Joey, that was ruthlessly efficient, that first half?
It’s a young team in its maturation stage and we’ve had a bit of a shot of confidence after recent results and performances and it allows us to come to a notoriously really tricky place to come - they’d won four on the spin here before we got here - and to put them away with such ease is so pleasing.
Anything to grumble from that?
Just the penalty, I didn’t think it was a pen. I think the ref was probably guilty of being a bit sympathetic and giving the Cheltenham fans something worth coming out for, because we were so dominant in the first period.
I still think we’ve got gears to go. I certainly think we can certainly play lots better than that but there were a lot of good performances and lots of steps in the right direction for our team.
When a team wins a first-half 4-0, you think they’re going on to win seven or eight, did you go chasing another goal enough, or were you comfortable?
For us, it was about managing the game, managing the occasion. We know Cheltenham are a good side that, if they get their tail up, especially down that hill and down that wind as it was in the second period, that their fans are passionate and the stadium is on top of you here and will drive the team on.
I spoke to the lads in the dressing room at half-time. We knew Wade would get a reaction out of his boys, because they’re a proud team and you don’t have the success they’ve had in recent years unless you’ve got a really good core to your group. They’ve just had a bit of an off-day, or that we’ve been really effective and efficient with our box entries and our finishing.
For us, there were no thoughts of 5, 6, 7 - that would be disrespectful to them, it was about taking three points and having as comfortable a second period as we could.
If you had to make a list of the top players in League One, how close to the top would Aaron Collins be?
I think that’s for other people to talk about. We all know what a good player he is, his form has continued from the second half of last season. It’s not a short period, he’s maintaining good consistency to his level of performance and he’s added the goals and assists now which make everybody sit up and take notice.
But it’s the shift, the work he does for the team. He’s very much a team player. Obviously, he’s our talisman at the minute but I thought there were lots of good performances out there, not only in the attacking part of the game but some really good defensive performances as well.
You’re about to go into a period where you’re going to be playing some of the big guns in this division, do you now feel you’re better equipped to attack those games?
Look, you can only beat what’s in front of you and your Exeters away, your Cheltenhams away, I think they’re very, very difficult places to come and to take four points out of those games. MK, I get are in a bit of a weird space in the minute in terms of they’ve been a promotion-chasing team disrupted by people acquiring their top talents, but you’ve still got to go away from home and put on a performance Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday, like we’ve done to win games.
Like we’ve done. Cheltenham had a free week but you’d never have thought that with the energy we started the game. Really pleased with our group, tougher and bigger stadiums and tougher teams to come, but we can only beat what’s in front of us and they’re going to be open and try and play themselves and I think that’ll suit our team.
And what sort of side can we expect you to put out in the EFL Trophy against Swindon?
I don’t know yet, I’m not sure. We’ll assess the bodies in the morning. We’ll have a look at it because obviously there are lads who want minutes and want games but we want to try and win every game.
It won’t be a team of young kids, albeit we might have to put one or two in there, and we’ll be playing as strong a team that is necessary, to try and get lads minutes and get through, if we can, it but also the priority will be the league campaign against Plymouth on Saturday and getting back in front of our fans at the Mem.
You talk about things can get better, what in particular do you want to see more of?
Just more element of control. We’re still a work in progress. There was lots of good stuff. The lads, in a very short space of time have gone from playing a certain strategy, where we’ve been a bit more direct because of the opponent. Today, we asked the lads to control the ball a lot more because we felt there were some vulnerabilities in their team that we could expose.
And, honestly, they didn’t do much on Thursday, we spoke about and practised in on Friday for a short period because we’re managing energy with a Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday. Credit to the players they’ve gone out and they’ve executed which is why we were so comfortable in the first half.
To a man, I thought they implemented the strategy and game plan superbly and we get out of here with a deserved three points.
You talk about having a young team, working things out and learning on the job to a point, but the game management was important in the second half. Did you feel comfortable and in control?
