Steve Evans was left disappointed after his Bristol Rovers side lost 3-1 to Cambridge United in Sky Bet League Two.
The Pirates struggled to get going against a U's outfit that started the day in fourth position in the fourth tier with the best home record in the league. Joe Quigley's penalty had cancelled out Ben Knight's opener to level the score as the first half closed, but Rovers could not build momentum.
Knight netted again, this time from the penalty spot, before Kelland Watts doubled Cambridge's advantage to help the hosts to all three points. Back-to-back clean sheets have been followed by back-to-back fixtures where Rovers have conceded three, with Evans frustrated at the way his team fell to defeat.
Speaking to BRTV, Evans reflected on the performance and the key moments which decided the game.
Steve, that was a tough day at the office today.
“It was a tough day against a good side. They’re up at the top end of the table because the manager’s put some good players together, playing with a lot of confidence, so we always knew it would be tough coming up. It’s always tough going here anyway.
“But they also got us on a day where our performance levels were way short, especially defensively. Way short. If you defend like that, especially against the top teams, you’ll concede goals, and we never gave ourselves a chance. We get a break, but it’s a penalty; we go in 1-1 after a poor first half. There’s nothing in the second half.
“The game started from a corner, a couple of free kicks, and they’re the same. Then the referees give them a penalty, it’s a foul, I’m not complaining about the decision from the referee. Defensively, we were all over the place.
“Then the third goal is bad, you know, Sean Raggett goes on for Cambridge, and he wins a header, then the boy comes in and heads it in five yards unopposed. So, defensively poor, very poor. In attacking areas, it doesn’t give you any confidence to give you any momentum.”
As you say, defensively far off it today, and as you say, that third goal, I can see you on the touchline, if you defend like that, you have no chance of winning games.
“Well, we’ve defended like that for long parts of the season, haven’t we? We’re trying to instil different things; it didn’tlook like it today. I think it was just the whole back five, if you like. Yusuf [Akhamrich] didn't have an impact on the right, and Jack Sparkes was poor on the left side.
“The three in the middle were all over the place, so it makes it more difficult. Listen. We’ll go away, and the boys will look back at it. We’ll come back to it, we’ll look at it at the training ground, and we’ll need to be better at Oldham, or we'll get the same. Simple.”
How is Fabrizio doing?
“Obviously, he took a dead leg in the first half. It'll be about how quickly it settles. If it settles in a couple of days, he could be okay. He was in pain at half-time.”
Minor positive. Really good to see Promise Omochere back out there today.
“Yeah, it was good. I thought Promise came on, had a little run about. One of the only players who could come away with credit today was Richie Smallwood. He was outstanding. He didn’t have a lot of support with him and a poor performance.
“We’ll take the defeat, I’ve obviously seen the results, and one or two have won around us. That will happen. We have to look after ourselves; no one is going to help us.”
I suppose the beauty of football, particularly at this level, is that in 72 hours we’re back out there at Oldham playing again.
“It’ll be tough. We always knew that the away games coming, where you’ve got Cambridge, who are third in the table. If you take Newport and Shrewsbury away, we’ve had a tough run of games because everyone’s been in the top eight or nine teams.
“Even Neil Harris said to me it was tough on the fixtures. We have. We look at ourselves rather than what the opposition are. Cambridge is a good side, we knew that before we came. We knew that at the start of the season in August and September, when I’d seen them live before I came into Rovers.
“So, I knew what they were about, and we can’t turn up and produce a performance like that. We’ve let ourselves down as individuals, and we let our supporters down, and that is just the reality. I’m not going to sugarcoat anything because the supporters are here and watched it."
