Well, Joey, I imagine you are a pretty happy man with your team’s performance today.
Yeah, I thought we were unfortunate to go in at half time behind. The best chance of the whole game falls to Antony Evans at the back post and he scores that 99 times out of 100.
It was disappointing to go in behind. They were a set-play team, we didn’t think it was a corner, Lewis Gordon thought it went out for a goal kick, but we didn’t defend the second phase of it, which is disappointing because that’s all they really had, long balls into Stockley and second phase of the set piece.
I said to the boys at half time to settle down and keep passing the ball. We obviously made a couple of changes to get a bit more penetration through the middle with Josh Coburn and Ryan Loft coming on and we just tweaked it a little bit, going back to that diamond which has worked for us and we were good value for the victory.
I thought in the second half you were a bit more aggressive and in their faces, pressing a bit higher up the pitch.
Yeah, and you have to factor in the weather here. It’s bizarre, you can feel the wind now and it’s been a lovely April day. The wind here is a factor and in the first half, we were into the wind which made it tricky because they want to kick it long and pin you in and they were quite effective at that.
But in the second half, when I knew we had the wind, we wanted a bit more central corridor penetration. Lofty and Josh came on and gave us that platform.
A lovely moment for Lewis Gibson. He’s had quite a few games over his career, but you only get a first career goal once.
He’s in there and in the mix and we had a couple of good chances before that to put it in but a combination of good defending from them and the woodwork kept it out.
But fair play to Gippa, he kept himself on the move and put it away with aplomb for him to score his first goal against one of his former clubs. He was saying he fancied himself to score so hopefully he fancies himself against Derby.
Grant Ward with his first goal for the club. Cross or shot?
You’ll have to ask him. I don’t care, it’s in the back of the net and we get three points. You’ll have to ask Wardy when you speak to him, I don’t want to take the shine off it because it’s a winning goal.
We were the better side on the afternoon. We were the only side trying to play football. They are effective at what they do but Fleetwood fans must be disappointed that Joey Barton is not the manager because we were a miles better football team than what they are seeing at the minute.
It’s Fleetwood’s loss and Bristol Rovers’ gain.
Six points over Easter, that’s three away wins on the bounce. You are looking like you are back in the swing of things and you are a good team again.
Yeah, we had to settle down. We’ve got a lot of young players and there are going to be ups and downs, but you’ve seen today, I’ve spoken about the age of the back four quite often but you have seen a maturation in their performances.
Lewis Gordon was excellent. He’s certainly come on from when we played Fleetwood at home when he was bombarded, and I think James Connolly has come back to some semblance of the top player we knew he was last season.
He’s looking like his former self, and Luca Hoole the same. He’s had trials and tribulations but it was another fantastic, consistent performance from that back four and the old wise head in there, Lewis Gibson at 22, is the player who gets the goal, but it’s the defensive shift that they put in that gives us the platform to win the game.
That moves you over 50 points and it moves you ever closer to safety and getting into the top half of the table.
Yeah, we’ve got our own targets and that 52-point mark was somewhere we wanted to get to just as a benchmark of establishing ourselves as a League One outfit, which I think you have got to go and earn the right to be in a mega competitive division.
But we’ve still got some really big games coming up and I said to the lads it’s important that we can test ourselves now against five of the top seven in the run-in and we’ve got some games coming up where our young players can test themselves against the sides who are thinking of getting themselves out of the division.
The Gasheads will be relieved they are not looking over their shoulder because of the situation that has been at the football club in recent years, but we’ve got a little bit to do.
We want to finish strong and we can disrupt a few promotion charges, especially Plymouth. That would be fantastic.
Joey, was there any added satisfaction winning here today?
Yeah, absolutely. He was a fool to sack me, as he knows, and you can see from the style of football and where the club has gone since.
To be fair to Scott, he’s turned them around, had a good cup run and picked them up in the table. It’s taken a bit of time.
But your mind just goes into winning the game. I want to beat my children at Connect Four and Tiddlywinks, I don’t give anyone an inch in anything, but there was a bit of added spice for my first visit back here.
Our fans came out again. It would have been easy to go ‘Oh, it’s Easter Monday, we’ll stay at home’. I’ve seen the Gas come here under Graham Coughlan when I was Fleetwood manager and they absolutely bombarded that (away end) because it was a relegation fight and they were fighting for their lives. They got a good point here that day which helped them survive.
Credit to our fans. I’m not sure how many came, but certainly in the second half, it felt like we were at home. No disrespect to the Fleetwood fans, but we carried momentum and the fans were a massive part of that.
It’s sweet to beat your former club, but I’ll take three points anywhere.
What has Lewis Gordon done over the past few months to make that leap because it feels like he has arrived at the level now? There were promising signs when he arrived this season but he seems to have established himself as your first choice and also a really good player.
I know some people criticise me, but my job is to get after them and sometimes you have to light a fire under some of the lads. No doubt, that is the whole of that back four. Lewis Gibson is slightly different because he’s had that fire lit under him when I’ve had him in the past.
I think regular rhythm, game time, playing in a consistent back four with routines and patterns and familiarity is key for young players in terms of keeping them calm and composed.
But then it’s over to the player and I said to Lewis he has got lots of ability and lots of qualities, but now he is doing the stuff he is not known for. We know he’s competent in possession and he should have an assist, Evo owes him an assist because he’s put in a helluva ball for Antony at the back post and it was harder to miss from there rather than score.
He’s starting to develop his overall game but I do think the man on the inside of him and that unit of the back four, some have got relationships from last season and they are bedding down. I think Lewis Gibson and Flash, as we call him, are now bedding down.
It’s a young backline but it’s pleasing to watch them come together.
You have conceded two shots on target in 180 minutes of football. You must be satisfied considering where you have come from in that regard.
We’re disappointed with the goal we have given away because we should have stopped the cross coming in and then they have got first and second contact on it. When we analyse that, there are parts of the game we will want to improve.
But in the last two games against two competent teams with completely different styles, credit to the players. As a unit from the front to the back and Belly, they have done really well and hopefully, our meanness continues from now until the end of the season.
And do you realign your targets now you have broken that 50-point barrier? After Accrington lost today, there is a massive margin to do you change your goals now? Do you think about the top half or maybe 10th place?
We want to win every game and we’re going to have a big say in the promotion chase. Teams will come and there will be nerves in those sides because they are desperate to get out of the division.
But we can’t be thinking about anything other than progressing our football team and we have got seven games to go. This time next season, we want to be in a position to challenge, so I think this is fantastic practice for us now going up against four or five of the top boys in the division to see how much work we have got to do.
Or are we closer than we think or have we got a bit of work to do? It’s a nice part of the season. It will stop me from getting more grey hairs and it will stop the Gasheads from getting grey hears and having heart murmurs.
We can relax and enjoy our football and with young players in our team, with a little bit of pressure lifting off them I think they will find another gear.
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