Stead expressed optimism following a frustrating night for Rovers whose manager Darrell Clarke was booked late on for dissent as he was left waiting for the first win of his second spell in charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat looked much more like what we expect from the group and what the supporters expect from us,\u201d Stead told reporters after Rovers picked up their first point of the campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt times it was electric because there was a tempo to the game, there was drive and an intensity to the game, and for a few split seconds I enjoyed it on the touchline which was nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to keep performing and turn disappointing night like this into wins but it\u2019s a process and we\u2019re working hard towards that and so are the players and I know we\u2019re getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rovers, relegated from League One last season, dominated and almost snatched victory in stoppage time but Jack Sparkes\u2019 20-yard free-kick thundered against the crossbar.<\/p>\n
Earlier, captain Tom Conlon came to the visitors\u2019 rescue with a goal-line clearance to deny Gas skipper Alfie Kilgour when he rose to win Sparkes\u2019 free-kick on the hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not happy but I am talking here quite buoyantly because I see hope and a process that is starting to work and I see things that are starting to click,\u201d Stead continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will become a really good team but it feels as though everything\u2019s going against us at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of things we are trying to overcome and we are having to deal with setbacks but that\u2019s football.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players are getting kicked but they carry that on their shoulders and it\u2019s our job to help them through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oldham manager Micky Mellon hailed his side\u2019s fighting qualities as they got back in their fans\u2019 good books following the 2-1 weekend home defeat by Swindon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a real battling point,\u201d said Mellon, whose promoted side are also without a win this term.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Saturday we were annoyed at ourselves for the first 15 to 20 minutes because we didn\u2019t show a reaction or show those battling qualities that are needed to fight for the right to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we did that tonight against possibly one of the highest invested-in teams in the division on a Tuesday night and we stood our ground and fought and scrapped and created some good chances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good old-fashioned League Two battle and I\u2019m sorry for the fans we couldn\u2019t get one of those finishes in for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lads had to show a reaction from Saturday and we did that because we let ourselves down and we let the fans down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a learning time for us as a team and we\u2019ve now learned that you can\u2019t wait until the tempo to drop to a level that you believe you\u2019d like to play at and try to get the right to try and play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stead expressed optimism following a frustrating night for Rovers whose manager Darrell Clarke was booked late on for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-358289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115058690150708096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}