Football Nicholson confident of a Rovers revival under boss Tisdale
BRISTOL Rovers’ Sam Nicholson is confident the arrival of Paul Tisdale as manager will spark an upturn in fortunes.
The Scottish winger is certain Rovers will climb clear of the League One relegation zone after their poor run of form continued with a 1-0 defeat to Swindon on Saturday.
Speaking ahead of Rovers’ trip to Wigan Athletic last night, 25-yearold Nicholson issued a defiant message that things will improve under new boss Tisdale, pictured.
“We will turn this around,” Nicholson told the Bristol Post. “We’re not even halfway through the season. I fully understand supporters’ frustration, I’m a supporter myself and no one likes it when their team is not doing well.
“There’s plenty of time to turn it around and I’m sure we will. Hopefully they can get in the stadium soon as well because that will give us an extra boost, because some of us haven’t even played in front of the fans yet.
“We are Bristol Rovers and we shouldn’t be down there.
“We are all professional footballers. We’ve realised it’s not good enough and we’re more motivated. We’ve got to go out and do it.
“There’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to put things right.”
Nicholson was used as a striker on Saturday with James Daly and Jonah Ayunga out injured, and he came within inches of equalising, hitting the post with a late header.
“I’ve had a couple of them this year,” Nicholson sighed. “I feel like I’m getting the chances and the players around me are creating for me. I’ve managed to get two so far, but I feel I could have had a lot more.
“The one at the weekend, realistically, I’m old enough and experienced enough to admit I probably should have scored it, not that I’m the best header of the ball.
“I should have scored that and we would have come away with a point, but the more games and sharpness I get hopefully I’ll start putting them away.”
The Gas players had just two training sessions with Tisdale prior to the Swindon game, and Nicholson insisted the early impressions of their boss have been positive.
“It’s been really good,” the former Hearts winger said. “He spoke to us the other day and said he didn’t want to flood everything with too much information early doors.
“He said ‘I can give you as much information as I can, but you can only take in a certain amount’, which is 100 per cent true, and I’m not the smartest person in the world so I definitely wouldn’t be great at that.
“He’s slowly implementing what he wants and it’s really early doors for him to be giving us too much, and the boys are really looking forward to working with him. The stuff he’s been saying tactics-wise is filling us with a bit of confidence.”
Nicholson believes learning to dig out more wins in difficult circumstances will be a significant step in Rovers’ progression.
He said: “It’s always nice to win in the right way, passing the ball and creating nice chances, but sometimes you’ve got to change your game up if it’s not working. That’s something we’ll get better at as the season goes on. It’s a long season.”