Bristol Rovers manager Inigo Calderon issues relegation battle rallying call ahead of Barnsley clash

Bristol Rovers boss Inigo Calderon wants his players to turn their FA Cup pain into precious EFL points when ex-Gas manager Darrell Clarke’s Barnsley head to the West Country.

The Spaniard and his players will be aiming to put things right after being left frustrated when they exited the FA Cup in a 3-0 defeat at Premier League Ipswich Town last weekend

But the ex-Brighton coach is now challenging his team to use that disappointment to inspire them when they face Tykes at the Memorial Ground on Saturday to boost their battle against relegation.

“You have to put in consideration that obviously they were a Premier League club,” said the Spaniard told reporters at his pre-match press conference.

“You can see that they have been working for a long time together, and they are in a good run at the moment.

“But even then, I was not too happy with the performance of the team. We can do much better.

“I was not too happy with the team, and the players were the same, so we are on the same page.

“It was not a good day, and it does not matter that it was a difficult opposition.

“We could do better, but it is probably good for us because it shows us that we are still in a bad moment and we have to do a lot of good things.

“Even conceding three goals, for me, the problem was we could not keep the ball at all, and that means you have to defend all the time, and that makes it more difficult to keep a clean sheet.”

With Shrewsbury beating high-flying Wrexham 2-1 on Thursday thanks to a brace for ex-Rovers striker John Marquis, the Gas badly need three points to ease their relegation worries against in-form Barnsley.

And Calderon is hoping his midweek work on the training ground will pay dividends as he aims to build on a 1-0 win at Cambridge in their last EFL contest.

“It’s been two good sessions and for me, it is the way I can share my idea,” Calderon added.

“There were two good sessions yesterday and today, and that’s really important because I can see the progress in the sessions.

“It’s a matter of bringing that progress to the game because it is the most important time to show the progress.

“I’m quite positive. I think it was a tough moment last weekend against Ipswich.

“It hurt us a lot and probably stopped the change of momentum a little bit, but in the end, we have to realise that it was a really difficult opponent.”

Rovers will face Barnsley, who are currently fifth in the League One table, without Kamil Conteh and Promise Omochere who are both out injured.