Bristol Rovers Head Coach Darrell Clarke was full of praise for his squad’s togetherness and character after fighting back from a goal down to secure a 2-1 win over Salford City.
Saturday’s meeting at The Memorial Stadium saw two of Sky Bet League Two’s in-form team clash and it was first blood to the visitors, as former Rovers loanee Matt Butcher netted for Salford in the first half.
Ellis Harrison levelled for the Gas just before half-time with a well-taken finish before Fabrizio Cavegn completed the come back with his third goal in as many games on 63 minutes.
There was still time for late drama when Salford were awarded a very late penalty, but Luke Southwood was the hero of the match when he denied Luke Garbutt deep into added time.
For Clarke, the spirit and attitude shown by his side was most worthy of note, as Rovers climbed into the top seven in the league and went eight games unbeaten in all competitions…
Darrell, talk about a game of drama…
“Very much so. I don’t know where to start to be honest with you. I thought we were poor in the first half but we got the goal just before half-time which gave us a boost. We had a bit of a change of things around at half-time and I thought the second half was a lot better.
“Credit to the boys, and the whole group as well. It was lovely to see the seven players we’ve got injured there on the side cheering the boys as they’ve come off the pitch. That is proper togetherness. We needed that in abundance today because Salford City are a really good team. You can see how well they’re doing with Karl and the form they are in, and we had to dig in and I don’t think we’ll get many games like that at the end with the penalty save.
“I thought it was justice. I thought the decision to give the penalty wasn’t the right one. I’d have been raging if that had cost us the game but credit to the boys, and Luke Southwood makes a great double save for the penalty and we’ve managed to get the three points.”
How much did Ellis’ goal right at the end of the first half change what you wanted to say at half-time?
“Goals change games, we know that. Goals do change momentum. I thought Salford started really bright and we weren’t at it defensively. We weren’t winning enough duels and we weren’t affecting the game in the way we should be. We’ll look back at that and see what went wrong but, for me, the character of the squad today was superb.
“We’ve come from behind to win a game of football and that’s a box we haven’t ticked this season. It’s important you tick those boxes and we’ve managed to do that today against a massively in-form team with seven key players out of the group. Hopefully that gives the whole group a lot of confidence.”
The team has had to really pull together with the injuries to the group and those celebrations with Luke Southwood right at the end just show the togetherness in the squad…
“It does. The pleasing thing too is that the fans are behind what we’re trying to do here. I can’t thank them enough for the support and the way they’ve taken to this season after a real difficult year last year. They’ve come, been vocal, got behind the boys and it’s been really pleasing to see. It’s really great to see so many happy faces after the game.
“We’ve got to enjoy tonight. It’s a good three points. I don’t really over-celebrate wins but I think today we deserved that with the circumstances in the games. We’ll enjoy the weekend now and get back to work Monday.”
Finally Darrell, that’s three wins and a draw from September – ten points from 12 available – you must be pleased with how the month has gone on the whole?
“I’m pleased with the togetherness in the group. I still have the same opinion that I had last month in that there is still a hell of a lot of work to be done. There is a lot of work in progress and certainly with the circumstances at the minute, with the injuries we have got, everyone’s having to come in and pull their weight and that’s really pleasing to see.
“We’re calling on players who maybe haven’t started the season as well as they’d have liked but, like I keep telling them, it’s not about one or two players but it’s about a group of players. If you’re ever going to be successful in football then you need that group.”
