Jon Stead: New Bristol Rovers staff 'constantly learning' about group after Bath friendly win

Bristol Rovers continued their pre-season preparations with a 1-0 friendly win at Bath City on Wednesday night

Daniel Hargraves Bristol Rovers reporter

21:42, 16 Jul 2025Updated 23:18, 16 Jul 2025

Bristol Rovers assistant head coach Jon Stead looks on(Image: Bristol Rovers FC)

Bristol Rovers assistant head coach Jon Stead has insisted that he and his fellow staff members are “constantly learning” about their players after preparations for the upcoming League Two campaign continued with a 1-0 friendly win at Bath City on Wednesday night.

Bryant Bilongo tucked away a lovely free-kick delivery from Josh McEachran for the game’s only goal midway through the second half after Rovers had squandered a number of other opportunites to break the deadlock.

The players who started for the Gas lasted at least 60 minutes before seven substitutions were made just after the hour mark with the start of the new season now less than a fortnight away.

Asked how much work is being put into the decision-making regarding the look of the starting 11s, Stead told Bristol Live: “Hours of work and though process goes behind it. We’ve got to remember that we’ve got to get a certain amount of volume into the individuals. They need to be ready for the start of the season. We need to get as many of them as we can, but at the same time we are trying to instill and embed our principles into the team so sometimes you have to work with the group that you maybe think that we’ll be looking towards at the start of the season.

“We’re constantly learning about the individuals. We’re putting different people next to each other. We’re playing different systems and formations that maybe we like, maybe we will see a little bit more of or put further down the pecking order. It’s a constant battle to get what we want and that’s what pre-season is for.

“We have got to keep navigating those sort of murky waters. Can we get to a point where we’re coming out really comfortable with the team that we put out against Harrogate and everyone on the pitch is very comfortable with what is expected of them.”

Stead joined Rovers last month alongside Rhys Carr, also an assistant head coach, to support head coach Darrell Clarke. All three are amongst a number of new additions in BS7.

The Pirates have so far played out three friendly matches, beating Chippenham Town and Bath City either side of a narrow 3-2 defeat to Stockport County last Saturday at the end of a productive warm weather camp in southern Spain.

Another three friendlies are in the diary ahead of the start of the League Two season which will open with a home match against Harrogate Town on August 2.

These matches are very much still fitness and learning exercises. On the game itself against Bath, Stead insisted: “As an exercise, it was fantastic. It was exactly what we needed from it. We needed minutes into the players. We needed it to be competitive. We needed it to be end-to-end, and I think it was. Both teams at times being direct so we got a lot of exposure to the high volume of sprints and high-intesity work which, at this stage of the pre-season, is what we need.

“Again, we are starting to see things that we are working on. Every game I feel like there’s more and more. Today, we started with a slightly different system, a 3-4-3 and then flipped to the 3-5-2. We’re starting to embed some of these principles, when it comes to a Saturday and we’re working each game as a project. We want to make sure by the start of the season nothing’s unusual.”

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Despite winning the game, Rovers could have secured victory via a much more comfortable margin as Shaq Forde, Promise Omochere and Ruel Sotiriou all had good opportunities while Ollie Dewsbury also forced an excellent save from Bath ‘keeper Harvey Wiles-Richards.

“You want to win games, of course you do,” Stead added on the missed opportunities. “Whether that’s 1-0 or 10-0, you want to win football matches and it’s a good habit to get into so to win the game was really important for us, as a staff and as a group of players. It just embeds that confidence in the work that we’re doing.

“We created numerous opportunities tonight. It could have been three or four quite comfortably. Pre-season, the finishing bit is always the last thing to come together. I keep reminding the strikers of that. Don’t get frustrated; it’s a very unforgiving pitch and it’s been difficult at times in front of goal. The amount of chances that we are creating through work on the training pitch is really pleasing.”

Jon Stead: New Bristol Rovers staff ‘constantly learning’ about group after Bath friendly win

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