Lewis Gordon says Bristol Rovers cannot afford to dwell on their heavy defeat at the hands of Lincoln City at the weekend and he has backed his teammates to respond accordingly.
The Gas, shorn of several starters due to injury and suspension, slumped to a 6-3 defeat in a chaotic game against the Imps at the Mem on Saturday, stretching Rovers' winless run in League One to six games.
Defender Gordon, aged 21 with just seven EFL appearances to his name since joining the Gas after being released by Brentford B in the summer, deserves credit for facing the local media's questions in the wake of the defeat.
Naturally a left-back, he was part of a makeshift back three alongside Glenn Whelan and Luca Hoole but a combination of sloppiness from players across the pitch and some tough luck – two of Lincoln's goals took decisive deflections and another stemmed from a hugely unfortunate ricochet – culminated in a torrid afternoon for the Gas.
"Going into the game, we thought we could get three points, as we do every game, so to come away with a loss like that in the manner we did – we conceded six goals and none of them were outstanding, it was sloppy play from us. We’ve got to keep our heads up and look to the next game," Gordon said.
"A lot of the goals are just sloppy play, our mistakes and as a defender, you don’t want to concede any goals, so to concede six in a game is heart-breaking, really, but we’ve got to focus on the next game and see what we can do to get a win.
"We’ll always create chances and I back our forward players to hit the back of the net. Three goals should be enough in any game to win the match, so we need to emphasise our defending and stay strong.
"Obviously, we’ve got a few injuries to our centre-backs and a few suspensions, but that’s not an excuse, we’re all out there as a team and we could have worked a lot better to not concede six.
"Any loss you have, you can’t sit on it because if you sit on it you’re going into the next game with negative thoughts. Everything you do has got to be positive. We’ve got to look at the film on this game, go back and see what we can do better to prevent the six goals and score more goals next game.
"I’m a few games into my League One experience now and you’re going to have days like this, but it’s about how you bounce back. We could come in next week and be sloppy, but we’re not going to do that. We’re a strong team moving forward together and, hopefully, we can bounce back in the right way."
While Gordon may not feature again in a back three for Rovers in the immediate future as players return from injury and suspension, the system is set to remain in place with manager Joey Barton revealing 3-4-3 is his preferred shape moving forwards.
The 21-year-old sees the benefits and believes Rovers will only improve in that setup with more time to work on it.
"We worked on it for a couple of days in advance of the game and we saw some good things from it, so we decided to go with it and I felt like we controlled the game from the three at the back and it helped us create chances as well," he added.
"It’s about tightening up the defending side of things, closing the gaps, watching the balls in behind and once we do that we’ll be on the right track."
Gordon praised Barton's approach in the wake of the defeat and he believes Rovers are well placed to bounce back from Saturday's disappointment.
"He’s tried to keep it positive with us," Gordon concluded. "We’re grown men and we know the mistakes we made and it’s just about rectifying them. Obviously, we’re going to work on our positioning and shape more and more and he was telling us to keep our heads up and look ahead to the next game and we’ll be on the right track soon.
"He’ll tell us when the time is right that we’re not doing things correctly, as anyone would, but he understands the other side of the game where you can’t be too on people because that might derail them.
"He’s a great guy to have and the other staff as well, they want us to be confident at all times and not dwell on this because if we dwell on it it’s not going to help us."
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