Bristol Rovers head coach Steve Evans has said that “I don’t think we were ourselves today,” as the Gas fell to an eighth consecutive home league defeat. Owura Edwards scored in the 85th minute for the visitors, meaning Rovers dropped down to 21st in the League Two table.
The first-half was a cagey affair, with Luke Southwood making a smart stop to deny Samson Tovide in the 32nd minute. Colchester then hit the post through Micah Mbick just before the hour mark, with the former Bristol City man, Edwards, scoring the winner in the closing stages.
Speaking about the defeat, Evans said: “Well, I don’t think for a start, the late goal was a fantastic strike worthy of winning any match you see. We made it so easy for them, but I don’t think we were ourselves today. I think the Plymouth match on Tuesday took a lot out of certain individuals and certain individuals that play in the Football League because of their commitment, their passion, their effort, the ability to close people down and then they’ve got some ability as was missing today.
“And I think it was missing for long periods, I think first half I was frustrated, so hence the changes. I think the only time we had a 10, 15 minute maximum, probably 10, 12 minutes, maximum that we had in the game is when we brought Ellis [Harrison] on, and he was a real handful for them. But again, we went away from playing good balls into him and trying to hit hopeful balls, and that doesn’t work.
“The goal is highly preventable, highly preventable, when we send him inside to have a shot, but in fairness to the kid, he sticks it in with a fantastic strike with power.”
A talking point on the afternoon was the performance of the referee Ben Toner, who was booed off by the home crowd at the end of the game after some inconsistent officiating. “Yeah, the referee deduced that there was no deflection there, it was a goal kick.” Evans said talking about Isaac Hutchinson’s late strike which hit the bar. “The referee was terrible tonight, wasn’t he?
“We weren’t so good, but you expect a Championship standard referee to come and you drive away from the stadium as a manager, whether you’ve won, whether you’ve not, and you review everything, you think, well, yeah, okay, well, we can’t look at him today. Can we look at him? I just think he was poor, he was inconsistent.
“But we’re not going to hide behind that. Our performance wasn’t at the levels, where it was against Plymouth, and that’s a disappointing aspect. And we tried to bring freshness with the team, with Riley [Harbottle] and young Kane [Thompson-Sommers], but we lacked a real zest in our play.”
It’s been a busy week of transfer activity for Rovers with Evans hopeful of new signings ahead of the away match against Salford City next weekend. One of the departures this week was Bryant Bilongo, who joined Rochdale on a permanent deal, meaning Jack Sparkes is the only recognised left-back in the squad currently.
When asked about whether the club are looking at left-back options by Bristol Live, the 63-year-old reflected on the need for backup for Sparkes and discussed the budget provided by the owners: “Yeah, I think we’d ideally like to bring in somebody that can play left-back, right back, wide left,” Evans said. “We’re trying to cover all the bases, because obviously there’s the one thing that’s never been spoken about – the budget is a good budget, but it’s been largely spent.
“So the funds that we’re finding now are extra increments from the owners. They realise that our recruitment to date in terms of previous, has not been good enough. They recognise that, and every league table tells you that. We don’t need to be sitting here guessing. I’ve seen the games we’ve played and seen where the issues are.
“We know where the issues are, but we also have to do it in a controlled way and bring in the players that we feel is right. Young Kane will be a really good player for us and so will Riley, but there’s much more needed in that.”
Next up for the Gas is a trip to Salford on Saturday, January 24. Whether the Gas have any new signings ahead of that away game remains to be seen, but so far in January, Rovers have brought in four players, with seven departing.
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