Joey, a point gained this afternoon.
Yeah, after going behind I think it is. We’re disappointed we’ve not taken all three because we felt our performance, certainly for 89 minutes of it, was worthy of that.
It’s something to build on. It’s a really tough place for us to come historically and tough in my short period at the club. We had two disastrous results here and I thought we showed a real level of maturity considering how many young players we had today.
There are little bits we need to iron out and I know we’ll get to them. Belly has arguably been our most consistent player in my time here and he’s probably saved us about 65 goals, so we’ll let him off that one today.
For us, the character of the team, responding and getting back in it and pushing for an equaliser, was evident again and it gives us something to build off.
James didn’t really have a save to make. Do you feel like you were tighter at the back today?
Yeah, we played a bit more of a simplistic game. You know Exeter are very direct. Pretty much every opportunity they get, they try to turn you and it’s a huge part of their arsenal and their very effective at it.
We kind of took that away from them today in terms of the way we played in terms of the depth. We usually want to squeeze the pitch and condense it. Today, we were a little more mindful of that ball coming on the backside of us.
The difficulty for us was establishing territory and I think the longer and longer the game went on, we started to do that. We gradually got into it and scored a really good goal and we probably should have scored in a couple of attacks before that.
And then we let them off the hook by giving away a very soft penalty. Antony is saying they were both at it, but I think we’ve got to be cuter in and around the box and it was a hammer blow for us.
We then had an absolute nightmare situation going 2-1 down and you’re always worried about how the lads are going to respond in terms of the hammer blow of playing so well and finding yourself losing.
But again, they picked themselves and I thought Sam Finley did excellently to win the ball. A real captain’s performance. He played a lovely one-two with Sylvester Jasper and then a delightful ball in.
Lofty, I thought his performance today definitely warranted a goal. He was exceptional.
Sylvester is young and raw, but a fine cross and he rightly took the acclaim of the Gasheads at the end.
The difficulty for him today was if we played him from the start, he would have played left midfield and that would have meant he would have been pushed back and had to deal with Caprice’s attacking play.
I thought Luke McCormick did such a good shift for the team, and Antony Evans as well. I know he’s made the mistake but he did a really good shift for the team, a solid shift out wide which gave us the platform to go on.
Sylvester we always had in the back of our mind if the game got a little bit open, he’s so effective.
Tuesday night, he’ll get a runout and if he continues what he’s shown in his cameos then he’ll be pushing hard to start in the league come Saturday.
Might Tuesday be an opportunity for one or two returning players to get an appearance as well?
We’re hopeful. We’ll have Josh Coburn joining us on Monday, so it will be like getting a new signing.
James Gibbons and Lewis Gibson trained yesterday and today came a bit quick for them. Tuesday night might be on the quick side for them. They’re chomping and they want to play, but we’ve got to be mindful of we’ve got a marathon here and they will be moments and opportunities for lads, Harvey Saunders, Trevor Clarke, Alfie Kilgour, Glenn Whelan, Paul Coutts.
They are all desperate to play because they are all proud professionals, so we will shuffle the deck on Tuesday night but we want to keep this momentum for the next 10-game block. We didn’t win the game today but there is a lot we can build on. A solid away point at a tricky place historically for us to come.
I have to ask, it was here last year you gave me the soundbite of the season. Do you have any comments to make about Rovers’ short-term or long-term prospects this afternoon? I’m asking with tongue in cheek.
Honestly, I think we’re a really good team. I think I’ve got a really good group on my hands. It’s very young and I get that, but you’ve seen today some really mature performances.
Our back three today was 20, 20 and 21. That is incredibly young and if you look through the team there are a lot of young players out there and we’ve got some young players to come back.
I think we’ve got a really good team building. I’m not going to be stupid enough to say we’ll get promoted out of the gate, but I think we’ll have a really good season and as the season grows we’ll get stronger and stronger.
Today for us is a big step in the right direction by showing we can handle a side that plays really physically.
Joey, I thought Jordan Rossiter had a transformative impact on the way your midfield functioned. He was just so tenacious and stopped them from getting any flow in the game.
He’s exceptional at that. That type of game where there was a lot of second phase and a lot of second balls. He is really exceptional at putting fires out.
It does go unnoticed sometimes, the role that Jordan does, and I thought the amount of second contacts and breaking the play up and sticking his toe in, I thought he and Sam Finley in the middle of the park today really gave us a platform to build off.
At the start of the season, if you told me not many games in you’d have Antony Evans and Luke McCormick as your wing-backs, I wouldn’t have believed you. What were the attributes you saw in them that gave them the nod over, say, Trevor Clarke in that role?
It was running capacity. We thought we could steal the ball and when I watch Exeter, they are really open on transition in the middle of the pitch. If you go outside of them, that’s what they want, it gives them time to recycle the middle structure.
We knew if we stole the ball, and you see for our goal, you saw the amount of times we stole the ball and broke through the middle of them. We wanted players to attack on the inside.
We also knew if Exeter got in the ascendancy, we would end up With Evo at right-back and Macca at left-back and that is absolutely not what we wanted. When we weren’t doing so well in the game, they were the looks we got.
On the other side of that, the two boys playing at full-back for them probably wouldn’t have 11.5km running capacity like Macca and Antony have got. I thought Macca’s shift, even though he cramped up at the end, has allowed Jasper to come on and exploit a bit of tiredness and vulnerability in their backline.
You alluded to it, but that young defence was excellent. In particular, I thought Lewis Gordon was outstanding, he cleared everything, he was composed and he stepped in as well. A really complete performance from an inexperienced player.
Yeah, and Bobby Thomas and Luca Hoole. You forget, it’s such a young backline. Lewis Gibson and James Connolly coming into that, and Josh Grant.
It is a young group and we’re going to have to forge this group together. There are going to be some harem-scarem moments but I think the upside of getting it right with young players, as we found out last season, is when they get that bit of belief, they don’t know anything else.
James Connolly only knows promotion. Luca Hoole only knows promotion. They don’t know anything else so they expect to win all the time. It’s only when you get a bit battle-hardened and a few grey hairs come in that you realise you have some good seasons and some bad seasons.
I want to build a young, exciting team that the Gasheads can follow, just like they did today, all over the country and know that they are going to run hard for them. To do that, it isn’t going to be plain sailing straight out of the gate, there are going to be some moments because unfortunately with young players, it takes them a bit of time to learn to do the basics superbly.
Ryan Loft, you alluded to it, but he’s coming on at a rapid rate at the moment and I guess that is a typical goal you want him to score? He’s in the right place and it’s a perfect header that gives the keeper no chance.
Yeah, a great ball in as well and a great ball from Sam Finley. Jasper doesn’t have to break stride and it’s a really good delivery. It’s what every good striker wants, hung up to go and attack and Lofty’s got to be in there. I thought his performance warranted that.
John Marquis, it was nice to see him in the goals. A really tricky finish that, a really good finish. Azza, I don’t know how he doesn’t score again. He’s had countless opportunities.
I think we’ve got a really good front three and a really good team. It’s just getting them all on the pitch and settled. We’ve got a young, hungry group that are intent on giving the Gasheads a really exciting ride this season.
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