Matt Taylor

Matt Taylor discusses Bristol Rovers' start, home comforts and facing 'monster' Wigan Athletic..By Daniel Hargraves

Bristol Rovers have won both of their home games in League One so far this season without conceding ahead of hosting Wigan Athletic on Saturday

i2-prod.bristolpost.co.uk/incoming/article9549861.ece/ALTERNATES/s1176b/0_JS344506286.jpg

Matt Taylor has labelled his Bristol Rovers side's start to the League One season as "solid" after taking seven points from their opening five games while also calling for their home comforts to continue this weekend against Wigan Athletic.

So far, the Gas have won twice, drawn once and lost twice in the league alongside a Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Championship side Cardiff City and a 3-3 draw in the EFL Trophy with Tottenham Hotspur Under-21s, who took an extra point after winning the eventual penalty shootout.

Last time out Rovers were one of just six teams in the third tier that saw their matches go ahead amid the international break as they lost 2-1 away at Barnsley in a game that went down to the wire.

Following a dominant start from the hosts which saw Davis Keillor-Dunn fire home an early goal on his debut alongside a number of missed opportunities, the Gas found their stride, equalising through Ruel Sotiriou while having good chances either side of Adam Phillips' second half winner.

"Going into last weekend I thought we’d had a good start," Taylor declared ahead of this weekend. "A win would have turned it into a great start. The defeat has probably made it a solid start.

"That was a close game. We could be sat here saying we’ve had a great start or still a good start with maybe a draw. We’ve not been too far away in relation to that.

"We’ve probably beaten a couple of teams at home that, if we look at the league table starting to shape up, you might hope and, not expect because you never expect to win a game of football, but expect to be on top of in terms of point return but then we’ve had some real tough tests away from home. We’ve been in each of those games and it’s been close but we’ve not come away with enough points.

"We’re trying to find the right balance. In a few games time we’ll be close to that double-figure mark where you start to get a little bit of a pattern of where you think your team will be."

Alongside clear areas for improvement, there have been a number of positives to take from the opening handful of matches, especially considering the fact that this new-look side are still early into their infancy. One of the biggest takeaways has been Rovers' improved home form with maximum points thus far and no goals conceded.

To suggest that the 1-0 win over Northampton Town and the 2-0 success over Cambridge United were comfortable wins is a slight stretch, especially considering that the former was won thanks to a 92nd minute winner from Bryant Bilongo. However, the hosts were solid throughout in both matches and always looked as though they would come away from both with a point at the very least.

i2-prod.bristolpost.co.uk/incoming/article9549872.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200e/0_PPAUK_Bristol_Rovers_v_Northampton_Town-_090824_053JPG.jpg

It's a welcome improvement on last season's home form, in fact, traditionally the Gas haven't been overly impressive on their own turf in recent campaigns. Prior to the start of this term, Rovers had won just three home games in 2024 against Oxford United, Carlisle United and Cambridge United while losing nine with torrid defeats to the likes of Fleetwood Town, Exeter City and Burton Albion in that mix.

On the importance of maintaining strong form at The Mem, Taylor said: "I think for the team and for the fans. The fans, if they see a certain brand of football which is uncomfortable for the opposition and results are always dependant on certain moments in games but putting the opposition under pressure and playing a certain style and then for our team and for a lot of the new players and certainly a lot of the young ones, having a bit of a comfort in their home form.

"I’ve always felt the best teams I’ve ever managed have had a comfort in their home form and a trust in it because generally, you lose the odd game here and there, but there’s a consistency to it. So that’s certainly what we’re looking for.

"We’ve had a couple of good performances at home. This weekend will be a different test and a harder test but one for us to look forward to and we should always look forward to our home games. But I think maybe the history of Bristol Rovers and certainly possibly last season when home form left us, people, and players especially which is what you don’t want, don’t overly look forward to playing at home. They should be desperate to play in front of their supporters and play with their home comforts of that support network of 10,000 Gasheads going mad for the team."

This weekend Rovers host a Wigan side that have endured an underwhelming start to the campaign with one win and three defeats in the league alongside an early Carabao Cup exit to Barnsley and an EFL Trophy loss at home to League Two Morecambe.

However, the Latics have had a particularly tough early schedule with games against Charlton Athletic and Birmingham City as well as a trip to Reading and, although they're yet to hit their stride, Wigan remain one of the biggest clubs in the division having boasted Premier League status while lifting the FA Cup as recently as 2013.

The two teams faced off at the DW Stadium on the final day of last season as Shaun Maloney's side cruised to a 2-0 defeat against a Rovers side desperate to see the back end of that campaign. As expected, Taylor is hoping that this weekend proves to be a polar opposite to that afternoon.

"Yeah, we hope so," the Gas manager responded when asked if he expects a completely different game to last season's final day. "That was the end of what had been a painful time. There’s no more painful moment than when you know your team aren’t where they need to be. Hopefully they can put on a performance where our fans enjoy it and we get the points off the back of it.

"But Wigan are still a monster at this level. An ex-Premier League club. Fantastic set of players. They’ve probably not had the start to the season they’d have liked but they’ve got some serious quality on the pitch there.

"A game of heightened quality I think is fair to say in terms of what our supporters have seen so far at The Mem and we’ll have to be at our best."

Baffling how MT thought our performance at Barnsley was good enough when we could have quite easily lost 4-1, no wonder players performed like they did yesterday if they thought MT was happy with their performance in the last match.

The two home games were little better. We struggled, or laboured, against mediochre opposition in them. I can understand he has to put a positive spin on things, but there are limits. Ok, give him more time, etc.,but I don't see it getting much better for quite a while. Avoiding relegation will probably be an achievement.

I still like him, I like the players brought in, and I like what they are trying to do

The results so far are meh, but not worse than that

Problem is we tied that under BG and that ended in relegation, whilst we seem to have spent more this season we don't really seem to have any real leaders on the pitch. Whilst Sinclair may be a true pro he's hardly vocal nor leads by example when he's on the pitch, likewise Wilson, Moore looked a potential leader until the red mist got to him on Saturday.

It's baffling why we didn't sign a Craig or Elliot type leader for the defence or a Finley for midfield. Surely experience pros like GF &T must realise every teams needs a couple of experienced pros.

I think we have to give him a little bit more time. It's almost a complete new team so a bit of bedding in time should be expected. The conference season we started terribly but eventually got going. I don't how long Taylor should be given though, too long and the season is no longer salvageable. I don't think he's a particularly good manager and seemed an odd choice in the first place to me. But there you go.

What midfielder have we recruited with a good engine, I can't recall one making it anywhere near the oppositions penalty area on Saturday, only Ward is capable of doing that and we all know what his fitness record is like. Garrett & Hutchinson are like U23 players and Conteh is content to be just a holding CM, not seen enough of Lindsey to know what he's capable of doing. 

You’ve named them. Young runners. Plus Sotiriou, who doesn’t seem to be an out and out striker

Whether you think they fit the bill or not isn’t really the point. The point was saying what MT is trying to do. Do you disagree with my little summary?

After Sat's dire display,last nights Brum v Wrexham was a bit scary.Speed,intensity, well rehearsed set pieces and a different level.Crowd of over 27,000.