Joey, you said before the game you wanted to give the Gasheads something to be happy about at home and you did that with a deserved three points today.
Yeah, we could have made it a bit easier. With last week’s late goal and the calibre of opposition, they were always going to keep probing, certainly when it was 1-0, they were always going to keep testing us.
But I felt we were really commanding today. The first-half performance was controlling and competent without an abundance of chances until the latter stage of the half.
We challenged the lads at half time and said ‘We feel we are really a good second half team. In recent weeks we’ve come in here one or two down, the fact we’re 0-0 is, weirdly, a good scoreline for us’. We said we must capitalise on a steady first half where we’ve been in control and played a lot of the time in Peterborough’s territory and turn that into points.
To do that, we had to keep the backdoor closed and keep a clean sheet and it was a fantastic effort from the group to do that.
We always feel we’ve got a chance of scoring goals. Coburn and Collins were fantastic today without getting a goal, and that’s the beauty of being able to add a phenomenal professional and a phenomenal player in Scotty Sinclair to our group.
His finish today was exceptional, but not only that, I thought his all-round performance was first-class.
And he celebrated like a 17-year-old, not a 33-year-old. How is Scott settling in? Rovers fans will be hoping he stays beyond January with performances like that.
He’s been great, he has been a real breath of fresh air. We’ve got some good characters in the group and we lost a couple of characters over the summer and you’re always mindful when you’re adding new characters to the group, will they settle in?
The lads that have come in this year have been first-class. They have understood the hard work that has been done by a lot of people, some are here and some are not, and they have come in and the first port of call for us is work ethic. You turn up, put the work in and everything flows out of that.
Scotty hasn’t come in and put all his trophies and medals and achievements there. He’s come in and he’s knuckled down and got stuck in with the lads.
They love him as a person in the dressing room and the Gasheads now have seen somebody who they can resonate with in the team, a superstar in the Gas’ history, but he’s come back now to enjoy the Indian summer of being north of 30.
If he carries on in the vein he has in the early part, the best is yet to come from Scott.
There are a couple of cup games coming up, but this is a result and a performance to take into those dark winter months as you look to climb the league table now.
Yeah, and we spoke about the first block of 10 games, two wins in that wasn’t good enough and we’ve played nine games in the second block and I think that’s four wins, four draws and a defeat, so markedly different from the opening gambit.
Another tough fixture coming up to complete that sequence at Bolton away and I said to you in the week Peterborough and Bolton are teams you would expect to be in the top eight, promotion-thinking and challenging teams.
For us, it was important to beat one of those sides, it was important for us to beat them at home, and it was important for us to do that in the midst of keeping a clean sheet and showing we’ve got a meanness to our defence.
Joey, in recent games you’ve given yourself a lot of hard work to come back from by being loose at the back but it was well organised today. You caught them offside time and time again. You must be pleased with the improvement of the back three.
Yeah, and three quality players in there. I’ve spoken to you a lot of times in my tenure, I believe as a coach that there’s a fluidity in the way you coach your players.
There are a lot of coaches that I have played for that view the game that don’t do that. They have one system and philosophy that works for them. I’m absolutely not here to question that at all.
Everyone has got their way of doing it and my belief as a player was you have to have Plan A, B, C, D and E. Some sides have Plan A and B, I think we’re starting to show certainly in the step up into League One this year, that tactical fluidity is important.
Going to that back three today there is always that difficulty that if you’ve got Scott Sinclair and Lewis Gordon as a wing-back that they can get in the ascendency by playing wingers wide and make you into a back five. It becomes difficult to put pressure on.
I thought we were brave up until we scored. Credit to them, they went with Jonno (Clarke-Harris) and went a bit more direct. They played 4-2-4 or a version of it was 4-2-3-1 with Thompson running on. The sending off then affected them and then went to a three and pushed on as they needed to.
From our perspective, shutting them down because we think we are a free-scoring team. Peterborough are historically whether it’s Grant (McCann) or Darren Ferguson have built their success off being a goal scoring team.
They shut down Clarke-Harris for 30 minutes, Marriott who was bought by Derby for £5m and Jade-Jones who they turned down £10m allegedly from Spurs. I think we have to be really pleased with how mean we’ve been to build anything to build a performance off.
Red card, do you think it was clear-cut?
I think he is going to go in and score. There is an argument that Fuchs had a first go at pulling him back. I would fancy Josh to go in there and score.
