Joey, congratulations. That struck me as a very comprehensive and well-earned away performance. What did you make of the 90 minutes?
Yeah, we knew we’d be tested here. Kenny, I’ve known him since my Man City days when he was at the football club. I’ve always watched his teams and competed against his teams. You know you’re always going to be challenged in every single department.
When they came to our place at the start of the season, they were a fantastic side. Winning games of football breeds confidence and we weren’t at a confident stage.
Tonight, the roles were reversed a little bit. As I say, it was a nice performance from the boys. A really mature performance. We had to show different sides and I’m really pleased with the two goals and a clean sheet to boot.
You mentioned in the week as well, the difference between where you are now compared with when you played them earlier in the season. Is that a really good sign of how far you’ve come and where you’re going?
Yeah, look, we just try and get better on a week-by-week, day-by-day basis. The group has become more tightly knit, both on and off the pitch. We’ve got lots of hard work out in front of us, but as I say we respect Leyton Orient and we know what a good side they are.
It’s not easy to come here and win tonight we’re delighted on a tough run of games to pick up another valuable three points.
You almost named an unchanged 11, in fact, you did but there was a last-minute change for Nick Anderton. Is there anything you can tell us there?
Yeah, he was just ill. He was sick so we had to make an adjustment. It’s not ideal. We had it recent against Oldham. You have to be resilient and resolute and that’s where your organisation and your group is ready and switched on.
The lads who are disappointed in the hotel that they weren’t in the starting XI obviously were then called upon and that player who drops out is desperate to play. He’s got a cracked rib. Bumps and bruises everywhere because Nick is just a warrior.
He’s the epitome of the quality we want in our team. Somebody who puts his body on the line every single week. The guys who’ve been supporting us right throughout will tell you we had a tough time.
Especially when Leyton Orient came to our place last time. He had a tough day, but he’s come on leaps and bounds since then. So, we’ll get some food and hopefully some medicine into him.
Hopefully, then he’ll be involved for Saturday’s game.
Was that an illness that flared up or got much worse in the warm-ups?
He didn’t even warm up. He couldn’t even make it to that, he was just ill. I’ve played with players who’ve been sick before games as part of their ritual, it was never mine. And if I’m honest I would not like to play after it because you get that weird feeling in your belly where it feels empty.
Nich was sick a little bit earlier and then sick a second time just before we were about to go out and warm up. So, we just couldn’t take the risk. We’ve got players in that squad who are ready.
I thought Harry Anderson, who played at left-back instead, was outstanding. A really good performance from H especially as he’s been playing wide and high in the front three in recent weeks and has nabbed a couple of goals. He put the team performance and his role above any statistics and selfish play.
A real team effort tonight, right across the group. If we’re going to be successful between now and the end of the season, we need everybody to keep playing their roles.
What did the moment mean to you at the end? I saw you go over to the fans and get a really great reception…
Yeah, it's certainly been an emotional week since Saturday’s game. It’s part of football, sometimes it gets missed.
You have to build a brotherhood and a group that really loves each other. A group that demands the highest standards and it’s not easy to get that, that’s why it’s so special when you get it.
We were given a great blueprint and foundation to build off because of Steve Black and the work he has done with us as a group last year, in the pre-season and just since I met him in my life.
So, he allows you to pass on his wisdom to these younger players. As a coaching group and a playing group, we wanted to honour him tonight and give him a good send-off with a great performance.
I think we did between tonight’s game and Saturday. Saturday’s game was the last game I think he watched, he passed away Saturday night sadly.
But he was texting me after the game and he saw we won 4-0. We were really good and he would have been delighted with that.
We were at the end of a 10-game cycle where we’d won six, drawn three and lost one. Blacky’s formula, his success profile, win regularly, draw occasionally, lose rarely, so I know he’ll be pleased at that.
Then we went and backed it up again tonight. Another clean sheet. A commanding away performance with a very young side.
So, wherever he is, wherever they go to the great ones. I know he’ll be looking down proud of the lads tonight.
Emotional but the lads kept on the job and as I say came of age.
Yes, well said. I saw the outpouring across football rugby as well for everything that he worked on. Would it have been at Newcastle that you first worked with him?
No, I met him while I was at QPR, he was instrumental in getting QPR up. So yeah he was instrumental in QPR’s promotion that year, if you remember the Bobby Zamora goal in the final was the cherry on top of the cake.
But there was lots of stuff done behind the scenes and as I say without Steve Black, I’m really not sure that would’ve been possible. He was special to the group and then I was blessed to have in my life, as you’ve seen from all different walks of the sporting arena, but not just that, people who lived on his street, people who met him in the YMCA in Newcastle.
He was a special character so I’m glad to see that outpouring for his family, but obviously, you feel aggrieved he was taken a bit too soon.
Just finally, 12 months to the day that you took up the reigns of Bristol Rovers. How do you look back or assess that 12 months and also where the club is heading?
I don’t if I’m honest. It’s in the past. One thing Blacky taught was about getting better and pushing to the future.
We’ve got better in recent weeks and months and we just want to keep pushing forward and see how far we can push it.
We’re a young hungry group of staff, players and executives. People forget what a good signing Tom Gorringe has been as CEO. I think he’s got the best success ratio out of all of us.