We feel like we’ve just got over the first hurdle which is to get 10-15 minutes in, because Wade, we imagine, would have rattled a few cages in there and there was going to be a response. Plus, we were downhill into the sun and the wind. So we knew there was going to be a challenge but we felt we had navigated it but then obviously the penalty was given and, at that point, we had to show real maturation as a young group.
We’ve still got some senior boys out there in terms of Couttsy, Belly, Sam Finley but, again, the younger players in and around that took the steam out of the crowd. The penalty was the last big shout from their crowd and it was the 54th minute. After that, I thought we controlled where the game was being played, we broke the rhythm up, and showed the type of maturity that you need if you’re going to be successful in League One. We’ve got to keep learning but it was a good step in the right direction.
It sounds daft to say after a 4-1 win but the two centre-backs were very good in terms of their composure and how they shut things down. How encouraged are you by their chemistry together?
Yeah, again, when you defend, you have to defend as a four so you have to give Lewis Gordon and James Gibbons credit there because without those flanks insulated centre-halves can look really stupid. But with a good solid back four, like we’ve had, it allows those two boys in there to flourish.
Bobby is a young player, Gibbo is a lot more mature than his years but, again, you can see why we wanted to get them to the football club because of the quality they bring. To complement that, we’ve got James Connolly and Alf Kilgour to come back into the unit and it gives us some nice options in there.
Just on Gibson, he came off with a bit of a limp, is he okay?
Yeah, he’s alright. He’s just got a bang and he’s on a yellow card so my thing is, the last thing we want is someone with a dead leg to be stretching for something and you’ve picked up a needless second booking.
Sam Finley was the same, he’s on four bookings, so he’s done incredibly well to navigate - as has Antony Evans - the game. But, again, the substitutions are about rotating the squad. We’ve got real belief in the lads who are on there that anybody who is called upon can go out there and execute. And, again, managing the load with a very big schedule in front of us.
Aaron Collins… is the World Cup possible? Do you hear anything, for example?
What more can he do? We’re usually the last to know. It’ll be the Welsh selectors and Rob Page talking about it.
For me, if you’re Azza, obviously as a proud Welshman, you’d be wanting to get that phone call or the letter through, whatever it is these days. But all he can do is score goals at every opportunity.
He’s done that today. If anyone was watching him here they’d have gone back with ticks in the box, so he can only enhance his chances that way.
Again, it’s a bit of a long shot but it doesn’t mean it can’t be done. How many World Cups have we seen gate-crashed by late arrivals?
I think back to my first World Cup, Italia 90, and the Gascoigne scenario, could we have a Welsh version of that? Schillaci - there have been a few in there.
We’d be buzzing for him and it’d be a kick in the proverbials for us if we lose him because losing a player to a World Cup in League One would be a rare thing but, again, it’d be a great thing for everyone involved.
All he’s got to keep doing is sticking it in the back of the net and hopefully then the call will come Sunday. If it’s not for this World Cup then I imagine he’ll get one if he carries on doing that.
I thought Paul Coutts was really good in midfield, dictating the play and controlling the game. I just wonder what you thought of his performance?
I thought he was outstanding. And, for us, a real talisman of the team. He’s probably a bit frustrated not to get the minutes at the start of the season or when we changed a little bit because he wants to play every game because he’s such a competitive footballer but we spoke to the lads about it being a group effort, the modern game of 11 playing 46 games is gone.
The five subs rules allows you to be more fluid with your substitutions, and I think if we’re going to be successful it’s going to be a real squad and group effort. Couttsy’s the captain of the group and his performance was outstanding but I could say that about six or seven of the boys.
Just at half-time, I’m sure you would have liked to be 4-0 up but probably didn’t expect it, what kind of things did you say to ensure you didn’t drop back in the second half and invite pressure?
It was relatively easy, my teamtalk, because as I was walking in the tunnel I heard the boy Perry and Sercombe saying, ‘I can’t believe what just happened in the first-half, these are [a word that rhymes with pit]’. So I was like, ‘cheers lads, thanks for that, that’s my teamtalk’. I just made my players aware of that and obviously the rest is history.
SIGN UP: To receive our free Rovers newsletter, bringing you the latest from the Mem
READ NEXT:
