Joey, that was Plymouth’s 19th home win of the season. How tough a task was it, especially when you were reduced to 10 men?
It was always going to be tough. They are top of the table for a reason after the amount of games played, so we knew we’d have to be on our game today.
I think we were fine up until the two challenges, really. I definitely thought the first one was a yellow card and once you’re on that yellow card, you just can’t run the risk and take that chance.
He’s a young player, Evo, and he’s let the lads down there. He’ll be disappointed and nobody will be feeling it more than Antony, but after that, we had a bit of a mountain to climb.
We got to half time and weathered a storm and I changed it at half time to get us a bit more of a defensive platform. It didn’t work; we conceded within five minutes of the second half and then it was a tough task for the lads.
We kept scrapping away. We didn’t get a number of goals put on us and I felt in the midst of that, we learned a lot about some of the characters. I thought Grant Ward was superb, I thought Lamare Bogarde was superb, I thought Ryan Loft was superb when he came on and credit to Johnny Marquis as well. He had an unenviable task up there scrapping away on his own.
I can’t fault the lads. I’m disappointed with the red card, obviously, but I can’t fault the lads. They kept scrapping away.
Aaron Collins went down in the box in the first half. Have you had a chance to see a replay?
I haven’t seen a replay but I didn’t think it was a penalty in real time. The ref was a lot closer than me and hasn’t given it.
Some you get, some you don’t. I thought he was going to get a shooting opportunity or a crossing opportunity, and maybe he was going to cross but it looked like Josh Coburn slipped a fraction of a second before.
It would have been nice to get it, but I think from what I saw, I didn’t think it was a penalty.
When you were 10 against 11, was it a tactical decision to take Aaron off at half time?
Yeah, absolutely. We were toying with the idea of him staying on and keeping that secondary striker and having that presence up there. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake from us if I’m honest.
I went to a five because they were overloading us with Bali Mumba and Danny Mayor in the first half pulling that seam out. I went for the extra defender in there and it didn’t bear fruit and as a coach, sometimes you make those calls and it doesn’t quite pan out.
The effort and commitment was there, wasn’t it? People like Ryan Loft came on and made positive impressions after you said on Saturday players are ‘auditioning’.
Yeah. I think from our perspective, everyone here tonight can see we’ve had a go. We aren’t on our holidays and we haven’t rolled over and let Plymouth have the points.
We’ve had a scrap with them albeit it once we went down to 10, we had a bit of a mountain to climb. We tried to make a change to keep it tight and frustrate the crowd and see if they got a bit nervy and overcommitted.
As it was, they got a goal five minutes into the second half and then it’s very difficult for us, but the lads kept scrapping away, stuck together and they haven’t snotted us four or five because if you go down to 10 with the momentum and quality they’ve got, that could have been a long second period but the lads kept scrapping away so fair play to them.
Barring a disaster, Plymouth will be in the Championship next season. How far away are Rovers from being a Championship club?
We’ve got a bit of work to do. They’ve been in League One for three of the seasons I’ve been a manager. They had that season in League Two.
Last time I came here, you see it in all different stages of development, the stadium, the facilities and, obviously, the team as well. It’s just about time served and upgrading your players.
The club has got stadium plans in the ether at Bristol Rovers, but how quick or whether it comes to fruition in my tenure, I’m not sure. But when you come here and there 17,000 in and there are 10,000 at the Mem, that extra 7,000-8,000 you get in is extra revenue you can reinvest in your facilities and your football club and your team.
We have got the fanbase. No disrespect to Plymouth, but I would imagine we have got a bigger fanbase than Plymouth. I would imagine the city of Bristol is a bigger capture area, so they are a club we can look at.
They dropped into League Two and their first season back up, we were 5-0 up against them at Fleetwood and you start making subs after 60 minutes. They got a real baptism of fire there and they just stayed up that season, doing the job, and from our perspective, we’ve done that job.
We have mirrored them in a way, getting up after the relegation and staying up. It allows us the opportunity now to build.
This summer is going to be, I would imagine, 12 players if we were serious about getting better. Let’s make sure we’re better next season than this season.
If we keep doing that and keep doing that, eventually, we’ll be in the mix. We’ve got to earn our way because there are some big clubs in this division, but it’s easily doable.
Are you ready to pounce at the start of the summer?
Some of them might already be in there. Lads who are with a year left on their deal or coming to the end of their deal.
I think we need to sign at least 12 players, that’s the reality. We’re going to lose a few and, obviously, loans are going to be included in that.
I think some of those players are in that dressing room for sure. Some of the performances tonight, certainly Grant Ward. He’s been exceptional.
Can we get a couple of the lads back? Lamare on loan? Maybe, possibly. Josh Coburn? Maybe, I don’t know.
But we are going to have to recruit and I think it’s evident in the past few games, we’ve taken on the bigger and better teams at the top of the division.
I think I am crystal clear on what type of group I want to build next year and we’ve got some really good components in that dressing room, young lads who are still learning, but we just keep improving it incrementally and it won’t be long until, hopefully, as a football club, we’re in a position to challenge for the Championship.
On the same thread, Joey, Plymouth have showed you don’t have to be a Sheffield Wednesday or a Derby County with a big budget and a massive fanbase to compete in this league. That must be an inspiration for you?
Absolutely. Their budget will be about £4.5million, not one of the bigger budgets in the division. They went for it in January and there was a big play from them; they went and spent a load of money for a League One club, similar to Ipswich.
It is no coincidence, look at the results they have got. You need to incrementally improve your team. It’s coaches, stats, all that, but people forget it’s about football players.
If you have got good players like they have got and you keep getting good players and your bench starts to be filled with good players, lo and behold you usually get results and climb up the table.
We’ve got a lot of lads who are brand new to League One, even some of the experienced boys. It’s a lot of the lads’ first season in League One.
Aaron has scored a major part of our goals. I said to Evo in the dressing room there ‘We could well be here needing to get points to stay in the division and you’ve ended up getting sent off like that. It could have cost the team, it’s cost us tonight and it could have cost us more’.
We’ve got to learn those lessons. Incrementally, you will naturally improve and I’m in a position now where we have set the benchmark for League One. When I took over the club, we were relegated, and not only getting the club back to League One was important but keeping them there, you legitimately leave the club in a better position than when you found it.
Now the challenge is can we kick the level on and improve even further and take the club into the top 12 of the division and see where we are?
Will nights like these stand you in good stead in the future having been in deep waters and learning from the experience?
I wouldn’t say it was, no. We challenged them at half time and said you can take a lot from backs against the wall, but you have to get the job done and get some points.
We got beat and we got beat comfortably as well. They were ‘oleing’ us 60 minutes in and if they had gone for it, it would have been them more likely to score than us.
We were really up against it there, so what have we learned from that?
Do you learn about players?
Yeah, you see some bits of their character and stuff like that, but if you are going to learn or grow as a team from it, you have to get the 0-0 or nick a 1-1 or a winning goal or something to build confidence levels off it.
We’ve got to dust ourselves down quickly and get on it because we’ve got another tough game at Peterborough on Saturday.
Luke McCormick wasn’t in the 18 today and didn’t travel. What’s the story there?
Wisdom tooth. He’s come in this morning white as a sheet. If it doesn’t rain, it pours for poor Luke at the minute. I was going to give him some minutes as well.
Josh Grant the same, he just had a little setback with his groin. I’m a little disappointed because it would have been nice to get those lads some moments and it would be nice if we can before the end of the season if Macca can get in and see the dentist and Josh’s groin settles down.
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