'Stand up and be men' - Jamie Lindsay calls for Bristol Rovers to respond after 'sticky' run..By Daniel Hargraves & Peter Hill
Jamie Lindsay played his first full 90 minutes in a Bristol Rovers shirt against Wycombe Wanderers last weekendi2-prod.bristolpost.co.uk/incoming/article9591792.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/0_PPAUK_Bristol_Rovers_v_Wycombe_Wanderers_280924_091.jpgJamie Lindsay believes Bristol Rovers "need to stand up and be men" after Matt Taylor’s side fell to a fourth consecutive defeat in League One, conceding in the last minute at home to Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday having led for most of the game.
Lindsay, who played the full 90 minutes, was involved in the opening goal of the match when he set up Ruel Sotiriou who then found Scott Sinclair, the goalscorer. At half-time, Rovers were the team in control and kept their lead in tact until Daniel Harvie’s curling effort tied up the match with Wycombe dominating most of the second half.
After Harvie’s goal, the Gas looked tired and eventually paid the price when former Bristol City player Joe Low won the game for the visitors with only seconds left, converting from a corner. The defeat makes it four on the bounce after losses to Barnsley, Wigan and Peterborough while the home side also dropped into the relegation zone on goal difference.
Speaking post-match Lindsay said: "I think regardless of who's on the pitch, we still need to stand up and be men and be able to see out a sticky spell because obviously it is a sticky spell and we need to get together and work through it. There's no way we're going to get better if we lie down and say, 'oh we got beat again.'
"It's frustrating. It must be frustrating for the fans. It's frustrating for the players. We don't want to come in and get beat, I'm fed up of getting beat. We need to pull together and get through it.
“I felt like we started the first half pretty well,” the 28-year-old added. “We got a goal, better than last week and I think the start of the second half we kind of lost our way a wee bit, but that happens in football, it’s not always going to be perfect, but I think we need to be able to see it out better and stand up to it and obviously we didn’t in the end.
“It’s been frustrating, but we need to stick with it, the only way it’s going to change is everybody sticking together and working hard, and it will click. Obviously, there’s a lot of new players as well, and it’ll click at some point and if you look at the squad, we’ve got good players, we’ve got a good squad, we just need to keep believing, working hard and it’ll change.”
“We just had to come out for the second half and start the same and we didn’t start the same, we kind of let our heads go a wee bit, obviously there’s a lot of senior lads on the pitch, who need to do better in those situations.
“It’s something we need to work on. I think if we come out the second half and start better then that probably doesn’t end the way it did and obviously the last goal is a kick in the teeth but it’s how you bounce back, it’s football isn’t it you get highs and you get lows, this is obviously a difficult moment but it’s up to us to turn it around.”
i2-prod.bristolpost.co.uk/incoming/article9412576.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/0_JL-7407925.jpgThe game against Wycombe was Lindsay’s first full match of the season, which has already been hampered by an injury sustained in the 0-0 draw away to Rotherham United. The midfielder was one of Taylor’s summer signings having worked with the Rovers boss at Rotherham, whom he left on a free in the summer.
At 28 and having played in the Championship in three of the previous five seasons, the midfielder is one of the more senior and experienced players in this young squad and Taylor has evidently been keen to have his former player back available after a disjointed start to his spell in BS7.
“I feel better," Lindsay admitted. "Obviously I got a bang. I actually came through preseason pretty well. It was just a tackle, I got a kick on the knee against Rotherham, it was one of those things you can’t avoid, it was a 50/50 tackle, and up in the air a wee bit, so obviously that was a bit frustrating, but I’ve worked hard.
“I feel like I’m probably still not up to, that’s the first 90 minutes I’ve played, obviously not up to full speed yet but I feel like I’m getting there, every day at training I’m working hard, and as I said the only way we can get through Is everybody coming together and working hard and hopefully it’ll benefit us.”
Next up for Rovers is a home clash with Charlton Athletic tomorrow (Tuesday) evening before a trip to Burton Albion on Saturday.