So, there’s change afoot. Positive change and again leadership, for me, cascades that (down). It gets set at the owner. The owner has been absolutely superb. I think it was the Leyton Orient fixture, this role reversal, where I was very close to maybe not being in charge because it was tough at that moment.
I am so pleased we all stuck together because the club is in a great spot, but again we’ve achieved nothing. We’ve got to keep improving, driving standards and be the best version of ourselves every single matchday.
Joey, did you ever have Steve around your group here at Rovers or was it just from earlier in your career?
Yeah, we suffered because the covid restrictions meant it was always on Zoom. We were fortunate enough to be able to capture his voice. The analyst had done a great job by pulling it from the Zoom conversations.
We played that to the guys in the build-up to the game and it was special.
So he was a figure known to your players? He’d been on zoom conversations with the squad?
Yeah, Sam Finley was the last player as far as I know to have a good hour with him.
I think you could sell that hour for a lot of money. If you have an hour with Steve Black you’re very fortunate. He was such a special person. I know he was instrumental.
Obviously, Sam scored the first goal on Saturday and Blacky was firing texts into Eddy (Jennings) saying “I’m buzzing” and they were laughing about it. So as I say, there’s never a good time for somebody to go.
He’ll be sorely missed by everybody that he met in his life. As I say, you only had to look at the outpour and the scope of people he worked with across so many different arenas and he was just the best. He brought out the absolute best in you. We've lost a good’n.
You said that was a motivating factor for your group tonight. Is that something you’re going to try and channel for the rest of the season to do him proud all the way through until the very end?
Yeah, first and foremost though, we want to do ourselves proud. We’ve got to take care of that. But we’re carrying a few with us. Glenn Whelan's mum passed away during the course of the season and she’s been a massive supporter of him and his football.
So we’re intent on carrying her into battle and doing her proud. Connor Taylor lost his grandad and had to miss a bit of time.
A player's sister lost a baby, stillborn, and obviously a former coach Darrell Clarke who’s had some terrible news.
So, it’s tough football. But you’ve got to keep going and moving through it. Our group has been emotional this week but again we showed that care and love for each other on the pitch.
We send our positivity to Darrell and his family. It’s not easy and your thoughts and prayers go to them.
Again, we get that energy and we’re able to feed off the crowd and I think that was important tonight. I think it was a real manly performance in many ways. We had to dig deep and we were tested lots of times in the second half, but I thought the lads were outstanding.
I think lately you’ve shown a hunter’s mentality. You’ve seized moments in games and really gone for the throat and you did it again today. You get the first goal and then the second one quickly after. If it carries on like this you’re going to become the hunted not necessarily the hunter. How important is it that you keep that aggressive mindset when the moment is there to be seized, you take it like you did tonight?
Yeah, look again if you’re a good football team and you’re on a good run, you’d expect people to raise the bar and reach that level of performance.
In the early part of the season, they were playing for the quarters and the Bristol Rovers size in the division. You’re a big target because you’ve dropped out of the division above as every team that went down would have been.
I think that was affecting us for the negative in the first part. I’ve said many times that confidence comes from good preparation. You can’t prepare haphazardly and expect excellence.
Since day one I’ve made some tough calls, calling stuff out at the level it was and it didn’t really bode well with lots of people, but they were tough calls that had to be taken.
Tom Short coming in from Burnley on the sports science side. Stuart Leake coming in on the medical side. Key components driving standards right across the board. It’s a real group effort and we’ve got to keep fostering it. Turning up and paying the game the respect it’s due every single week and if you do you get more nights like this.
We want to make our fans proud, We want to make the people of the city proud who wear that quartered jersey. As I say we’ve all got people we’re carrying on the jersey and on into battle, our friends, family, loved ones, the people who make sacrifices for you, but also people who aren’t here to stay on that journey.
It was 880 Gasheads here on a Tuesday night. Now you’re in this moment and not the moment at the start of the season where it wasn’t quite going for you, how valuable is that support in the surge you’re going on?
Massive. Absolutely imperative if we’re going to be successful that we’ve got our army with us, coming in numbers with positivity and enjoying watching the style of football we’re trying to play. It’s a winning style of football.
Tonight, we had to show a different side. There were spells in the first half where I thought we were sensational, controlling the ball and taking the sting out of the opponent.
We knew they’d keep coming and coming and that’s maybe where you’ve got to get the third goal. The third goal makes life very difficult for the opposition.
I’m pleased with how far we’ve come in a short space of time, but I still feel the best is yet to come from this group and with 15 to go we’re in a nice spot.
You took Elliot Anderson off. Did he take a kick?
Yeah, I think he got lifted a few times, but that’s what he’s here to learn. He’s here to learn how to handle your body in the physicality.
I would want a bit more protection for him, but you don’t get that unless you’re in the Premier League and you’ve got VAR.
But I’m not complaining, it’s a tough, physical game. It was a great game to watch and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it from the sideline.
We’ve got to dust ourselves down now, rest and recover and get ready for another big push in our stadium on Saturday.
That’s just bumps and bruises then?
I hope so. I’ll find out in the morning. He’ll be sore because you’re always sore after a game.
He was disappointed to come off, but that’s where the quality in your squad backs you up.
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