Romaine Sawyers insisted Bristol Rovers players must take ‘accountability’ after the Gas lost 2-1 to Exeter City in Sky Bet League One.
The Pirates were looking to end their six-game losing streak in the third tier with a much-needed victory at The Memorial Stadium. However, Rovers fell behind when Caleb Watts struck the opener for the Grecians before Reece Cole doubled the visitors’ advantage.
Ruel Sotiriou gave his team a chance when he finished low to halve the deficit in the second half, but the hosts couldn’t find a second goal that would have seen them end the day outside the relegation zone. However, with Burton Albion beating Huddersfield Town, the Pirates are in the drop zone on goal difference with four games left.
Sawyers reflected truthfully on the situation Rovers are in and stated his side do not have much time to turn their fortunes around.
“The harsh reality is we're in the situation that we're in, and we've got to take accountability, to a man,” he said. “I think we’ve had an open and honest conversation. It's about trying to react and bounce back because we’ve been poor for the last five or six games now, and although performances might have been close, we haven’t got any points on the board.
“So, it’s irrelevant how well we think we’ve played or thought we played. The league table doesn’t lie. We need to look at ourselves as individuals and as a team, and we have to do something about it, and we’re running out of games. We’ve got to do it sooner rather than later.”
The Mem has often been viewed as a fortress for Rovers, with the Gas beating teams like Barnsley, Huddersfield and Bolton Wanderers at home this year. However, after a third successive 2-1 defeat at BS7, Sawyers believes every player must take accountability and give everything they have got.
“To a man, we’ve got to take accountability,” said the midfielder. “Could we have run more? Could we have had more quality? Could we have defended both our box better and been more clinical in their box? There are many things we can point our fingers at, but the be-all and end-all is that we’ve got to look at ourselves and take accountability, to a man. We’ve got to realise our position and our roles in the team as individuals, and if eleven working men are working well, it will make it better.
“Nobody's confidence is high at the minute. We have to find it from somewhere. Find the purpose, the reason why we do it, the reason why we come into training every day. We’ve got to create a standard. We’ve got to cross the white line and put everything out there. We’ve got to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror after every game and say we did our all, and I don’t think, me included, we can do that today.
“They are not the greatest of sides, no disrespect to them, but coming here at home, we’ve got to defend our home. If somebody was breaking into my house, I’m not defending like that, and I think we’ve got to start doing that on a Saturday.”
A disappointing defeat was compounded by Rovers slipping into the relegation zone for the first time this campaign. Despite Burton moving above the Gas with a game in hand, there are still twelve points to play for, with Sawyers confessing his team must use their negative feelings as fuel to improve.
“I think you’ve got to bottle this feeling,” said Sawyers. “Nobody likes this feeling. Before every game now, we’ve got to remember these feelings. So, in those 90 minutes, we don’t want these feelings again. We’ve had it for a few weeks now, and we’re running out of time.
"We’ve had results that haven’t gone our way, so we’ve got to do all we can. It sounds like a beating drum, and we’re just going over and over and just saying generic things. We can say what we want here. We can say what we want before the game and after the game, but it’s too late. In the 90 minutes, we’ve got to do everything we can to keep this football club in this league.
He later added: “I think this is when reality hits the most because we’ve been flirting with it. Now that it’s actually reality, I would like to think that, hopefully, we see the severity of the situation. I would like to think that we knew already, but there’s no bigger indication if you look at that table now.
"The league table doesn’t lie. We haven’t been good enough for a few weeks now, and I think the league table really shows that more than ever. Nobody wants to be down there. Nobody likes being down there. We’ve got to have the confidence that there’s four teams worse than us, and we’ve got to do everything to prove that.”
Rovers will look to bounce back when they travel to second place Wrexham on Friday. The Gas are winless on the road since beating Cambridge United at the start of January and are up against a Red Dragons team pushing for their third successive promotion. Sawyers has called on his team to rise to the occasion and spoil Wrexham’s party.
“It’s a situation nobody wants to be in, but you have to rise,” he insisted. “You either swim or sink, and this is going to be something that is going to define you as a person, as a character and as a player. These kinds of things you don’t want on your CV. Nobody wants a relegation.
“You’ve got a team that’s got a good feel factor. They’ve got a big stadium. They will have their fans rocking. We’ve got to go and crash and spoil that party. It’s as simple as that.”
