Well Joey, the Gas go marching on. How do you analyse tonight’s performance and win?
I think that was our most difficult game of the season. I think that’s the first time a team has come with the intention of making the night very difficult for us. They had a game plan and it was to be condensed in the central areas.
They didn’t give us much space behind to penetrate. It was very much a counter-attacking - and hope for a mistake from us - kind of strategy from them
So they’re always difficult. I thought when we scored the goal early in the second half I thought that would maybe bring them out a little bit, but it didn't.
They stayed in there and I can understand with the league position they are in and with an interim manager who will probably want to keep the job but if he gets three, four or five on him, it might lessen his chances and also their position in the league is under threat. It could well come down to goal difference.
So I totally understand it. The main thing for us was getting the three points and I thought we showed a real level of professionalism today in making sure we got the job done
In those circumstances, I guess it’s easy to get frustrated, but that goal really settled things down.
Yeah, it was. We spoke about it and we knew it was going to be difficult. We said it might take until the last kick of the game, which we’ve done in previous games. Whichever way this group has managed to find a way to win a game and that is a unique quality.
It’s a quality that you want to have in your football team. The match-winner today was young Elliot Anderson. I’d have paid to watch him tonight. He was that good.
I think to get the goal early in the second half just caps a wonderful individual performance. But also a young player growing into the shirt and as I say we’re delighted to have him.
He contributes towards the other match-winners we’ve got in the side as well. Your Aaron Collins and Antony Evans and Sam Finley who for me has been the standout player all season.
He’s had to navigate being on nine bookings for a long period and I thought his level of professionalism and control to navigate that period, today was his last game doing that, was absolutely superb.
Forgive me if you’ve been asked about Elliot Anderson a lot recently. Just one point, you are right when you talk about paying to watch him. The way he goes past players, that’s such a hard thing to do in football but to be able to do it with such regularity and to make it look so easy. He’s quite a talent isn’t he, this kid?
Yeah, huge. I’ve been listening to Bill Shankly in the last couple of days, certainly this afternoon. I spent about four hours listening to different talks just listening to him talk about football.
Not much has really changed. The simple concept of football and what it takes. Players' size and players' heights.
In there he talks about a 19-year-old Diego Maradona. He talked about how good of a player he thinks he’s going to be. He compares him to Tom Finney. He says Tom Finney is the greatest player he has ever seen and when a man like Bill Shankly says that you know you have to take notice.
He spoke about Tom Finney’s ability to beat you with his back to goal. Beat you when he’s on the side. He said the difference with Tom was that when he faced you up and looked at you, he could also take you on, but then when he got in and around the penalty area, he slowed down and he was mega-calculated.
When I see young Billy Elliot, it’s far too early to compare him to those greats over the years, but he certainly excites you. The goal he scores tonight, as I say it ends up being the matchwinner, but overall he was a standout performer on the park tonight and that was in the midst of some great players.
I thought there were some great performances and good players out there but I thought tonight he showed a different gear, another level.
You’re in the play-offs. Obviously, you must be delighted with where you are but just finally how do you make sure you keep this momentum and keep this level towards the end of the season?
Well, we’ve been going Saturday-Tuesday for the last eight weeks give or take. So that’s a testament to the lads' preparation and fitness levels, to the way they recover, to the way they put food in their body, to the way they sleep and train.
None of us are getting carried away. We still feel we want to make a statement in terms of some of the performances. We’ve got a lot still to prove. The criticism and the nay-sayers in the early part of the season, justifiably, spurred us on to more.
We’ve come here tonight. There’s another big crowd in and they’re with the lads and they’re backing them.
The marked change across the 38 games to this point has been a huge testament to the strength, resilience and ultimately character we’ve got in our dressing room and that we’ve got in our football club.
As I say with that twelfth man and the support the Gasheads have given us all over the course of the season at our lowest moments as well as now when we’re riding the crest of a wave.
But again nothing is done. We’ve got nine to go. We’ve got nine cup finals. I truly believe the best is yet to come from this group.
Joey, I think it’s been six weeks of Saturday-Tuesday. That period started with the defeat to Oldham. This period has been the making of your team. You’ve really made up all that ground that was seeded at the start of the season.
There’s been so many key decisions at key moments. There’s been times when you’re’ scratching your head thinking ‘how can we all work this hard, doing what we’re doing, yet it’s not paying us back’?
That’s when you're tested in football. We’ve had a message running throughout the group that if this was easy to do everybody would do it every season. It’s difficult for a reason. Winning. Getting promoted. Building successful cultures and successful football clubs.
Not everybody can do it and it takes everybody. I went back into my Bill Walsh books on Sunday when I was home. I got a spare half an hour when the kids were out the house.
I was reading some of the words I’d highlighted from years ago. It said, 'the victory belongs to and is earned by all'. It’s not just one person. Elliot Anderson gets the plaudits and the headlines today.
But if you think about the countless counter-attacks and transitional moments that were stopped by our midfield. Whether that’s Paul Coutts in there, Connor Taylor, Nick Anderton, James Connolly or Luca Hoole. Belly has probably had his quietest night in a Rovers shirt this evening.
But again everybody is playing their role and the fans are massive in that. Victory belongs to all and if we’re successful this season and we manage in these last nine games to continue our momentum it will truly be a club effort from the owner down.
He made some big decisions and we haven’t looked back since.
You are now in possession of one of those top seven places but I’d imagine your focus is not top seven it’s top three because two points is the gap?
No, no, no. I’ve told you all along our focus has been to win the division.
Do you see anybody stopping you in at least getting close to that aim because there is perhaps no team that’s got quite the same momentum or groundswell of support that has built up amongst the fanbase?
It means absolutely nothing though. We’ve got to turn up. Northampton on Saturday. They’ve won again tonight. They’re riding high. We’ve got that feel-good factor because we’re doing well.
