Iñigo Calderón stated his Bristol Rovers team was ‘not good enough’ after the Gas lost 1-0 away to Crawley Town in Sky Bet League One.
The Gas were looking to collect their first triumph on the road for the first time in eight outings against a Red Devils team winless in eight in the third tier but fell behind after Kamari Doyle beat Jed Ward with a curling strike.
The hosts, bouncing after welcoming back promotion-winning manager Scott Lindsey six months after he left for MK Dons, created the better chances in the first half and stayed strong during the Pirates' late push for an equaliser to collect all three points.
Calderón reflected honestly on the defeat and Rovers’ struggles on the road.
We were not good enough today...
“We were not good enough today,” said the head coach. “It’s as simple as that. Especially in the first half, I think we were always a bit late and reactive. I don’t think we were at the level of the game we have to play today. Simple.”
We were reactive today...
“The plan was alright, but obviously we didn’t do it,” said Calderón. “For me, it was always that second that we were always arriving late, and I think the goal was a perfect example. When you want to be pressing, you have to adjust the timing, and the timing was reactive. We were reactive today, and you cannot be reactive if you want to win a football game.”
We were not at the level today...
"Until then [the goal], we were not doing things right, and that’s why you get punished," he said. "We made them look better because of us. Credit to them because they played well, but we were not at the level today. It’s as simple as that."
There’s always something missing when we play away...
“It’s the mentality,” said the Spaniard. “I don’t want to talk about passion, but it’s the extra bit that we feel when we are at home. We feel that, and I don’t feel that when we play away. The only game I felt that was Shrewsbury and Cambridge away, that’s why we won. The rest of the games, there’s always something missing when we play away.
“For me, it’s the little extra thing that the fans probably give us. But that’s not an excuse because we still had a few fans who came here, and we didn’t give them anything at all. That’s not good enough.”
Gatlin O’Donkor, Grant Ward and Romaine Sawyers came back...
“Gatlin O’Donkor, Grant Ward and Romaine Sawyers came back,” he said. “So, there are fit players coming back. If you want to take something positive, it’s that. As I said before the game, you cannot expect them to affect the game that much because they are coming from a long injury. Probably, it’s going to be better for the next game, for sure."
The game against Mansfield is massive...
“The game against Mansfield is massive” he insisted. “We have to win. We have to win. It’s at home, and then we don’t have the excuse that we are not playing at home. At home, we approach the games better, and we cannot change that. We are a different team when we are at home, that’s for sure.”
