Bristol Rovers transcript: Ben Garner on 'headaches', Blackpool test and Simon Grayson's sacking

Every word from Ben Garner's pre-Blackpool press conference on Friday.

Let’s start with team news, are any of the injured close to coming back to being available, or anything picked up from Tuesday at Tranmere?

We’ve got a few to assess this morning, nothing major. It’s just a fine line whether they’re fit and available or not. There’s good news on Liam Sercombe, he will come back into training next week once we get an injection into the shoulder. Hopefully that’ll mean the following week he’ll be back available. So that’s good news. We’re looking pretty positive on the injury front, like I say just one or two to assess ahead of tomorrow’s game.

This time of year there’s heavy pitches, there’s been a big workload over Christmas and into January, this is where squads get tested.

This week has been a really good week for us in terms of the performance Tuesday on a very difficult pitch was very good, but also the lads that didn’t play have trained really well.

The environment and the culture of what we’re trying to create and the situation we want around the training ground, in terms of competition for places, is getting better and better and much closer to where I want it to be, so that’s a real positive.

It’s not just the players in the team, I want headaches and unfortunately I’m going to have to upset people every week with decisions, but that’s the culture we want here.

Is that you talking to the players who haven’t had as many minutes and saying ‘look, this chance is still there for you ’or what’s brought about that slight change?

It’s everything, it’s the environment you want, the rules you have in place, the standards you set, the organisation of training and what we’re trying to achieve, and making sure the players that haven’t played are still being developed and being improved every day.

That’s the important thing for me. We can only ever pick 11 players for each game, plus the bench, so it’s a squad game, but even the players that aren’t making the bench at the moment, they’re still important.

It’s still important we develop them and improve them, because you never know when they’re going to come into the team and it’s only right that when they do get an opportunity they’re ready to take it.

There are the managers who have a squad and get the absolute maximum out of that, and there are those who are looking to improve what they’ve got and develop it by making a good player a great player. Would you fit into that category?

I think it’s both. I want to get the most out of every player here, and the one guarantee I gave every player coming in is they will improve, whether they’re in the team or out of the team.

I think that’s management, that’s coaching for me. That’s the job. We need to make the team better, we need to make individuals better.

From a football perspective, yes we want to do well as a team. Ultimately we want to get promoted to the Championship, but we also want to develop individual players.

Say next season, we target promotion and we don’t achieve it, but we’ve raised player values significantly, then I think for a club like Rovers that’s success.

We need to look at it from both perspectives, we want to get the best out of every single player here and the best out of the team, and it’s important that every player buys into the ethos that the team will always come first.

Every decision is made for the group. Within that, there is individual love, there is individual attention, but it’s always about the group.

I suppose if that players buy into that and truly believe that this club will make them a better player, it makes it easier to drop players from the squad?

It’s still early days, but it’s a cultural environment we’re trying to create.

I don’t want any player to be happy at not being in the team, but I do expect them to respect that decision and respect the players that are playing, and the last two weeks is the closest we’ve got to that, and that’s what we need to build on and continually push.

It’s important the players that are not in the team, for example the way they trained yesterday was absolutely outstanding as a group. So it’s given me headaches, it’s given me more challenges on positions and they’ve also improved yesterday, and if they keep doing that day on day, when an opportunity does come to go into the squad or the team, then they’re ready to take it.

All of that work is about 3pm on a Saturday or the 7.45 on a Tuesday, how big a fillip would that be to get that monkey off the back and get the win?

We’ve just spoken about the process again this week, because if we keep getting that right, which we have done largely over the past four or five games, we’ve had some really good performances either for spells or durations of games. If we keep doing that results will happen.

There was an interesting article in The Times yesterday about the use of statistics now and a big focus on expected goals (xG), and on that we would have won four out of the last five games.

That doesn’t get you any points though, so we need to combine performances and good levels with results, and that’s all that’s missing at the moment.

I’m very optimistic for tomorrow. Again it’s been a good week in preparation, the performances have been good in the last two games but we need to get the results that those performances warrant.

Blackpool are the opposition. Like a lot of teams in League One they’re a bit hit and miss, but they’ve got some talent going forward, some very good players.

I felt they had quite a big outlay at the start of the season, in terms of their recruitment, and again in January. There are players that have gone in there that financially would have been on reasonable money.

They’ve got good players, good front players. Gnanduillet’s having an excellent season and is a handful. They’ve got players throughout the team that are capable of making things happen.

They’ve had quite a high turnover in terms of players in and out of the team, so whether that consistency has been there, but we know the threats they pose, we know what type of game to expect, but we’re very much focused on us.

Obviously they’ve had a change of manager and it’s unfortunate for any manager to lose his job, but we’ve just spoken about our process.

We cannot necessarily predict what they’re going to do with a change, whether they change shape or personnel, but what we can focus on is making sure we’re 100 per cent right.

We’ve got a couple to assess this morning. Nothing major, it’s just a fine line of whether they’re fit and available or not.

How hard is it to go into a game like this with the right mentality, with the feeling that your luck might be against yourself and your players? Abu Ogogo was cursing his luck as you were on Tuesday night.

If anything, I think it’s just making us more determined. It’s an extra motivation for us.

Over the past two or three weeks there has been a continual build, and I see that again this week, so I’m expecting a performance that goes up a notch again tomorrow.

We’ve just got to keep working hard. It’s the old Gary Player saying that the harder you work, the luckier you get, so that’s very much our focus. Control the controllable, keep working on the processes day in, day out and for me we’re owed goals.

Over a period of time it evens out, but we’ve certainly had missed opportunities and a bit of bad fortune, and we just need that win that we keep speaking about, but I’m sure it will come and hopefully tomorrow, and it will give us an extra lift moving forwards.

Our understanding is that the players are really enjoying the training, that must be really heartening to hear but it also must be just the start of what you’re trying to implement?

It’s still very much early days. I’ve only had one week of complete training in terms of a full week where we’ve been able to work through from Saturday to the following Saturday. The attitude of the players, their application in training and their desire to learn has been outstanding. It’s a really good group and we’ve got a nice balance between top, top senior pros that are really good in terms of the dressing room and in terms of passing down information to younger players.

And we’ve now got more of an undercurrent of talent ready to challenge and push in. So I think it bodes well for the future, and the more time we have on the training ground, the better it’s going to get. 

Tom Davies, what’s the latest on his scenario?

Surgery required for Tom, and that’s going to be towards the end of February, so we’re just supporting Tom in the meantime because it’s obviously a big blow for him as an individual.

It’s very important for us to support him and help him as a person to cope with a difficult situation, and obviously we will help him with his rehab and recovery.

Everyone’s bitterly disappointed for him, but he’s a very strong character. He’s got a great determination, and I’m sure he will come through stronger the other side.

Can we expect to see Josh Hare in an under-23s game soon? Or is it still just training?

Josh has again trained all week this week, and the plan is he will play on Tuesday in the under-23 game against Plymouth, and hopefully all being well he comes through that game and he will then be available for first-team selection.