Bristol Rovers defender Josh Hare believes he and his teammates were partly to blame for Ben Garner’s sacking.
Hare scored a dramatic late winner as the Gas defeated Chelsea U21s on 4-3 Wednesday to advance to the knockout stages of the EFL Trophy with Tommy Widrington in caretaker charge after Garner lost his job on Saturday.
Rovers have since appointed Paul Tisdale as their new boss, and he will be in the dugout for Saturday’s League One clash with Swindon Town at the County Ground.
Prior to Tisdale’s appointment on Thursday, match-winner Hare reflected on Garner’s exit with disappointment.
“It’s upsetting, no one likes to see anybody lose their job,” the 26-year-old said. “I think everybody had a good relationship with the previous manager but it is what it is and we’ve all got to get on with it.
“Tommy said in a meeting this week that we’re partly to blame for him losing his job and he’s right, we’ve got to take it upon ourselves to go and win football matches.”
Gasheads demanded a reaction from the players on Wednesday after they slipped to 18th in League One on Saturday with a dismal 4-1 defeat to Fleetwood Town.
Hare believes Rovers responded well to overcome a strong Chelsea team, which featured England international Danny Drinkwater and highly-regarded youngster Billy Gilmour.
“I think as a group we knew it was nowhere near good enough on Saturday,” Hare admitted.
“To a man, we didn’t necessarily put enough effort in, so Tommy basically told us to leave everything out there, which I think everybody did out there and we obviously got the result.
“We’ll take confidence from the win tonight and go and try to get another one in the league, we all know we’re better than the position we’re sitting in the league at the moment so we’ve got to prove that.”
Hare’s header was his first goal for the club, although the 26-year-old confesses he didn’t expect his first goal to be quite as it panned out.
“I’ll be honest I didn’t think my first goal for the Gas would be with my head,” he laughed.
“I’m pleased with any goal I can get, I didn’t play many games here last year so more goals and assists are certainly what I’m looking for.
“I think as a wing-back you need to make sure you get to the back post, so I shouted as soon as it looked like Zain was about to cross the ball. When I made the connection, I just tried to keep my head down and hit the target to be honest and luckily it went in.”
Tommy Woodrington’s side face Swindon on Saturday as Rovers will be looking to get back to winning ways, and Hare believes there’s only one incentive for Rovers as they travel to Wiltshire.
“I think we’ve got to go at them and make sure we get the three points. Whether we’re at home or away, we’ve got to take the initiative and I think we’ll definitely do that.”
