Bristol Rovers manager Matt Taylor has challenged his players to build on their 2-1 victory over Bolton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon. First-half goals from John Marquis and Antony Evans were enough to secure the new Gas manager’s first league win against the 10-man Whites.
Grant Ward delivered a delightful cross for John Marquis to tap home on 10 minutes, with the striker given the nod again for his first league start since September following an impressive goal-scoring performance against Crewe Alexandra in the FA Cup on Tuesday night.
Rovers continued to threaten in the first-half and were further rewarded as Aaron Collins was brought down by Bolton captain Ricardo Santos after being played through one-on-one which saw the hosts go down to 10 men with an hour still to play. Pleasingly, the Gas capitalised by scoring a second just before the break as Collins cut back to an unmarked Evans to fire home first-time.
Taylor’s side lined up with a back-three that reaped many rewards for the visitors, whom the Rovers manager praised.
“It wasn’t too dissimilar to Tuesday,” insisted the 41-year-old. “We felt that shape provided us with extra layers on the pitch, both in and out of possession, which is always important.” It’s a simple game, especially when we play against teams that play a similar shape.
“I was overjoyed. We have to respect who Bolton is, where they have the ball, and keep them as close to the outside of the pitch as possible.
“Our ‘keeper hasn’t had to make many saves this afternoon, but they’ve been down to 10 men and worked the ball a lot.” However, I felt that our attacking out was a constant threat to them.”
“Our attacking outset set the tone,” Taylor added. It was almost as if we came out of our half determinedly and responsibly, and then we could quickly transition into attacking moments. You need legs in the team, skill, and bodies at the end to do that, and we certainly had that in the first half. It caused them some issues.
“We have so much respect for what they are as a football team and what they do to opposition teams. They really move you around but we felt that we limited them to an almost horseshoe area of that inside half and the outside of the pitch and our centre-halves didn’t really have to defend the crossbar too many times and the goalkeeper didn’t have too many saves.”
As you would expect, the sending off did help Rovers who capitalised with what proved to be a crucial second, but it wasn’t just the one-man advantage, it was also the fact that Ian Evatt’s side lost such a crucial component of their side in Santos. That also saw the Bolton boss sacrifice top scorer Dion Charles which was responded to with boos from the home fans.
However, you have to admire how the hosts responded in the second half, moving the ball much more efficiently and looking more dangerous in the final third as they pressed the Gas more.
Taylor stated, “That sending off was exactly the same I feel as our four goals on Tuesday from a transition moment where we won it back by working our socks off.” Now that he’s gone one-on-one, no one knows what happened, but I’d like to think Azza would finish that one because there was literally no one else in the eyeline.
“That’s a big player to leave the field for them.” Because he’s such an athlete at the back, he really gets them going and allows them to defend one-on-one at times. So it was a big moment, and it just made it a little more comfortable in some ways, but also a little more structured in the way we had to defend.
“I would’ve loved a 2-0 because of the clean sheet would’ve been an extra bonus and a confidence booster for the back boys but part of me is a little bit pleased that the fans got up for that last 10, 15 minutes of the game and really drove the home team on and we were able to keep them at arm’s length.”
There had been so much discussion pre-match about Rover’s record against League One’s top sides this season, particularly given their own ambitions to climb into that elite bracket when it comes to the third tier. A great deal of the Gas’ best performances this term have come against the bigger clubs but those performances have rarely been rewarded.
However, against a side who went into the game second in the league, the West Country outfit were delightful and managed the game superbly.
Next up are another three former Premier League clubs in Blackpool, Portsmouth and Charlton Athletic and Taylor insisted that now his side have to go on and follow it up with further statement victories.
“Now we need back-to-back wins in the league,” Rovers manager Paul Cook said. “We said to the players, can we throw down a marker today to the rest of the league and say we’re a serious team and now we’ve got to back it up?”
“We can’t be a one-hit wonder team, winning one game at a time and getting everyone excited. I’m confident we’ll be well-supported again next weekend against another top-tier team. Return to the north-west. We need to put in another strong performance.”
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