We beat Northampton here when we went down to ten when Whelo got sent off. That felt like a really big turning point in the season. Walsall. Ten men. We found a way to win.
We’ve had many of those at different junctions. We’ve got to keep paying the rent. We’ve got to turn up Saturday. We’ve got to be right at it again because if we’re not this league has shown us you get a rude awakening.
There will be twists and turns. There will be setbacks. There will be flat performances from lots of teams in-and-around the top part of the division. We’ve just got to make sure it’s not us.
We’ve got to make sure we’re on it every single moment. Honestly, I smell it on the lads. You can smell a promotion. You can smell when the group has got the bit between the teeth. I’ve been enough dressing rooms over my 39 years to know when it’s full of b******* and bravado and when it’s full of real men who are laser-focused to get the job done.
As I said a long time ago, I wouldn’t swap my horse for any. I’ve told you loads of times, we’ll get the job done. People thought I was insane. I saw all the stuff going online, but luckily I’m someone who knows what he’s doing.
I stayed steadfast. I believed in the group and the group have rewarded us and are paying us back. Also, the owner, it would have been easy to sack me. We were on a s*** run. We were playing crap. Fans were throwing sausage rolls at me.
He stuck by me though. He told me I was the man for the job and at the time I needed it. So that’s where young coaches sometimes need senior players and people in leadership positions to give them some support and Wael did that and he’s reaping the rewards of that because we haven’t looked back as a football club since.
You don’t play another Tuesday game for the rest of the season. Obviously, you have the Easter weekend which is a bit congested. Are you happy to have the training ground time?
I’m gutted. I’d have the nine on the spin. The lads might feel different, but it’s certainly worked for us.
Bodies are sharp. You want to see some of the lads with their tops off. It’s like Men’s Health in there because the games do sharpen you.
We’ve got a big squad but 15 or 16 of the players have taken on the workload and there has been relatively consistent team selection. There have been one or two changes in there, but on the whole it’s been a group effort.
I remember at Walsall, Sion Spence getting the winner, and the Oxford game. So many junctions over the season, someone different in the squad has stepped up. Belly making saves, Nick Anderton making blocks. Connor making blocks.
I remember the Hartlepool game. We weren’t at our best that day but we managed to win 2-0. There was some big defensive performances. Belly came up with some big saves.
All of those things have added to this momentum we’ve got now. We’ve got to protect that with our lives. Saturday we turn up. We treat it like a cup final. We take that approach again we leave everything on the park.
Joey, can I ask a question about the current world situation? How do you see sport and football, in particular, helping supporters take their minds away from what’s going on in Ukraine?
It can be huge. As I say I spent a bit of time watching Bill Shankly who was very much a socialist football manager and the impact he had in the city I’m from on the red is still burning brightly.
That set the bonfire that is Liverpool FC. I think it can. I saw some tweets after Saturday’s game saying they took their young lads to the game and the only time they jump and hug is when we score.
You lose that sometimes in football. Men very much keep their distance and, certainly, in the world we’re in with masks and contact. But then a goal goes in and COVID is out the window and everyone is piling on. Sam writes them about the limbs.
Football has that unique ability to do that. I’m obsessed with football. I think it’s the greatest game ever. Obviously, I’m a bit biased, but I do.
The reason I do is the emotional and spiritual impact it has on a city and on a club sometimes. No other sport does that. Rugby doesn’t do that. Tennis doesn’t do that. Cricket doesn’t do that.
The emotion that is in a football stadium and the lift. You can imagine our fans going down Gloucester Road. If we get the job done they’ll be on the pitch. Carrying the players on their shoulders like gladiators in the colosseum. No other sport does that. You very rarely get that in any other sport and that’s why it’s so special
If it’s done properly it can really set an example for the city and I think in my city, Liverpool Football Club a major tourist attraction maybe only second to the Beatles.
The Beatles aren’t alive. The main guys in George and John have gone. Paul and Ringo don’t really live in the city. People come to Liverpool for Mo Salah and Mane and all the superstars they’ve got. We need to do that in Bristol. Why can’t Bristol have a big football club? Why can’t we have two clubs? Liverpool has. Manchester has.
Do you think Bristolians underplay themselves a little bit or do you think it’s something the scousers do?
I just don’t think they’re used to success in football. There’s other sports. In the city I’m from there are not many options. Football dominates and in Bristol, there are other sports. People can get distracted and when the football isn’t great and it’s not pretty on the eye who can blame them for going to the rugby.
Because sometimes the football that has been played here resembles rugby.
Is there a big amateur scene in Liverpool compared to Bristol?
I haven’t seen the Sunday leagues, but due to the amount of green grass, it seems as though there’s a lot of opportunities to play.
I’ve seen our community trust interacting with the girls' team. One girl said she had to play for Bristol City because there was no Bristol Rovers team.
So, we’ve got to be able to build that in the city and invigorate the fanbase. We want to see a lot of younger fans on the terraces and we’re also bumping into people.
Not only are we winning but we’re trying to do it in style. We’re trying to get the ball down and play. It’s not always perfect but there’s a style and a panache we’re doing it with. As we get better and as the players get more and more confident.
We’ve got a 19-year-old right back. Two 20-year-olds at centre back. The match-winner from today was 19. Imagine what they’ll be like when they’re 22,23,24 and they’re 150 games in not 50 games in.
We’ve got to keep recruiting the best players. I want to be working with the best talent because I want to be the best coach I can possibly be and they bring out the best in you.
When you get fans filling the stadium and making noise, it gives us an opportunity to recruit fantastic players for them and there is a special feel in the place since the turn of the year.
We’ve got to make sure now that we’ve got momentum and we’ve got to fight with everything we’ve got to keep it.
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