Good afternoon, Joey. A lot of Rovers fans described Tuesday as one of your best performances of the season. How do you bottle that up for some of the games coming up?
How do we bottle it up? I don’t think we’re capable of doing that. It’s just about asking for levels of consistency.
I think the lads have shown, certainly in recent weeks and months that we’re starting to get that more consistent performance, more consistent team selection and, invariably, more consistency in terms of the results pattern.
Hard work is the answer, it’s lads committing to working hard and the picture becoming clearer and clearer. Obviously, confidence is flowing through their veins off the back of some good results and we’ve just got to keep staying hungry and humble and turning up and performing for each other.
A lot of fans enjoyed Aaron Collins’ goal. I think it was compared to Mo Salah by some of his teammates. You’ve said it’s maybe not quite his best position at the minute and he would benefit from having a partner with him, but if this isn’t the best of Aaron Collins, what more is there to come from him?
I think there’s a lot more to come from him. It’s the reason we brought him to the football club.
I think, for us, we always felt he’d be better playing off a focal point in terms of a number nine, which allows you to do post-ups and second and third-man runners coming off the inside and outside, which is the reason we brought Leon Clarke and Ryan Loft to the football club.
Aaron has had to do a job because it’s what’s been required. There has been injuries and setbacks and he’s had to go in there and do a shift for the team.
He’s really grown into it. From the way he played that position at the start of the season to the way he played the position on Tuesday night, it was very much night and day and I thought it was his best performance.
I said to him he should’ve had a hat-trick. He should have taken the penalty off Couttsy. I don’t know why he didn’t, most strikers would do that. And he had a couple of good chances on the other side of that.
Eventually, those goals will come because, like all strikers, they feed off confidence and seeing him in full flight and seeing him in the stadium with the Gasheads cheering him will do wonders for his confidence.
He’s up and running and long may it continue, but I do think there’s so much improvement in him and I’m really excited about Aaron. Fair play to him, he’s worked hard to get into this position.
If you have a penalty on Saturday, will Aaron take it?
I’m not sure because Antony Evans may be back on the horizon.
It might be one of those moments where there is a bit of debate going in and around the penalty taker, but for me, I always want to see the strikers get that because if you look at any good team in any season, strikers usually chip in with at least 15-20 goals in a really good year.
They do a lot of work and, for me, I’d like to see a striker take a penalty. They are the most natural finishers, used to the demand of scoring goals and I’ve never understood why strikers don’t take penalties.
I was fortunate that some of the strikers I played with never took penalties. It allowed be to get on them and I tended to stay on them because I had a semi-decent record in there.
But Couttsy on the other hand, I’m not sure he’ll see the penalty again unless we get to a shootout but he did say Lionel Messi missed for PSG. He said ‘If he’s capable of missing, then even the best miss from time to time’.
He’s blaming Nels, because don’t forget we had Stuart Nelson with us as a fourth keeper here for the majority of the season. He’s their (Sutton) second keeper and Couttsy used to practice taking penalties against him all the time after training.
There were a few factors at play, all of them I’ve surmised are Couttsy trying to shift the blame off himself for missing the penalty and none of us are having that off him.
You’ve hinted at good news. Might Antony be available for the weekend?
Yeah, he’s back training today. He’s trained with the group for a short period and gone away and done a bit of extra work.
I’m hoping he comes back into the fold with no reaction tomorrow and then it puts him back in contention for Saturday’s game.
We’ve got Ryan Loft who is back in contention to play minutes, Clarkey (Leon Clarke) getting back on the pitch (on Tuesday), so really good signs.
The lads are confident and feeling good about themselves. The injury list is clearing up a bit, which is what you want when you’re coming into the last few furlongs of the race.
You want options and competition for places and we’ve got that now.
What role realistically do you see your more senior players who have just returned to the squad, Alex Rodman and Leon Clarke, playing between now and the end of the season?
A huge role. I think whatever is required, whether that’s for a minute or 90 minutes. Everybody, between now and the end of the season, is going to have a part to play.
I’ve still got Trevor Clarke earmarked as coming in and showing us what he’s about before the end of the season. He’s back out on the grass today. He hasn’t quite joined in with the group yet.
Alfie Kilgour’s back out there and that’s one of the things people are missing. Yeah, we were good on Tuesday night, but also we’ve got some good players to come back.
We’ve got to keep fostering it. The club has been through a strange cycle where it’s been doom and gloom but everything is on the up and long may that continue.
