Hopefully Barnsley can gain confidence from Bristol Rovers win – Darrell Clarke

Posted Sunday, September 08, 2024 by PA

Barnsley head coach Darrell Clarke hopes his side take confidence from their 2-1 victory over Bristol Rovers.

Davis Keillor-Dunn marked his Reds debut with a goal. Adam Phillips also scored for the hosts, with Rovers’ goal scored by Ruel Sotiriou.

Clarke said: “With chucking away a couple of points against Northampton in our last home league game, it was important that we got back to winning ways at home as quickly as possible.

“Hopefully the boys can gain confidence from that, enjoy the week and get better at the things we’re not quite good at at the minute.

“There are always areas of the game. I thought in the first half we didn’t deal with long balls well enough. We didn’t have enough control in the back area and that’s why we made a change at half-time.

“There were too many balls going through, so we didn’t deal with that well.

“We were better in the second half. We had a bit more control in that area when they did go a bit long. That’s something we’ve got to learn from.”

On Keillor-Dunn’s impressive debut, Clarke added: “He’s a good player who scored a good goal and he’s had a great debut. We’ll keep working away with Davis, who is an important player for us.

“The whole group is important. We’ve got competition for places in all areas. With other players coming back, hopefully the competition for places is going to be really strong.”

Bristol Rovers boss Matt Taylor pinpointed the need for greater quality from his team.

He said: “I thought it was a really good game of football. Both teams went at each other. I thought they started better than we did.

“We were second best in too many areas to start the game in terms of our speed of thought and our speed of movement. We had to chase the first 20 minutes of the game.

“From that point on, I thought we improved and controlled the better side of the footballing aspect but we never got a handle on the physical approach.

“We needed more quality through their back-line. As the second half progressed, we had the best couple of chances and then all of a sudden you’re a goal down.

“We couldn’t quite stop that box entry. It was the one real quality ball in open play in our box and they punished us for it.

“We had opportunities and I thought we were better with the ball as the game went on. We combined better in wide areas.

“We were a real threat with early balls. I thought the spirit and character that the group showed was outstanding today.”