Joey, you’re aware it’s Rovers’ first victory at The Valley since 1958. What was the key to the turnaround of the performance in the second half?
We thought we were the better side in the first half. I thought they started ever so well, they had us on the back foot and James Belshaw has had to make some good saves and there was good defending.
Then they got the goal and we were disappointed. We felt we got past the fact they’re at home and they were going to try, but you fall to the standards of your training and your preparation. I saw they hadn’t won in six and they scored first against Stockport and fell apart after that.
As the game settled and we started to pass it, I thought we got better towards the end of the first half.
We made a couple of changes in terms of James Connolly was ill before the game and he was touch and go, he was vomiting this morning but he wanted to play. He didn’t look right in the warm-up but still wanted to play and we didn’t really want to make any changes because we didn’t have time to prepare.
We made the change at half time mainly because Luca Hoole had been so good on Tuesday, and I knew I was wanting to get John Marquis on the pitch because when strikers are hot, they’re hot, as he showed again today.
But we didn’t want to come away from home and play a two in the midfield. We knew it was going to be icy and the pitch might not be as good as it can be and we knew we had to win the battle. That’s why we got that third midfielder in there and that’s why Luke McCormick came in.
But as the game opened up, I knew if we got two strikers in, and no disrespect to the caretaker manager here, but usually if teams see you adjust, they have an opportunity at half time to adjust to it. We wanted to do it a lot earlier in the game but we felt the best opportunity would be to do it at half time or just after, so if they did respond to it, it would be too late and that’s how it transpired.
It doesn’t always go to plan as a coach, but credit to Johnny. I thought his pressure and his work rate but also his composure and his cool finishing is ultimately the difference of the Gas not winning here since 1958 and the Gas winning here today. Another bit of history for our group, 64 years, and I’m buzzing for everyone that came out.
The fans, with train strikes, it being freezing, ice everywhere with the game in doubt and the Gasheads have turned up in their numbers today and I’m so pleased to give them that win that they’ve been long overdue at The Valley.
Two goals for John Marquis on Tuesday and two goals today. Are we starting to see the reason you brought him to the football club?
Yeah, you remember Aaron Collins last year. Azza didn’t start scoring until about this time last year. It just takes a bit of time to settle and I think any striker worth their salt, once they get in the goals and they get the smell for it, and you can see from his first goal today that he is not a player short of confidence.
His two finishes the other night… the second one gets the adulation because it’s a great hit, but the first one he still had a lot to do.
I’m really pleased for him. He’s worked his backside off to stay with the group. His attitude has been first-class and he now looks a real menace.
Complementing that with Josh Coburn and Aaron Collins, I think we’ve got a strikeforce as good as anyone’s in the division.
Just one defeat in 12 league games now. You’re up to ninth as you go into Christmas.
Yeah, and we’ve got some tough games to go, but this is another tough place to come ticked off. We’ve been to Ipswich and Portsmouth and pretty much everywhere that will be difficult to go to.
At our place, we fancy our chances against anybody, but we’ve also shown in this little block of games that we’ve got resilience on the road by going behind and responding to that.
I am really proud of the group and where the football club is at, but we won’t be resting on our laurels. We want to make 2023 an even better year than 2022 and if we can do that, I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for our football club to develop and play in even bigger stadiums than this.
No Jordan Rossiter today, how long do you expect him to be out for?
He’s looking at a couple of months. We thought it was going to be a lot nastier than that, the early signs weren’t great.
We thought it might have been an ACL, but fortunately, it’s not. It’s his meniscus, it’s still not great, but it’s 6-12 weeks rather than 6-12 months. He’s a big player for us and we missed him.
Sam Finley was not playing, Harry Anderson was not here, Ryan Loft was not here, so we’ve got a few bodies to come back and they are not far away.
Our squad keeps growing and we’re getting stronger, so let’s see what we can do this season.
Caretaker managers always fire their teams up, so you were probably expecting that fast start from Charlton, but did you always have belief that they had a capitulation in them because of the run they’ve been on?
We always back our physical levels. We always know we finish games strongly, full of running and the lads on the bench do everything right so they are prepared to do that.
We said at half time to the players, we felt we were just turning the screw. They were 1-0 up, but we felt like they didn’t really know how to win a game. They hadn’t won in six and the manager has been popped.
It’s difficult and we’ve been in this situation. I spoke to the lads before the game about us being 2-0 up here and losing 3-2 and losing Sammy Nicholson and getting a few injuries. That was a huge blow to the team’s hopes of staying in the division and that night Charlton had absolutely no sympathy for us.
