Iñigo Calderón was disappointed after Bristol Rovers suffered a ‘difficult’ 5-0 defeat away to Lincoln City in Sky Bet League One.
The Gas headed into the contest with confidence after superb back-to-back victories over Huddersfield Town and Bolton Wanderers at The Memorial Stadium but struggled to get into the game against the Imps.
Jovon Makama fired in the opener in the first half to give the hosts the lead before adding two strikes after the break to complete his hat-trick. Tom Bayliss scored directly from a corner, and James Collins curled a fine effort beyond Jed Ward to hand Rovers their first defeat in four outings.
Speaking to BRTV, Calderón reflected on the loss, the energy of the team and the busy schedule.
If we are not 100 per cent, we can lose 5-0...
“That’s where we are,” he said. “If we are not 100 per cent, we can lose 5-0. It’s as simple as that. If we are at 100 per cent, we can beat anyone, but if we are not at 100 per cent, that can happen.”
I didn’t like the first half at all...
“I didn’t like the first half at all,” said Calderón. “Even from the start of the game, I could see the energy was not there. We were quite flat. I was not happy at all with the performance.
“I think we paid the price today of the last two games. The energy wasn't there. I wouldn’t say that they didn’t try because I think they tried, but we didn’t have the energy. When you don’t have the energy, you have to try to find a way to get something, and I don’t think we could.
“We talked at half-time, and I think it was a good chat, but obviously the goals after killed us. When you’re having a bad day when you try to change things, that’s difficult to take and after the next one is coming. It was a really difficult day to be here.”
We have to rest...
“I think we approached the game alright,” said the Spaniard. “Last game against Shrewsbury away, we were better, but I think, from the start, I think you could see the energy. I said to the boys that we have to rest.
"We’re going to have the day off and rest, but we have to go back on Saturday against Crawley because it’s a massive one for us. I totally understand that it was a lack of energy, not because they didn’t work, it was a lack of energy because that’s normal.”
I prefer to lose this game 5-0 than five games 1-0...
“It hurts to lose [by] that much, but I prefer to lose this game 5-0 than five games 1-0,” said the head coach. “If we can take something from this game, and that pain hurts us a lot for the whole week, and we are ready for Saturday, I will take the five. No problem at all.”
We have to use this pain...
“I will never say forget this game because I don’t think you have to forget,” he insisted. “We have to use this pain, everything that we are feeling now. I will try and remind them the whole week how you suffer the whole week if you are not at 100 per cent. I don’t want to blame the players because I know the effort they are putting in, and we are still in a difficult situation.”
Now we have a clean week to train and to recover well...
“It’s true that they [Lincoln] didn't play on Tuesday,” he said. “Probably that helped them. We’ve been playing so many games that I was surprised with the boys because even if it was last Saturday [against Huddersfield], the effort we made and the GPS report we had, it was the best game we played all season, and today was probably the worst game. That’s the problem when you play that many games. Now we have a clean week to train and to recover well.”
