Danny Schofield felt Rovers showed two sides to their game as they returned to winning ways against AFC Wimbledon.
An impressive first half in attacking terms, featuring goals from Harrison Biggins and George Miller, was followed by strong defensive resolve in the second half to secure the 2-1 triumph.
Schofield on how the game played out:
“I think after the previous results and particularly the previous performance it was important that we put in a good shift and fought for a victory and I think I did that.
“With the manner we conceded the first goal, the injury to Charlie Lakin and a few other lads going down with knocks, it was a bit stop-start. But I thought we were very good in the first half.
“I thought we were our own worst enemy when we gave the ball away and suffered a few counterattacks in the first ten minutes. We addressed that and I thought we played some really good football, scored two excellent goals and deserved to take the lead into half time.
“In the second half I thought it was a bit more of a fight, first and second balls, blocks on the edge of the box and competing. There was a big difference in the both halves but we showed two different sides to our game.
“I was really pleased because I saw much more energy than in previous games in terms of wanting to get on the ball. I think that’s the first part of it and then just showing for certain situations and making the right decisions. Some of the decision-making was really good in the first half.”
On Jonathan Mitchell’s reaction to his mistake for the Wimbledon goal:
“I think when things like that happen and you make a mistake, which is part of football and life, it’s about the reaction. I saw straight away that Mitch [Jonathan Mitchell] got the ball out of the goal, pushed his chest out and I thought he showed real character.
“I think that had a really positive effect on the rest of the team so credit to him to that. I think it shows what kind of person he is and how positive he was after that. It takes a lot of courage and it impacted the team in a positive way.
“He was in a bit of pain with his shoulder after a knock later and I feared the worst. I think he’s still in a bit of pain and we’ll get it assessed. But for him to carry on shows what sort of person he is and character he’s got.”
On the position in the table:
“We always want to be in and around it. I think we’ve found ourselves in the position a lot where we’ve drifted away from the play-offs or being close to them.
“We got 11 games left to play and we’ll always be fighting. We want something to play for this season. We’ve spoken about this with the players and we’ll continue fighting in every game to get the three points.”
On George Miller’s goal:
“I’d probably have to give credit to Paul Green who works on the attacking set plays quite a lot. We know we’re not the biggest team in the league so we want to try to be creative in those situations.
“But also credit to the players because they took it on their own backs from the messages Greeny has been giving them.”
On team selection:
“It was a difficult decision over which striker would play. It’s probably the hardest part of my job, telling players they’re not going to start football games. It was a difficult one because Caolan has done well, particularly against Stockport where he led the line and fought. He’s done well so it was difficult.
“I played Luke Molyneux a bit higher to support George, almost like a second striker and that was the decision.”