They put their foot on our throats and pushed us into League Two. A short period of time later, the boot is on the other foot. They are all over the gaff, the team is all over the gaff and we get a chance to put our foot on their throat and show how far our football club has come in a short space of time.
But again, we can’t rest on that. We’ve got to push on and let’s see how far we can push Bristol Rovers as a football club.
What an ace up the sleeve for you John Marquis is because of his intensity and the spark he brings when you’re not creating. He blew it open.
That’s what good goalscorers do. He was in my mind coming in, but we’ve got to be mindful of the trickiness of coming to The Valley, no matter what situation Charlton are in. Charlton is a massive club and I played here a number of times in the Premier League myself.
They are in a tricky spot, but you have still got to earn the right to win and compete in football games. As good as the performance was in midweek, I thought the performance on the Saturday was equally as good.
I felt we had to be sensible here in terms of keeping three men in the middle of the park. I knew the pitch would be bitty and I knew it wouldn’t be a slick passing football match. With their physicality of Stockley etc, you are going to be tested at the set play.
It is really pleasing when the subs come on and impact the game in the way they did because I think that points massively to their attitude. They are not disappointed they are not starting and they understand their role in the squad.
If we’re going to be successful this season, everybody in the squad is going to play their part and we are building nicely, but we’re going to stay hungry and humble and we’ve got another war next week at Wycombe.
Luca Hoole, we all knew he would be, but he is back on the horse after a tough time and he was brilliant today.
He was faultless. He was brilliant after the first 15 minutes on Tuesday night, he looked back to himself, and that’s what happens with young players.
He didn’t miss a beat last year and in the summer we had a load of injuries in the defensive area and it just discombobulated a few of them.
Bobby Thomas and Lewis Gibson were outstanding today and just getting that little bit of calmness around you allows your game to develop.
I thought Hooley was exceptional in the second half. He didn’t put a foot wrong and he was on the front foot with great pressure.
The lads that come on – Hooley, John, Glenn Whelan and James Gibbons – gave everything for the quartered jersey and as long as we keep doing that, we’ll be OK.
What was the build-up to the game like with three pitch inspections?
It was horrendous, it was weird. We had to train over at Bristol University because we had sheets down on our training pitch, but it was -10 and they froze through so we had no training ground.
They kindly let us use their facilities and their astro turf, so we did a short session on that. We set off at about 3.15pm to get across here.
An hour into the journey, we got a call saying the game was off, so we pulled into Leigh Delamere services and, kindly for us, our coach driver Stevo got on the mic and sang a few songs. For the hour we were in the services it kept the spirit going with some peculiar choices of songs, but very entertaining.
And then we found out it was back on so we travelled across to London and we got caught in all the traffic. We left at 3.15pm and got in at 8.45pm, so the lads were fed, bed. We got up in the morning. ‘Was the game on, was the game off?’
Credit to the players for that level of professionalism and for keeping prepared and keeping their minds focused.
The Gas haven’t won here since 1958 and I’m buzzing to send the Gasheads home with a nice early Christmas present of three points and a victory at The Valley for the first time in a while.
Any update on the Scott Sinclair contract situation?
No, I haven’t spoken to him yet, but I think he will be a bit happier going and playing as a number eight in midfield (like he did in the second half) rather than wing-back.
He’s been brilliant and I think the club have started negotiations with his representatives. He’s enjoying his footy and you can see he loves being part of the team.
He’s been first-class. He’s really bought into what our group is about and I’m really lucky to have such a good group of players to coach every day. They really are a top set of lads.
What does it say about the team’s progression and you come to a place like The Valley and Charlton are sitting off? Their gameplan was to sit off and strike on the counter. That is a statement of how far you have come as a club and as a team, isn’t it?
Yeah and we’ve worked hard for that and there have been some harem-scarem moments.
I still think we can be better. We’ve got a lot of improvement left in us and we’ve got a really young group.
We will keep strengthening because we’ve got a really ambitious owner. The club is in such a good spot. Tom Gorringe has come in as CEO and it’s revamped the whole organisation.
I think I am lucky to be here at this time when the football club has finally got its act together. For too many years, Rovers have been rag-a*** Rovers and now we’re here as a group and it is a real collective effort right from the boss (Wael Al-Qadi) all the way down.
Without his leadership and his decision-making, we wouldn’t be in this situation. But in football, if you rest on your laurels and you think you’ve cracked it, it has a funny habit of biting you on your backside.
We’ve got to stay hungry and humble and keep grafting and who knows? I told you we want to be the first (in Bristol) in the Prem and we’ve got a long way to go, but results like that and if we can keep building, why not?
If Charlton have been in the Prem, why not?
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