We’ve just got to keep turning up, staying hungry, staying humble and keep paying the rent by working as hard as you possibly can for each other, keep building our teamship and as I told you when I first came in, eventually the score takes care of itself.
Is there an added spice on Saturday because there is a familiar face in the dugout? Paul Tisdale is the man you replaced and in midfield Chris Lines is regarded as one of Bristol Rovers’ legendary players in recent history.
Not for me, there’s not. It’s just another game, another team in our way. Somebody we’ve got to knock off and beat and we know we’ll have to be the best version of ourselves because in this league, if you don’t turn up and pay it respect – as we learned from the Oldham game – there are no easy games in this division.
Regardless of who’s in the opposition dugout or the opposition team, our focus will be on ourselves and giving the best account of ourselves on Saturday.
They haven’t won in four. What do you expect from Stevenage on Saturday?
Again, for me, with the greatest respect to Stevenage, they’ve been struggling to get a few results back going.
We know they’ve got some good players and players who can cause us problems.
In terms of formation, from what I gather about Paul Tisdale here, we’ve got some information that we think they’ll do. Obviously, I’m not going to reveal that to you guys here in terms of tactically because no doubt he’ll tune into this interview and try to pick holes in it and find an advantage because that’s what we usually do to opposition managers.
We’re confident that if we play the way we want to play, we can cause everybody problems, but we have to be at our best because Stevenage on their own patch will be intent on putting that bit of a poor run behind them and Bristol Rovers will be in town and it’s an opportunity for them to gain some momentum.
Tuesday is the one-year anniversary since when you joined Bristol Rovers. You could probably write a book about your first year, but it strikes me right now Joey that you’re happy with the Bristol Rovers you’ve got at your disposal for the final straight and beyond.
Yeah, we’ve all worked really hard as a group and as a football club. There have been some tough moments, many, many tough moments in a year that has certainly felt longer.
You can see from the lines in my forehead that I’m resembling a shar pei these days, with grey hair. I had a lovely jet black mane and I looked about 30 years of age when I came in and I now look well in my 40s.
That’s been a tough period, but as a football club we’ve stuck together. There have been some tough moments, but we’ve all stuck together and, thankfully, we’re out of the tailspin.
The football club was drowning when I turned up and we went further down, but now we’re swimming back to safety and back to where we want to be.
We’ve got so much hard work in front of us, but everybody is aligned and on the same page. You can see it in the crowds that are coming into the stadium. I think it was 6,700 on Tuesday night and 7,000 and 8,000 the week before.
The level of positivity that’s in there is brilliant. I’m really, really pleased.
I spoke to the owner after the game and he said ‘That’s the best game of football since I’ve been here, I really enjoyed watching it’, and I did as a manager. ]
That’s the first time I stood on the sideline and really enjoyed watching the team play, and that’s a credit to the players and the fans because the atmosphere they create and the way they believe in the boys and get behind them has been key in getting the lads more confident and, certainly, turning around the home form.
Long may that continue.
Afternoon Joey, can I have injury updates on Ryan Loft, Jon Nolan and Junior Brown, please?
All coming back into it. Jon Nolan’s trained with the group fully today, Ryan Loft’s the same.
Junior Brown is still having treatment and he’ll be at least another two, three or four weeks.
Trevor Clarke was back with the group today for an extended period before he separated and did a bit more. The same for Antony Evans, the same for Alfie Kilgour.
All at different stages, but they’re all moving back to being available for me to select on a matchday.
And Josh Grant?
Josh hasn’t come back on the grass yet. He’s making progress and there are good signs. I’m hoping to get him back on the grass in the early part of next week, but he’s still not back fully integrated with the group.
Do Nolan and Loft have a chance of being involved this weekend?
Loft, for sure. We’ll have to see how they both get through training tomorrow, but they are starting to come back into contention for Saturday’s game.
It feels like the team in general is coming of age, but particularly the defence. You’ve had four straight clean sheets at home and the last couple have felt different because of the level of control you had.
I remember we spoke last season quite a lot about how you wanted to lock the game down and have more control. You haven’t been able to do that much season, perhaps because League Two is a bit crazy with direct football and the situations that creates, but are you seeing more of the control you want from your defence?
I think it’s the team. I don’t specifically see it as defence and offence. I don’t see it that way, I think it’s a real team effort.
Defending starts from the frontside as well as attacking starts from your goalkeeper now in the modern day.
