Paul Trollope was pleased with the way his team bounced back from defeat against Southampton to take a point away from home against Oldham at the weekend.

The manager was impressed with the spirit shown by his side, and although he admits there is still a long way to go, he saw Saturday's performance as a step in the right direction.

He told bristolrovers.co.uk: "It was a performance that we can build on. It was a good step forward from the Southampton game, and the players showed a good response.

"The spirit was good, there was a real commitment and hunger about the group, which was good to see, and when we had to defend our structure and intensity was very good.

"We limited Oldham to few chances. Then we saw spells, especially early on and in the middle of the second half, of some good passing and movement.

"It is by no means where we want it yet, but it is certainly an improvement from what we saw against Southampton.

"There is loads more work to do on the training field, we need more understanding and cohesion still, but there are signs that it is coming.

"There was a real effort to try and play on Saturday, that perhaps wasn't there against Southampton.

"There were a lot of decent things, but we are aware that we didn't win the game, and that is what we went there for.

"We need to continue to work hard through this week, get ourselves fully prepared for Brentford, look forward to a good home game, and try to get three points."

The manager decided to start new signing John Akinde on the bench, and was pleased with his impact when he came on in the second half.

Trolls said: "John joined in the training during the latter part of the week and has had a good impact on the group.

"He has a very good attitude and good attributes that we needed to bring into the squad.

"At 1-1 with half an hour to go, I felt that if we could get back on the front foot, putting three strikers on the pitch would be beneficial.

"It worked out to be the case, the three combined well and we had some good movement and passages of play.

"We caused problems and Will had three chances and John could have nicked a goal deep into injury time. John made a positive contribution when he came on."

With Danny Coles suspended for the game against Brentford, James Tunnicliffe will be back in the side after being rested at the weekend.

Trolls said: "James was disappointed to have been left out of the starting 11 on Saturday, but we just felt we had to give him a rest as he struggled, by his own admission, against Southampton.

"We know James is a quality player and a quality defender.

"He missed a few parts of pre-season and we used last week to top up his general fitness and did some speed and agility work as well. We are pleased at how he progressed through the week."

And there was praise for Mike Green on his long awaited league debut.

Trolls said: "He would have been hugely disappointed and frustrated with his competitive debut at Oxford, a poor night for everyone concerned and no way did we point the finger towards Mike.

"He has waited a long time for his league debut, and I thought he performed to a very good level and did everything that could be asked of him.

"We gave him a new deal because we think we have got a decent young keeper on our hands, who is making good progress, and he showed that."

And there are a few sore bodies after the Oldham game who will need to take it easy through the early part of the week.

Trolls said: "Despite Danny getting sent off he had a slight knock and both Jeff Hughes and Chris Lines had quite heavy blows on their ankles, so we will have to take care of them in the early part of the week.

"Wayne Brown has made decent progress with his ankle injury through the weekend.

"We are hoping he is going to be fit and join in with the group on Thursday or Friday to be ready for Saturday, but we are not sure yet."