Richie Smallwood was disappointed with Bristol Rovers' level of performance in their 2-0 defeat to Grimsby Town at Blundell Park.
The Pirates set a high standard after four straight victories in the fourth tier, keeping a clean sheet in their previous three, but conceded twice in the first half and struggled to bounce back, with Smallwood feeling his side were below par across the pitch.
Kieran Green broke the deadlock for the Mariners before Géza Dávid Turi struck a thunderous effort from outside the box into the top corner to give his side some breathing space. Rovers made changes to try and get back into the game, but ultimately fell to their second league defeat of the campaign.
Speaking to BRTV after the match, Smallwood pinpointed the areas where Grimsby got the better of the Gas before insisting that his side have a chance to put things right away at Gillingham.
REFLECTING ON THE PERFORMANCE
“I'm disappointed after where we've been in recent weeks; the standards we’ve set ourselves, and today was well below par. We got beat up, especially by Andy Cook, Green in the middle, runners; we didn't win any first balls and didn't win any second balls, really.
“They had runners everywhere, and we weren't matching them. They just weren't doing anything special; we just couldn't handle what they were doing, and it was so effective.
“It’s so disappointing because that's what we like to do to teams, and today they beat us up and things, and did what we like to do to teams.”
A LACK OF CHANCES FOR THE GAS
“We didn't have a chance. We didn't even make the goalkeeper make a save, which is the first in a long time. I'm sure the manager was thinking the same thing, given the number of games he's been managing. Not making the opposition goalkeeper make a save is very disappointing.
“As I said, just the basics of the game - first and second balls were non-existent today, tracking runners were non-existent, and they just had free rein.
"Fair play to Andy Cook. I know him quite well, and that's what he does. He's such a handful. You think you're going to win the header, and he just gets a little flick on. But still, it's just disappointing to concede goals like that, and you can't do that at any level, unfortunately.”
CHANGES AT HALF-TIME
“Obviously, the manager tried to change it up and tried to go a lot more direct. They huffed and puffed, but no real quality into them, just feeding off 50-50 balls, really, long and high.
“They gave it a good battle, but in the end that's not good enough to win you games to get back into games, and we've got to get back to the drawing board and come again.”
FOCUSING ON THE NEXT GAME
"It's always the next game that's the most important, but it certainly wasn't good enough today, so we'll be analysing that next time we're in. We'll be looking to put it right because that wasn't acceptable today, and we've got all our hands up as players. We've got to go out and put a better account of ourselves on them. We believe we'd do that.”
TRAVELLING SUPPORT
“They were phenomenal. I know just how far they've travelled; being from this part of the world, it's a long way, especially with an early kick-off on Saturday morning.
“To give the weekend up by that, we'll forever be grateful, and just a shame that we couldn't give them anything to cheer about today. We have another long journey at the weekend, and hopefully we’ll be giving them a lot more cheer about.”
