James Belshaw insists Bristol Rovers have no intention of taking their foot off the Gas when they reconvene following this gap in the schedule, as they still need to secure their League One status and neither manager Joey Barton nor the squad itself will allow an “on the beach” mindset to slip into the group.
Rovers don’t play again until they host Charlton Athletic on April 7 and Belshaw and his teammates - outside of Luca Hoole, Lamare Bogarde and Jarell Quansah who are away on international duty - are enjoying some time away from The Quarters and the intensity of the league campaign with their families.
The Gas lie 15th in the table, 19 points from the play-offs - an insurmountable or, at best, unrealistic margin to be breached - but are 10 points above the final relegation place with nine games remaining (the gap could be reduced to nine as Accrington Stanley host Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday night). Logic, probability and precedent dictates they’re not in imminent or even realistic threat of relegation with bookmakers pricing them between 50 and 100/1 to fall back into League Two.
That said, having lost their last two matches 2-0 to Wycombe Wanderers and Portsmouth, two sides who still harbour hopes of finishing inside the top six, with five more promotion contenders among their remaining opponents, there is a very obvious concern that with - as it stands - theoretically nothing to play for (a situation with very evidently irks Barton), Rovers could naturally lose an element of their competitive edge.
It's a dangerous possibility for a number of reasons, but with points targets still to be reached, the relentless daily scrutiny and analysis from Barton and his staff, their own professional pride and responsibility, plus the awareness of the thousands of Rovers fans who will still expect standards to be met between now and May 7.
“The gaffer wouldn’t let anyone come off the pedal for any one second,” Belshaw said. “As soon as you’re looking like you’re coming off the pedal or your standards are dropping, you’re the first to know about it.
“For us, we don’t want the season to peter out, we want to get to the 50/52 points - whatever it may - as soon as possible, secure our status in the division and then have a right good go these last few games; play with freedom and entertain.
“As a professional man you pride yourself on your performance and playing football, playing professional football, is the greatest job in the world and it’s a privilege and we’re all very lucky to do it. It’s taken a lot of hard work, everyone has had different careers to get to this point but as a man, and as a professional, you want to perform and give your all because people are going to be paying hard-earned money, the fans are going to be following us up and down the country over these next few games.
“We want to get safe, I think every Rovers fan will take 6-8 points, however many it takes, I don’t think they’ll be bothered by performances as long as we achieve that going into next year but we want to give the fans something to shout about and as players, the cliché - ‘on the beach’, you don’t want to be part of teams like that. It’s a very backward way of thinking and it can cause bad habits to creep in that then become hard to eradicate.
“We’ll stay on each other, training is always bang on, at the right intensity. So, as a group of lads, we hold each other accountable, hold each other to a high standard and will continue to do that.
“For my part, I want to lead the team and keep standards high. Whatever level I’ve played at, I know a lot of it has been non-league, but I’ve never been around that and I don’t want to see it creep into the lads. Everyone has got to look at themselves, keep the standards high and with the group we’ve got, we’ll continue to do that.”
Rovers home form and how clinical they’re been in front of goal remain underlying issues that can also be linked given they’ve not won their last seven matches at the Mem, in all competitions, and within that run have scored just once - John Marquis’ early header against Burton Albion.
Belshaw concedes that following the defensive concerns around the team across winter, when they didn’t keep a clean sheet for 11 matches between December 13 and February 11, they simply had to address some structural issues with how they played.
Most notably in transition as when Rovers were pouring forward, too many times they left themselves short-handed and vulnerable when possession was conceded. Their rest defence - how a team sets up in possession to combat a counter-attack when they lose the ball - needed to drastically improve.
There is confidence within the group that despite back-to-back 2-0 defeats they are, in the main, a better defensive team than what they were but it's come at a slight price as a balance still needs to be struck, where they can match solidity with rediscovering their consistency in the final third.
“It got to a point where we were conceding too many chances, too many goals, and where’s there is a leak, you have to go and fix it,” Belshaw added. “So, we looked at that, how we can be more solid? I think there was a stat, we were 24th in the division for getting counter-attacked on. Because we play such an expansive brand of football we often leave massive holes where we’re vulnerable to the counter-attack.
"So you lose some of that attacking potency by trying to remain solid. That has been a main focus but now we need to tap on the front side of the team. And let’s be honest, the last two games we’ve created chances. Their keeper has made some good saves.
“We’re not a million miles away from finding that balance, we’ve got a lot of good individuals, but it’s a team game, a lot of lads will have a big part to play in these few games.”
Even though the Shrewsbury Town and Plymouth Argyle fixtures have been postponed, Rovers have a friendly this Friday against Premier League Aston Villa to maintain a sense of match sharpness amid a very unique time away from competitive action, relative to their peers. It comes as a relief, unsurprisingly, to a number of members of the squad with many still based north of Bristol. And this period away from it all can naturally help recharge the batteries and refocus tired minds.
“Football’s a hectic schedule,” Belshaw said. “We have got a bit of time off with the families and a lot of us are away from home quite a lot so to get a few days, spend time with the family, will be great. Everyone’s a footballer but you’re a family man first and foremost so that’s important.”
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