David Horseman stated his Bristol Rovers team are 'unpredictable' ahead of the Gas' upcoming away trip to Exeter City on Boxing Day.
He led the Gas for their final home game at The Memorial Stadium of 2024, where Promise Omochere netted a late equaliser to help Rovers secure a 1-1 draw against promotion pushers Wrexham.
The point at home ended the Pirates’ three-game losing streak in Sky Bet League One, with Rovers finishing the year with away games against Exeter and Stevenage.
Horseman reflected on the last two weeks before previewing the Exeter fixture and delivering team news.
WREXHAM REFLECTIONS
“For me personally, it’s been a chaotic two weeks,” he said. “When I was reflecting on Saturday night, it’s a situation I’ve never been in before where you’re just looking after something and trying to keep it ticking along because you’re not building towards your philosophy.
“At the moment, we’re waiting for that next period of time, so you’re trying to keep the team going without building towards the bigger picture. That’s actually a lot tougher than a lot of things I’ve done in football, where the direction you’re going in is clear. You’re always working towards that.
“My overriding feeling after I sat down, in the end, although it was a way from being perfect, I just felt a load of pride because, at the very end, everybody felt together. We only got a 1-1, and the performance wasn’t particularly great for the most part, but we got a draw against third in the table after having weeks and weeks and weeks of pretty poor performances for 90 minutes.
“The players, the fans, the staff, everybody all came together to get a point. It was only a point, but that might be the starting point, and that was probably my biggest reflection.”
UPS AND DOWNS FOR PLAYERS
“There’s so many ups and downs in football, particularly for individual players,” said Horseman. “Joel Senior had the excitement of coming in and getting injured. He puts the ball in for Luke Thomas, who clearly, from the fan's reaction, they’ve desperate to have him out there, and then he crosses, and he’s missed loads of football for somebody who then has missed loads of football [Omochere], and they head it in.
“They probably felt really high on Saturday night, and you actually, in those moments, forget all the lows, and obviously, you have way more lows in football than highs, but the highs far outweigh the lows. I think Saturday night for a few individuals probably felt that way.”
PLANS FOR BOXING DAY FIXTURE
“I’ll plan as if I’m taking it [the game],” he said. “We’ll sit down tomorrow morning; we’ll go through the long list of clips. We've gone one session tomorrow to work out a plan, how we try to press them, how we try to build, to create some sort of overload somewhere on the pitch and try to continue the last 15 to 20 minutes worth of performance.
“That’s personnel-wise, but that’s also style-wise. We’ll have a little look at that tomorrow. They are completely different to Wrexham.
“I’ll have to explain to the group in the morning that going from Wrexham, who play one style and are very good at it to Exeter, who are slightly different, to then going back to Stevenage, the squad will get used quite a lot for physical reasons but also for tactical reasons, because the challenges are so different over the three games.”
EXETER CITY PREVIEW
“They are a really good team and are really well coached,” he stated. “They are really organised. I know a few staff down there. I picked the brains of one or two before the Wrexham game because they got beat quite heavily by Wrexham, and they made a few fundamental mistakes, like being really open and attacking early on and were out of the game before they were in.
“I know we all want to play the perfect game, but it’s not always that possible. So, they would have watched us. I think, at the moment, we’re probably quite unpredictable, and it would be hard to predict what’s going to come. I think it would be safe to say that how we finished the game would not be too far off as it currently stands for that type of team.
“But we’ve got a couple of little knocks, niggles, we’ve got a couple of games in a short space of time, so we’ve just got to make sure we get the balance right.”
INJURY NEWS
“Michael Forbes felt his hamstring as it’s a bit saw, still saw today,” he said. “He’s got a scan tonight, so hopefully, by tomorrow morning, we’ll have a good idea of the hamstring injury.
“Lino Sousa did his first full training session today, so he's officially signed off. He’s back and available. Now, whether this game comes a bit quick for him, but officially back training with the squad and available for minutes if selected.”
