Josh McEachran believes the players must take accountability after Bristol Rovers fell to a 4-0 defeat to Barnet in Sky Bet League Two.
Adam Senior, Nnamdi Ofoborh, Mark Shelton and Callum Stead scored for the Bees in their victory at the Hive Stadium, with the Pirates falling to their ninth consecutive defeat in the fourth tier.
The Gas will now be looking to respond when they face local rivals Swindon Town at The Memorial Stadium in Saturday's early kick-off, with McEachran adamant that everyone needs to stick together to get through the tough run of results.
Speaking to the media after the defeat, the 32-year-old reflected honestly on the performance and thanked the fans for their fantastic support.
Josh, it’s a really painful night tonight. How would you sum that up?
"First I just want to apologise to the travelling fans. Obviously that’s nine games now, and they’re still coming in their numbers, they’re still giving us their support. So massively sorry to them, that first half was unacceptable really.
"I thought we came out in the second half and actually did well, created a few chances, but at the end of the day we lost four-nil again so I think we need to take accountability as players. The manager, his staff all work tirelessly behind the scenes. To give that performance tonight is unacceptable. But we just need to keep going, stick together, and move forward to Saturday."
It's the worst run of form in the Club’s 142 year history, how embarrassing is that?
"Yeah, like I said I’m a bit lost for words at the moment, obviously straight after the game it’s tough to talk. Like I said we just need to stay together now. Yeah, bit lost for words."
It’s difficult to put you on the spot after that, and we appreciate the fact you’re fronting up. Darrell Clarke has been quite strong in his criticism, I guess that’s something you could have expected given the run of form?
"Yeah, I’m not sure what the gaffer has said but I think we deserve it at the moment. Like I said it’s unacceptable, it’s got to change. That first half was unacceptable. We’ve come out second half, we’ve given it a good go, it’s a silly error giving them the third goal and then the game was dead and buried really.
"We’ve got to stick together now, the gaffer and his staff work tirelessly behind the scenes, so to give that first half was unacceptable. It is hard to speak after the game, I just want to say a massive thank you to the fans for coming in their numbers on a Tuesday night. That’s nine in a row now and we need them more than ever now, so we just need to regroup and keep going."
It's difficult to hear, but Darrell said the Club is too big for some of the players. The players have to prove him wrong, I guess?
"Yes exactly. Obviously that’s never nice to hear from the manager if he thinks that. It’s down to the players to prove him wrong really. We’ve got a massive game now on Saturday, 12:30pm kick-off, so we need to let the dust settle and move onto Saturday."
To turn things around you’ve got to take that first step, and a derby game as well, maybe the type of fixture that will kind of get the blood pumping even more?
"Something’s got to change. We need to review what’s going wrong, because there’s a few things going wrong at the moment, and put it right."
Take us inside the dressing room, are there honest conversations being had? You’re a senior player, you’ve played at a much higher level, do you look around the dressing room and see people having conversations with each other?
"Yeah, obviously there’s a lot of frustration, no one wants to be in this position. So it is really tough, tough conversations at the moment, but we need to digest it, see what went wrong tonight and put it right."
