Darrell Clarke calls for Bristol Rovers players to get mentally stronger

Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke insisted his players have to get mentally stronger following their 2-1 defeat at Fleetwood.

Rovers’ second loss came as they conceded two Will Davies goals in the first half in Lancashire. Although former Fleetwood striker Promise Omochere gave them hope with a 74th-minute goal from the penalty spot, they could not salvage a point.

And Clarke says there is still a degree of fragility among a squad relegated from League One last term.

“I’m frustrated but I’m going to hold my emotions in check,” he said. “The two goals we conceded were shocking goals. I thought the first one was a yard offside, if I’m honest. If he’s in front of Alfie, there’s an argument that he was behind the lad who played it, but for me, it looks like offside.

“That was frustrating, and then we conceded a really soft defensive goal, and that left us with an uphill climb. Credit to the boys. They responded a little bit in the second half. We started getting control of the game, control of the ball and we get a goal with a penalty, and then we go back to going too long.

“We should have been building so that would be the frustrating thing. The last 10 minutes when we were chasing the game, we got desperate.

“There’s a mentality in the group at the minute, it’s a little bit fragile. That needs to get stronger. There are one or two still wounded, I think, from last season’s debacle and we have to get them ready and primed and making sure that mentally they’re in a better place.

“At the minute we’re having to lick our wounds, because that’s two games where we probably deserve something out of both so we need a momentum swing. I’m used to this. I don’t come into clubs where it’s all rosy, and it’s all flying. You know, I come into clubs and fix them.

“The good times aren’t too far away though, trust me on that.”

After Fleetwood made it two wins out two, manager Pete Wild hailed his players’ efforts and had special praise for his strikers Davies and Ryan Graydon.

“I’m really pleased, it had a bit of everything, that game,” he said. “We’ve been talking for a while about how we wanted to be the aggressor, we wanted to be in people’s faces and wanted teams to have to do more against us. We want to make it difficult for teams and I think we did that in abundance in the first half.

“What we were trying to do didn’t really work so we got two centre-forwards on and got back to what we’re good at and I thought that worked a dream. I’m pleased with Will, and Ryan too, though he won’t get talked about, but the work rate and desire is great. When we get into those positions you need someone to put them away. Will’s done that and I’m really pleased.”