For me, it’s nice. Belly has come back in and Anssi’s chipped in as well and we’ve had clean sheets and we’ve had what we’re looking for in a bit of consistency in terms of four on the spin at home.
It allows the frontside of the team to know ‘I have to score two goals to win a game’. If you’re conceding goals, it’s never good for your football team and to be fair to the lads, they’ve worked hard at defending better as a group and a unit.
We’re starting to get shutouts and clean sheets, which gives us a bedrock to build a successful season off, so I’m really pleased, bit we’ve got to keep fostering that.
It starts from the front. We are at our best, I believe, when we are pressing. I believe we are at our best when we’re on the front foot and that is a sentiment that will no doubt be shared across the people who have watched us this season on a regular basis.
But again, for us, all of that’s in the past. We’ve got to turn up on Saturday and be as good as we were, if not better than on Tuesday night. That’s the aim.
We want to get better all the time. I’m not just happy with a 2-0 win against Sutton. Yeah, it’s nice, but as I said to you after that match, we want to be putting three or four on it.
When we look at the Scunthorpe game and the game on Tuesday night against Sutton, I’m looking at our goal difference going ‘We’re -1 on the goal difference and we shouldn’t be’, based on the changes we’ve had in recent weeks. Salford is another one that springs to mind.
That’s the next part of the journey for the group, becoming really effective and efficient, certainly when you’re in the ascendancy of football matches.
The home form is now on track, or even ahead of expectations. You’ve taken 13 points from a possible 15, but I imagine the away form isn’t quite what you wants still. What can you do as a manager to make your team more robust on the road and get those points you’re going to need if you’re going to finish where you want to finish?
Get your team selection right, get your tactics right and that’s pretty much it. You’ve got to get everything right to win away from home or win any game of football.
At home, I really do believe the fans’ effect has helped us flip that over and the positivity. The angst that was in the stadium at the early part of the season has dissipated. It’s gone.
People are turning up now and believing in the team, even if they’re under a spell of pressure from the opponent. They know the lads go to the 95th minute because they’ve scored a lot late goals and they know this group of players is fully committed to the quarters.
Away from home, you’re reliant upon getting everything right because if you don’t get everything right, you make it difficult to maximise the opportunity to take three points.
We’ve given teams legs up by being sloppy in the opening gambit, like we did at Oldham with the early goal, and at this level, giving somebody confidence and leg up is the last thing you want to do, as Bournemouth will attest to against Boreham Wood in the FA Cup. West Ham got over the line just against Kidderminster. Chelsea against Plymouth were under the gun for a bit.
If you give any team a leg up, it’s tough. Especially in our situation, the last thing we want to do is be giving anybody a leg up. At home, we’ve been really good at that in recent weeks and months, and we must make sure we carry that home form and mindset into every stadium we visit between now and the end of the season.
Joey, I saw on Tuesday you were active on social media, engaging with fans. How important is that relationship between yourself and fans because we don’t get to see that a lot in football where managers are on social media and having conversations?
I haven’t been able to because we were crap last season and if you’re getting beat every week, the last thing you want to do is go on there and get absolutely abused because fans get frustrated and they vent their frustrations.
It’s a lot easier to do when you’ve had a period here and it’s a positive interaction. That’s the key for me. There’s a lot of stuff out there with social media networks and there is a lot of positive and negative stuff out there and I decided two or three years ago I would only interact with the positive, I wasn’t going to bother with the negativity and I was going to focus on the positivity.
In my time here, certainly in the early gambit, there wasn’t that much positivity around. You’re getting beat every week and you’re looking down the barrel of a relegation, and I don’t think it’s right that you’re on there interacting with fans because you need to get the job done and work behind the scenes.
I think we’re at a point where all the hard yards and hard work that have been put in behind closed doors and away from the media spotlight is starting to bear fruit. I think that’s the point people can see the fruits of your labour and then you can start interacting with people.
I’ve always been candid with the media. I’ve always spoke to the media and said exactly what’s going on. I’m a football fan first and foremost and I want the fans of our club to understand right out of the horse’s mouth what’s going on.
It’s been close to the knuckle at times, it’s been close to the bone, but also it needed to happen because we needed a revolution here and the revolution has taken place and now, the culture of the club is thriving.
Every single day, every single department of the club is getting better and that is so pleasing to see.
SIGN UP: For our newsletter to receive more exclusive Bristol Rovers content
