Rhys Carr was full of praise for Bristol Rovers’ application and professionalism in Tuesday's 1-0 Vertu Trophy win over Cheltenham Town.
Luke Thomas’ well-taken finish on the hour was the difference between the two Sky Bet League Two sides in the midweek Vertu Trophy Southern Section Group B encounter, but the final scoreline failed to truly reflect the dominance of Rovers’ performance.
In reality, the Gas were unfortunate not to lead by more, with Thomas himself seeing efforts either saved or blocked while the likes of Fabrizio Cavegn, Ruel Sotiriou, Ellis Harrison and Bryant Bilongo also went close.
A dogged showing defensively ensured a clean-sheet, meaning one goal was all that was needed to be the difference, ensuring Rovers’ place in the Vertu Trophy Round Of 32 with five points from two group-stage fixtures.
Add in a first team debut for Academy prospect Kian Hill and it the entire fixture amounted to a real success, so Assistant Head Coach Carr told BRTV…
Rhys, how pleased are you with the performance in tonight’s 1-0 win?
“We’re really pleased. As we said before the game, it’s a match we wanted to take seriously and I thought the lads applied themselves well. The intensity without the ball was brilliant, and there was pressure high up the pitch which is something that we want to do.
"They really put together the game plan that they wanted to do so we’re really pleased with the application and professionalism from the boys tonight.
“If we’re nitpicking and wanting to be even better, then we’re asking if we could have been a little more clinical? Particularly in the first half when we could have put a couple of chances away. But like I said, the way the lads applied themselves, the boys got their reward tonight.”
A clean-sheet is always a good foundation to build on too…
“It was brilliant. We are delighted with the clean-sheet and we’ve just said in the changing room that we’re delighted for Brad too. He’s a good goalkeeper who has had to rehab recently and, to be fair, there’s a tip of the hat to a few of our performance team because there’s a few lads who were out there tonight like Brad, Ryan Howley, Ruel Sotiriou, lads who have been out but have been pushed.
“We want the environment, when players are injured, to not necessarily be a nice environment. They’ve been doing double or triple sessions and the staff are pushing them, and we’ve seen the lads be able to churn out 90 minutes. Brad has been able to keep a clean-sheet too and that is the environment that we want. It was a real team clean-sheet tonight with the intensity we worked at.”
With such a professional performance, does that give some players a platform to come in, play well, and possibly earn a start in the league?
“Of course it does, and that’s the environment that we want. Every player should be pushing to be in the team, play in the team and stay in the team, depending on their circumstances at any point. So we’re delighted. We wanted to win the game and that’s what we’ve done.”
It was a fine finish from Luke Thomas to get that win…
“It was, and he is very capable of that. We want to push him. LT is doing terrific in terms of his performances at the moment and we want to push him to be even better in terms of his goals and his assists. He gets in great positions and he’s got quality, and he’s backed himself to score and he did tonight.”
It’s always about the next game, one match at a time, but it was important to get straight back to winning ways after the weekend…
“It absolutely was. No football club has ever gone on an infinite winning run but as soon as you lose a game, you want to quick back to winning. That was really important we did that tonight, we’ve done it, and we’re really pleased with it.”
Finally, a proud moment for Kian Hill in earning his first Bristol Rovers senior appearance tonight…
“Kian has been here since he’s been a young lad. He’s done a lot of hard work in the shadows and with the U18s, and we’ve got a good relationship with our Academy where the staff will always ask about who has played well for them over the weekends.
“Those opportunities in the first team must be earned but, if we can give them, we want to do so. Congratulations to Kian for tonight. It’s a big moment for him and his family, and I’m sure that’s given him a real taste for it as well.”
