too much. There was a free kick, and after just a cross. I don’t think we were strong in that time. I think if I don’t remember badly, we had a chance before the free kick, where they scored the first one. I think the second one was coming for us rather than the equaliser for them. It’s a difficult one to explain.
‘Scoring after resuming is everything you want, and after, I think we stopped playing too early, and that gave them the chance to then find a way somehow. But still, I don’t think that was the case. I don’t think we were struggling too much or defending too much. It was a dead game. Nothing was happening. I would say it was nearly under control, and all of a sudden, they have a free kick, second phase, we concede, and everything changed a little bit after that.
‘I said to the boys to try to work harder. Try to be calm. You cannot lose your head. Obviously, we have to improve because otherwise, every single game at home is going to be a final because we cannot win away. The next game is going to be at home against a difficult opponent, similar to today. Again, we keep improving. We have to work harder every day, and that’s the only way I know.’ (Rovers Head Coach Inigo Calderon)
‘I’ll be honest, it’s a really tough one to take. We started the second half exactly the way we wanted to and then just dropped off on the back of it. We’re going to find ourselves in tough situations, whether that be within games or off the back of games. It’s just really important that we all stick together and all keep believing, especially after the last few results. We just need to focus on the positives, and we’ll try and move on from that as quickly as possible.”
‘They made it really difficult for us, and in the main, we dealt with it quite well. We got into some really good areas. Maybe we didn’t quite capitalise on the final pass or a couple of two v one situations. But then it just goes back to moments in the game. There’s probably not too much to decide on that fixture today other than the goals, and that’s split seconds, that’s organising, that’s everything to do with a team performance. Certain scenarios just let us down today. So, from now until the end of the season, we’ve got to be bang on it when it comes to that in terms of standards day in and day out in training.
‘I’ve loved being here and I’ve settled really quickly into the group. Obviously, the fans have been amazing. The three home games really helped that to start. So we have to do it for them, do it for the people that love this club more than anything, and we can all resonate with that, wherever we’re from or who you supported as a kid. I’ve loved it so far, but I think the enjoyment comes from winning games of football. So, from here on out, that’s all I want to do.’ (Rovers midfielder Matt Butcher)
‘It’s a fantastic result and I thought we were well worth the win. We showed great character to come from behind and I’m absolutely delighted to get the three points. We’ve shown that we can perform against the bigger teams but it’s important to do it against the teams in and around you and today we did that.
‘The lads have been brilliant and they were well deserving of the win today. Its three wins out of four now and I want more. Max Dyche did really well to set up Dara and I believe that will be the first goal of many for him.
‘It got us back in the game and Cameron McGeehan put in a really good ball for Nesta to score with his first touch. Nesta gives us something a bit different and he gives us balance on that left hand side. Last week was a bit disappointing but to bounce back like we did today is a real positive. Tuesday against Barnsley will be another tough game but we will be giving it our all to try and get another win.’ (Northampton Manager Kevin Nolan)
