SATISFIED: Paul Trollope was mostly pleased with the
way his players performed against Chester City today | |
Paul Trollope said he was pleased with 75 of the 90 minutes of this afternoon's League Two victory over Chester City.
The Rovers first team coach said his players were "well worthy" of the three points overall, but admitted that tired legs towards the end allowed the visitors back into the game.
"We were pleased with how things went for 75 minutes," Paul told bristolrovers.co.uk, "I thought we were decent in the first half, although there were one or two defensive things we talked about at half-time that we needed to put right after the break.
"With a two-goal lead, we didn't want to go out and chase the game too much, but at the same time we didn't want to sit back either. The game seemed to start to turn when they had their goalkeeper sent off, they went three at the back, and it seemed to galvanise them. They threw caution to the win, and put us under a bit of pressure.
"Not long after that, with around 15 minutes remaining, about four players in our team who haven't played too much football recently started to get tired at the same time. There was some cramp out there, some were on their last legs, and it was that as much as anything that led to a nervy ending.
"It left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth to win 2-1 rather than 3-0 or 4-0, but we had enough chances throughout the match, and I think we deserved the three points."
The opening goal of the game came after a corner routine on the left flank picked out Christian Edwards at the back post, with the second goal following a flowing move from midfield.
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| "It would have been nice to be a little bit more convincing, but it shows that there are still areas that we need to improve on." | |
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"We've found a formula on corners which seems to work for us, and in recent months, Stuart Campbell has been putting balls into the box right on the button," said Paul, "He gives our players a great chance, and we saw that today.
"The goal from Disley was another good move, and another good ball in the build-up from Campbell, and I think at half-time we more than deserved that lead, although like I say, perhaps we should have had a couple more."
The sending off of Stephane Gillet left Chester with David Artell in goal, and Paul said the decision to award a red card was a fair one.
"From where I was it looked like Junior had nicked the ball past him and was then taken out," he said, "Whether there were other defenders there I don't know, but that's the referee's decision to make not mine.
"It seemed to work in a negative way from our point of view though, they had nothing to lose and we saw that from how they played after.
"We didn't manage to kill the game off, which would have been nice, and maybe one day we'll get that third goal and not have to worry at the end!"
The final moments of the game were made all the more tense after Chester pulled a goal back on 89 minutes.
"That was very poor," said Paul, "It was a needless foul from Chris Carruthers, and then we all switched off afterwards. I mentioned at half-time that we weren't quite alive to set-pieces, although in the first half we didn't get punished. We got punished at the end though, so even in victory we've learned another lesson."
The win takes Rovers to the edge of the play-off zone, although with a game in hand on the two sides immediately above them, League Two could yet look even more impressive to Gasheads.
"We're still not getting carried away, and we've got some hard games coming up," said Paul, "The league is very tight as it is always, although at the moment we're still in with a chance, and that's where we want to be.
"It would have been nice to be a little bit more convincing, but it shows that there are still areas that we need to improve on. We're nowhere near the finished article yet, but we're heading in the right direction."
