Joey, it was the late show again, did you think you deserve that?
I think so, yeah. Even on the balance of play in the first half, we were unlucky. Twice rattled the crossbar, one that came through a block-tackle that flicks Aaron Collin's shot onto the bar and then a free-kick.
With the greatest respect to them, they won the conference last year and they’ve made a fantastic start to life in League Two, nine unbeaten coming into the game today, so we knew this would be a really tough test.
It’s a good pitch but it’s quite firm. It’s a pitch that maybe doesn’t suit free-flowing, passing football, but you have to find a different way and credit to the lads today, they kept pushing and kept trying to do the right things, trying to pass the ball correctly in tough conditions with the wind and the hard pitch and we got our reward.
There was a lot going on in those final ten minutes, you get the equaliser which we’ll talk about in a moment, but what about the late save from your goalkeeper, coming back in for his first game in six months…
Everybody knows just how good of a goalkeeper Anssi is. The Gasheads will attest to that over his tenure in our goal.
He’s not had the best of luck with his injuries and that’s allowed Belly to come in and be superb. He’s been a massive part of what we’ve done here. Belly has a little bit of a setback with a niggle and then you’re relying on your squad again.
I thought Anssi to step up at that moment and make those saves is what big players do. They come up with big moments. It would have been snatch and grab for them because for me after they scored, we were the only side trying to do the right things and control the game.
Obviously when we scored, the wind and their keeper that’s always going to cause some problems
Really pleased with Anssi, delighted for him but the two young centre-halves, 20 and 20. They started the game, I felt, as two young boys but I think they finished the game as two 20-year-old men.
I’m pleased for the lads. I thought Elliot Anderson looked superb in there when he came on showed a real level of maturity and quality that is befitting of his parent club and hopefully he’ll be a great addition.
Harry Anderson coming on and winning the penalty and Evo has still obviously got the hardest job of all by putting it away.
Delighted with the point. It could be three, but they’re a good side, make no bones about it and they sit where they sit in the table on merit.
And we’ve got to play them at our place so there’s a little bit of wiggle room left in the tie. We fancied our chances having beaten them in the cup and I thought coming here today and playing as well as we did in spells and leaving with a point, gives us good confidence going into the second half of the season and a tough game on Tuesday night.
Talking about this month, playing Sutton twice in quick succession, Mansfield, Exeter, is this a really good way to start it, do you think?
We knew that at some point in the season we’d get into the Championship kind of rounds. The early part of the season is always choppy to make sure you’re in position for February, March onwards.
We gave ourselves a little bit of a mountain to climb with the way we played in the first half of the season and there’s a real intention from the group to be better in the second half of the season.
We’ve made a decent start to that but again Tuesday night, Oldham, they’re fighting for their lives and they beat Scunthorpe away today with a late goal. So they’ll be more full of confidence than what they were in previous weeks, but again we have to go and assert ourselves and show the Rovers style of football.
Now, this young hungry team is starting to become very difficult to beat and long may it continue.
The likes of Clarke, Loft, Finley, how far off are they from being involved again?
Finley was touch and go for the game today. We just felt it was 24/48 hours too soon. Lofty and Leon will probably another couple of weeks, but that depends who you ask.
If you ask them, they want to be back but we’ll monitor that. And obviously Belly, he might miss Tuesday night's game but then hopefully the injury he’s had in his knee will settle down and he can train Thursday with an eye on the weekend’s game.
So really good, really pleased. We’re not maybe as strong as we could be here today but again the belief in the team has got us a valuable point, come what may.
One of the reasons that you’ve had so much success as of late has come through mastering the press and you’ve been able to nick a lot of possession high up the pitch. You couldn’t really do that today because they weren’t taking many touches at the back, there were no chances to rob the ball of those centre-backs.
No, and look, there are many different ways to play football and it’s been hugely successful for the guys here and it puts them ahead of us in the table with way more points on the board.
So for us, we would find it a little bit easier with the likes of Swindon and the teams who have organised build-up patterns of play.
But you’ve got to find a different solution when teams are relatively straightforward from front to back. With this wind and the firmness of the pitch, there is always going to be moments where you get a weird bobble or someone misjudges it.
But I felt on the whole over the 90 minutes, we were really good in many departments. There’s some moments where we need to improve but again really pleased with the progression of the group.
And people forget what a young team we are. There’s a few older ones in there today with Whelo and Couttsy, but then Whelo comes off the park and you end up with another young'un going on.
Seeing the confidence and belief grow in the team is really pleasing to watch as a coach.
That’s why you carry players like Harry Anderson because they can come up with moments out of nothing and you had Harvey Saunders do it last week as well, chasing lost causes to win that penalty because that came from nowhere….
It did, yeah. He’s tried to play a through ball and it looks like it’s slightly overhit, but Harry didn’t give up on it and that’s where the pitch being a little bit tricky works against the goalkeeper.
He’s had the desire to get in there and chase a little bit of a lost cause and it’s obviously resulted in the keeper over-committing and getting us a penalty which Antony stuck away with real aplomb.
So, big moments and big players and we’ve got a really good squad, and more importantly a really good culture building. There’s a really good teamship in there and that’s what gets you home, and long may it continue.
It is just a point and it could have been three, so I don’t want to over-exaggerate, but it does feel like one of the games where it makes your season a little bit. It was a really tough battle and each point matters. It was s a difficult game, you’re behind late on, it was quite an ugly game with the wind and tricky pitch, you’ve shown a lot of character and maintained your momentum by remaining unbeaten.
Kevin Bond said to me, “We’d have lost that six months ago”. It was that type of game and that’s the evolution of the group of players. They’re evolving all the time and as I say there are lots of young players learning their trade.
For me, you can tell they are going to be good players because of how quickly they take on, not just information off the training ground but when there is an adjustment that needs to be made in the game.
We’ve just got to keep fostering that belief. It’s a tough league where every single facet of the game is examined.
If you can’t defend set plays you’ll be exploited. If you can’t defend long balls, you’ll be exploited in this division. So we had to stand up and be counted today and if the lads did make any mistakes we had an international goalkeeper in Anssi Jaakolla to pull off three good saves at the end.
While we’re greedy and we want to win and take three points, I think if you watched the football match today, there was really only one team trying to play football, but on the other side of that they had their moments as well.
They hit the post late on and Anssi has had to make some good saves, so would have liked three but also we’ve got to be absolutely clear in our minds that this is a really good point on the road at a great side who are on a run as of late.
Your view on the goal you conceded. It looked like a slightly cheap free-kick and then Anssi was caught between two minds, if that’s how you do see it, it does show his ability and character to still come up big late on….
Yeah, he said he was coming out for it and it just flattened out in the wind. He thought he was going to be able to punch it or claim it and then it just hit a flat spot right in front of him.
So, he’ll be disappointed probably but we as a defence we all will be. We don’t like conceding any goals, so we’ll look at that and try and improve.
I felt there was a little bit of argy-bargy in the build-up which I made the officials aware of. But he didn’t think it was, again I think we still could have defended a little better, still lots to improve on for sure but also really pleased with the lads character too, as I say, come and want to play football and want to pass it.
In these moments, for me, it’s about the bravery of the group and also the confidence of the group. Another tough game Tuesday where we’ll have to be at our best, but as I said a long time ago, I wanted to give the Gasheads a team to be proud of, and we’ve had amazing support again today, sold out every ticket I think they could get their hands on.
But look, we’re building as a football club. There’s loads to improve on and get better at, but again, I think everybody can be proud of the group that’s starting to emerge from what had gone in the past.
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