Danny Schofield insists no stone is being left unturned in the efforts to ensure Rovers deliver a more consistent run of results through the remainder of the season.
Speaking to the media ahead of Saturday’s trip to Stockport County, the head coach discussed the push for greater consistency as well as finding form in front of goal.
Schofield on finding consistent results:
“It’s evident that we do need to strive for this consistency. We’ve won two on the bounce then lost two on the bounce. We won three on the bounce without conceding and then lost three on the bounce.
“I try to be as relentless as possible in training, leaving no stone unturned, analysing the opposition. Maybe you do too much on it and maybe you should relax a little bit.
“But we just try to really focus on us, how professional we can be, how much we can prepare the team in all the elements of football - physically, technically, tactically, mentally - and put them in a good place to compete.
“We know we can compete, we know we can win football games, we know we can perform really well, but we do need to make sure we’re winning more games than we are at the minute and that is our key focus.
“Again, I’m really happy with how we feed back to the players and how open and honest they are about me so we can find a solution together to move forward and go and perform.
“We’ll be looking to do that in the remaining games.”
On the key to the season remaining alive:
“It’s about being more clinical in the moments where we do create chances. Barring the Bradford game, in pretty much every other game we’ve created really good opportunities to score. The Sutton game for example - we had a great chance at 0-0 and another one when we were 1-0 down. We’ve just got to be more clinical, more ruthless and more decisive in those areas.
“And we need to make sure the moments go in our favour, such as defending the box with a really good contact. I don’t feel as though teams are out-performing us, which would be a major concern for me. We just need to be better in those key moments.”
On looking to get the team firing in front of goal:
“I wouldn’t say we’re doing anything differently but we’re probably doing more. Asking the players what they feel they need more of in these areas and they’ve asked for more of certain drills what they feel have really benefitted them.
“Then we’ve just focused on individual actions. We coach a lot with individual players and in the different units - attackers, midfielders, defenders.
“It’s just trying to refine it without highlighting the importance of it. We’re doing it to improve a certain area but sort of let it be subconscious. We do a lot of one-to-one reflection and analysis with individual players so we speak about those moments in those meetings.
“I don’t want the players to play under any pressure or any fear. I just want it to become a natural process that they almost produce these moments in games without thinking about it.”
On the test of Stockport:
“It’ll be a challenging game. They’re a club that has recruited really well in the summer and in January. We know it’s going to be a real challenge.
“They’re very consistent in how they want to play football and their defensive and attacking shape. We’re definitely going to have to be at our best and in those moments I speak about, we need to take them when they arise.
On the health of the squad:
“We have no real definitive timescale on James Maxwell. He’s definitely got a tear in his tendon high up in his quadricep muscle and it’s difficult to put a timescale on it.
“He’s undergone specialist treatment with the physios to try to speed up his recovery process but I think it’s one where you see how he is week to week. But it’s not in a good place.
“We’re hoping that he’s not done for the season, certainly not. There’s a lot of weeks left in the season and we’re hopeful he’ll be back before then.
“After the last game, we came through it pretty much injury free.
“There was an incident for Tom Anderson where he kicked the bottom of one of the Bradford players’ foot and it was very sore for him. But it calmed down after 24 hours and he was back on the training pitch this week, which was good news.”