Iñigo Calderón labelled Bristol Rovers’ defeat to Mansfield Town as ‘cheap’ after the Gas lost 2-1 to the Stags at The Memorial Stadium.
The Pirates were looking to return to winning ways after back-to-back away defeats to Lincoln City and Crawley Town but fell behind inside one minute after Caylan Vickers netted from close range following Jed Ward’s earlier mistake.
Romaine Sawyers levelled with a fine strike before the break to give the Gas all the momentum. However, another error proved costly, just past the hour mark. Connor Taylor gifted possession to Keanu Baccus, who slotted the ball into Dom Dwyer for an easy finish into an open net.
Calderón reflected honestly on Rovers’ home defeat and insisted his side must be stronger.
It was too cheap for the opposition to get the three points today...
“Not [feeling] good, obviously,” he said. “I would say it is the cheapest one we have given away in terms of the game. I think it was a good week in the way we trained the whole week, and the way we prepared the whole week was good. All of a sudden, in the first minute that [the goal] happened and after that, I think we did the more difficult thing, which was to come back from that situation.
“In the second half, it was something similar. I think especially the goals; they killed us in the way they were because you expect to concede goals, but the way they were, it was not our day today. That was tough to take. We have done a lot of good things, but we made our lives so difficult today. It was too cheap for the opposition to get the three points today.”
We have to be stronger...
“If I tell you, it’s been a good week and all of a sudden in the first minute it’s already 1-0, [it sounds like] I’m lying, but I’m not,” said Calderón. “But that’s football at the same time. I said to the boys that in this division, we have to expect to make mistakes because I would say it’s easier to make mistakes when we’re down there. But I said as well that we have to be a bit stronger because they are going to happen from here until the end of the season.
“There’s going to be more pressure and more mistakes that usually you don’t make, so we have to be stronger because I think it took us too long to come back from each goal, and that’s it. The good thing is we have a Tuesday game and a difficult one. So, we have to be much better because otherwise, it’s not going to be enough otherwise.”
That’s difficult to take for the boys...
“I think sometimes when you concede goals like that, that affects you more than if they scored in the top corner or a normal goal,” said the head coach. “It’s a goal, and you have to take it when the opposition is better than you, you have to take it, and you have to do things better, but when it’s just started or even in the second half when nothing’s happening, that’s difficult to take for the boys, and then it’s not easy because then you look worse than the reality.”
I don’t want to blame anyone because we are all in the same boat here...
“We spoke last week that we wanted to play a little bit more because I think in the last game, we lost a little bit of that idea to try to play, but that’s not the idea,” said the Spaniard. “Especially at the beginning of the game, we say that we have to be more practical and try to play in their half and then try to play.
"I don’t want to blame anyone because we are all in the same boat here. We all make mistakes, and I am the first one."
Tuesday is going to be a really tough one...
“Tomorrow, the boys will have to rest and recover because Tuesday is going to be a really tough one,” he said. “Obviously, Birmingham are at the top of the division. So, it’s going to be a different game, but at the same time, I think we’ve had good results against the ones at the top and maybe not that good against the ones below that. I want to see that as a positive thing, as the last two games we won were against two of the top six.”
