Ryan de Havilland felt his Bristol Rovers side did not meet the standards they set in their 3-1 defeat to Cambridge United in Sky Bet League Two.
The Pirates were looking to return to winning ways with a third victory in four outings, but fell behind just beyond the half-hour mark when Ben Knight blasted his strike beyond Brad Young.
Joe Quigley levelled from the penalty spot just before half-time to give the Gas a foothold in the game after a quiet opening 45 minutes, but Rovers could not build any momentum.
Knight scored again, this time guiding a penalty into the top-right corner before Kelland Watts doubled the U's advantage with a header just before the end to extend their strong run of form at the Cledara Abbey Stadium.
Rovers struggled to create clear chances from open play against Cambridge and conceded three for the second game in a row, with De Havilland disappointed with the performance from his side.
Ryan, your thoughts on today’s game, please...
“I think by our standards, it's not good enough. A lot of the things that happened, again, weren’t good enough. We didn’t start the game great; it was scrappy, and we probably needed to get the ball on the deck more.
“We made it too easy for them; they obviously had three big centre halves, who came in and headed everything. So, we needed to get the ball on the deck more and play a bit, and when we did, towards the end of the first half and the start of the second half, we created a few chances and did well. I think that was our problem, we kind of just fed into what they wanted, and that didn’t help us.”
What sort of messages were there at half-time? You went in level, despite admitting that you weren’t at your best. What was the reaction from the management team?
“I think we were lucky to be honest, to go in 1-1. Obviously, with our standards being so low, to go in 1-1, we were just thinking, ‘listen, we’ve still got a chance here. Let’s not knock ourselves down.’ We’ve obviously not played well, but then we need to up the standards. That was the main point of call.”
A tough run of games, you seem to have played a lot of the top ten recently, since you came in really. How have you found the standard of who you’ve been playing against so far?
“Yeah. I mean, there’s no easy game in any league. You look at the places in the league and think, obviously we’ve played against teams in the top ten, which is tough but at the end of the day, we shouldn’t be where we are.
“We should be doing much better and we’re looking at ourselves and not others. We obviously need to go back on the training ground, do a few bits and look at a few things to work on.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about us and we need to improve.”
Finally, one thing. You’ll be looking to turn it around on Tuesday, with all of those Gasheads behind you, as well at Oldham.
“One hundred per cent. Tuesday is going to be a massive game, and every game is massive. Support today was amazing.
“Brilliant. Brilliant support from the fans and disappointing that we couldn’t do anything for them, but on Tuesday, we need to look to bounce back. We’ll be in and doing bits on the grass to get ready for Tuesday and perform.”
