Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Taylor impressed by the strong mindset at Rovers
MATT Taylor has called for his Bristol Rovers players to believe they can compete with League One’s top teams ahead of this afternoon’s trip to Blackpool after recording an impressive 2-1 win at Bolton last weekend.
Asked how big a deal it is for the players to believe that they can beat the top teams, Taylor said: “As a manager, and as the person I am, I will always believe that. That’s why I took the job, for this group of players.
“We’re not changing the mantra in any way, but we expected to go and compete at Bolton. We were so strong in our mindset. You have to be so strong in your mindset when you go away from home but also, you’ve got to back up performances.
“We didn’t want Crewe (4-2 FA Cup away win) to just be a one-off and not back that up. We backed that up fantastically well at Bolton. Now, can we do that in the League again?
“Confidence plays its part. John (Marquis) has started hitting the back of the net, Antony Evans too.
“We scored from a set-piece at Crewe. All of these factors are just so important in terms of taking away the questions that I was answering two games ago in relation to who’s going to score.
“All of a sudden the players have put themselves in a position where we should’ve scored more than two at Bolton. We had enough chances. We worked their goalkeeper.
“So I like the fact that we’ve got a good attacking output in us. But, as I said previously, that is built on the foundation of hard work and being structured. I think some are capable of more, I’ll be honest with you, I really do. As much as I was excited about the opportunity, I’m probably a little bit more excited now because I’ve seen it first-hand. But that’s not an individual aspect, I think that’s collectively we’re capable of producing more consistency within it.”
Discussing Blackpool, Taylor added: “You look at their front line, at Jordan Rhodes, (Karamoko) Dembele, people like that. They play good football. There’s some serious talent out there.”
Prior to last night’s League Two fixtures, Swindon were still just two points outside the play-offs despite a lengthy run of inconsistent form.
This afternoon they head away to a Tranmere side that has put some distance between themselves and the bottom two in the division over the past few weeks.
Last night’s Championship game between Bristol City and Hull, and the League Two encounter between Forest Green Rovers and Gillingham both finished after the deadline.