Danny Schofield was pleased with the battling nature of Rovers’ performance in the 1-1 draw at Crawley Town.
Caolan Lavery netted his first goal for the club before Rafiq Khaleel secured a share of the spoils for the hosts.
While frustrated to concede a late equaliser, Schofield felt the defensive effort was strong from his side.
Schofield on how the game played out:
“I thought it was a hard-fought performance. Our strength was probably how we defended, collectively together and really well connected.
“I thought for the first 25 minutes we were too deep and then we tried to release the wingers to be more aggressive and press their centre backs and we did that for the latter part of the first half.
“We fatigued a little bit in the second half. We defended the box well at times and we conceded a goal late on which was disappointing.”
On the effort of the players:
“Every game is a must-win, that’s how we see it. We’re fighting for points as much as we can. The players did that today - they fought, put their bodies on the line, they ran for each other and we take a point home with us.”
On Caolan Lavery’s goal:
“It was an excellent delivery and a really good time to score the goal. I’m really pleased for Caolan to get that header. We always want to build on that and try to get the next goal but unfortunately we didn’t do that.
“It was a great goal - a typical number nine’s goal with the way he arrived and flicked the ball into the corner. It was an excellent finish.”
On the goal conceded:
“I thought they had a lot of possession but didn’t really threaten our goal. I thought we defended the crosses well and blocked a lot of crosses and we defended the edge of the box really well.
“To concede from a distance, I think it was while Caolan was cramping up and he would have been back in that position. It was disappointing to concede but Crawley will probably think they deserve the goal.”
On the impact of injuries:
“That’s football - you get injuries and other players need to step up and take the opportunity. Liam Ravenhill came in and really helped the team and competed really well. That’s his first start in League Two football for a while.
“We recalled Bobby Faulkner from Spennymoor because Adam Long had an illness and Ben Nelson is on international duty. He helped the team really well as well. He came on and did a really good job on the left hand side.”