He’s busting through, two cynical fouls and I think the second lad has probably suffered as he looks like the last man. Was the player around on the cover? I’m not sure if Josh gets that second touch away it doesn’t prevent him from either scoring a goal or having a good chance of scoring a goal. I think the ref got that call right.
Sam Finley was outstanding today, wasn’t he? He led from the front with the captain’s armband.
Yeah. His ball for the goal is a really good ball. I was probably guilty like most in the stadium of wanting that ball to go wide, I don’t know whether it was Collins or Coburn on the outside.
Sam’s seen a pass I don’t think many of us have seen. To pick Scott and that composure in the box is the difference between a 0-0 draw and us winning the game. A real quality match-winning moment from our captain today.
His performances have been first-class in recent weeks and his assist against Fleetwood for Azza, he provides the assist for the match-winner. I’m really pleased with Sam.
The change of shape seems to have really suited him and you can get him in those creative positions. He can do a bit of everything as a midfielder, but the creative stuff makes the difference.
He does stuff that you can’t coach. He almost reminds me of Paul Gascoigne in a way. The way he uses his arms to roll you and get in front of you.
He’s a lot quicker than what a lot of people think he is. He’s sneaky quick, he really is. He’ll get his arm in front of you and use your momentum. I remember Gazza used to burst through. If you watch Sam, he is really good at manipulating his body to get through.
He’s in to a space now where I think he knows how the Gasheads feel about him. He has that composure in his performance that if Couttsy isn’t there he’s leading the team or he is vice-captain.
I think a real level of maturity has been added to Sam’s game. I still think the best years are out in front of him. He’s going strength to strength since he’s been at our football club, so long may that continue.
Joey, can I ask about Scott Sinclair? Can you elaborate on what you said about his performance? You said it was first-class.
It’s the lads knowing they can pass to him and they just know there is a calmness. His close control, his weight of pass, the way he loans the ball to other players, you always want good players in your team because they radiate calmness.
I remember Elliot Anderson last year, he just radiated confidence out, and certainly Scott has since he’s come into the starting XI.
Today, I had to speak to him and I said ‘We’ve brought you in to play a more offensive role, but this is how we’re going to play it’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, great’. He just loves playing football.
He’s a real privilege to coach. He just turns up with a big smile on his face, great teammate, even when he’s not in the team. In the early part, he’s encouraging the people around him, coaching Bobby Thomas and the younger players into position.
For me as a coach, we’ve been lucky with Paul Coutts and Glenn Whelan, but to add another player who has got an incredible career, who’s been an incredible professional who has scored a play-off final hat-trick. That’s worth £100million.
He’s just got that composure and that has radiated out into the people who are close to him in the game. I thought Bobby Thomas in the second half today was exceptional and it’s no coincidence with Scott’s calmness. I’d put James Connolly in that bracket, as well. Having James’ composure, he’s very mature. Lewis Gibson, obviously you see what a good player he is.
I think we’ve got a really good team and a really good squad building here. We’ll find out on Wednesday and Sunday because there are a lot of lads frustrated that they are not playing but fully understand that there are some good players in the jersey.
For us, two competitions are coming up now and an opportunity for everybody in the squad to state their case.
Scott is committed until January. How confident are you that you can get him to stay?
He loves it here, you can see in his celebration when he scores the goal. He’s scored for Celtic and for some big fanbases, but you saw what it means to him.
We didn’t sign Scotty, Scotty wanted to come and play here, so we’re hoping that doesn’t change. He’s enjoying his footy and you can see in the way he’s been playing.
He’s living in the area and he’s from Bath, seeing his family, they are all things he hasn’t been able to do because he’s had such a fantastic career.
We want him to stay and I don’t see any reason for that changing other than somebody who’s bigger than us with a lot more money than us coming and making a play at him. None of us will begrudge him another shot at top-flight football, but also he’s got a chance here to do something he’s wanted to do for his whole life, which is be a phenomenal, legendary-type player at Rovers and lead the club to places it hasn’t been before.
I’m hoping he stays for two, three or four years and we go on an incredible journey together and Scott scores a hat-trick in a play-off final to take us into the Premier League. He’s done it for Swansea, he might as well do it for the Gas, he’s a Gashead.
SIGN UP: To receive our free Rovers newsletter, bringing you the latest from the Mem
READ NEXT:
