Coughlan: Applicants for Bristol Rovers job ‘will have to fight me for it’

Bristol Rovers caretaker boss Graham Coughlan said applicants for the vacant Pirates job “will have to fight me for it” after lifting them out of the relegation zone with a 3-1 win at Walsall.

Early goals from Tom Lockyer and Alex Rodman put Rovers in control and although Josh Gordon’s inventive over-the-shoulder effort halved the deficit, Tareiq Holmes-Dennis sealed the points in the second half.

Victory gave Rovers back-to-back league wins for the first time this season and Coughlan admitted he wants to be Darrell Clarke’s successor after celebrating passionately with the travelling fans.

The 44-year-old Irishman, who joined Rovers in the summer as a defensive coach, said: “I’m going to work my damnedest to turn the heads of the powers-that-be in my favour.

“I’ve read the papers and looked at the betting – there are a lot of very experienced managers out there that will want to take on the Gas because it’s a hell of a club and it’s a great opportunity.

“But if anybody wants this job, they will have to fight me for it.”

Coughlan said his squad were doubly motivated due to Walsall’s over-exuberant celebrations when they won at the Memorial Stadium earlier this season.

He added: “They came banging on the manager’s door and running down the corridor as if they had won a World Cup. I’m not going to let things like that happen to this club.

“I thought it was a fully deserved win. We defended manfully, rolled our sleeves up and dug deep.

“I had given the players yesterday (Christmas Day) off because I thought they deserved it. When you make a decision like that, you are a little bit nervous but I take my hat off to them.”

Walsall boss Dean Keates said his side are in a fight for survival, despite sitting 14th, 10 points above the bottom four.

Keates said: “We have put ourselves in a relegation battle – no qualms about it. As I’ve said from day one, it’s about getting to 52 points as quickly as possible.

“We had an opportunity today to go 14 points clear of a club that is fighting for their lives. Now we are only eight.

“But that performance has left us wide open and now we have a game against the form team in the division, Luton, on Saturday.

“It was a complete lack of quality if I’m honest, second half especially, just not good enough.

“Over the last week we have had three very different performances and we are getting a very mixed bag at the moment, I’ve just said that to the players. We have to find a level of consistency.

“Teams are not earning the right to score against us. We are giving silly goals away. That has to stop.”