Matt Butcher labelled Bristol Rovers’ performance against Stevenage as ‘unacceptable’ after the Gas lost 1-0 to Boro at The Memorial Stadium.
The Pirates fell to their seventh defeat in eight Sky Bet League One outings, with Jamie Reid scoring the only goal in the contest from close range after rounding Jed Ward before shooting past Jack Hunt on the line.
As a result, Rovers have lost their last four matches at The Mem and are in the relegation on goal difference, with two fixtures remaining in this campaign.
Butcher admitted his team are suffering from inconsistent performances and cannot feel sorry for themselves as the Gas can turn their fortunes around.
“To be honest, I don’t really know what to say,” he said. “The performance and the inconsistency that we’ve shown over the last six or seven weeks hasn’t been acceptable as a group. We can’t have a performance like we have done against the likes of Birmingham, Wrexham, Bolton, Huddersfield, those types of teams, and then turn up at home and show what we have done in the last couple of weeks.
"It’s miles away from where we need to be. The only positive is that it’s still all to play for, and I guess we can twist that, and that inconsistency can show us that we can go and find a performance out of nowhere.
“So, that’s the only thing we can look at from this game and know that we can be inconsistent in a positive way, and we need to be. We can’t hide. It’s not the time to be feeling sorry for ourselves. The way I’m speaking now, it’s not positive, but we have to turn around on Saturday and show more than that.”
The Pirates had confidence going into the contest against Stevenage after ending their six-game losing streak with a 1-1 draw away to second-place Wrexham on Friday. The Gas was unfortunate not to claim all three points after Taylor Moore’s header was cancelled out by Matty James’ second-half leveller.
Butcher was disappointed that his side could not build on their positive result and performance against the Red Dragons and insisted that his team must do better.
“A lot of talk before that game was stopping the run of defeats,” said the midfielder. “We did that. The hardest thing was going somewhere like that and putting in a performance and stopping that, and then we’ve just not followed it up with what we needed. Like I said, we have to go and put pressure on the teams around us with a win on Saturday.
“We’re a game short, but our position in the league hasn’t changed, the points haven’t changed. So. we’ve seen miracles at this club before in the last couple of games, so we don’t need any reminders that it is possible, and we still have a massive part to play, and we need to look at ourselves as individuals and as a team and be better than that.”
The Mem was bouncing after back-to-back victories over promotion hopefuls Huddersfield Town and Bolton Wanderers eased any fears of relegation midway through March. Nevertheless, a tough run of form has put the Gas in a difficult position heading into the final two games of the campaign.
Butcher struggled to describe why his side have gone through a poor run of form since the thrilling 3-2 victory over the Trotters and asserted that they must have a ‘now or never’ attitude in their final two fixtures.
“That’s the most difficult thing,” he said. “I don’t know. We can’t put a finger on how we prepare, what’s different when we play well or when we play bad. That’s the most frustrating thing because if we knew, we’d do that every week, but we’ve got to go back to see what we did in them games, first and foremost, what we were good at and try and hone in on them because you’ve seen today, we’re five or ten per cent off the pace, and we concede, and we’re always on the back foot. We know what’s at stake. That’s a given. We’ve got to go into it with a now-or-never attitude, really.
“I think as footballers, you’re going to have this pressure in the future, and a lot of people have had it in the past. So, we know what’s at stake. We know what happens if the worst-case scenario happens.
“We’ve seen it at boyhood clubs when you’ve been growing up. We’ve seen it happen to people you care about. You’ve seen it, and it’s the worst thing that can happen in football. So, definitely, we need a couple of days to probably clear our heads and really be ready to know what we can do, like we’ve proven in previous games.”
