{"id":50457,"date":"2025-04-25T21:58:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T21:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/50457\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T21:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T21:58:15","slug":"inigo-calderon-issues-rallying-cry-to-bristol-rovers-fans-ahead-of-final-chance-against-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/50457\/","title":{"rendered":"Inigo Calderon issues rallying cry to Bristol Rovers fans ahead of final chance against Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol Rovers have to beat play-off chasing Reading on Saturday lunchtime to have a realistic chance of the relegation battle going to the final daySport<\/a><\/p>\n

Daniel Hargraves<\/strong> Bristol Rovers reporter<\/p>\n

17:00, 25 Apr 2025<\/p>\n

Bristol Rovers head coach Inigo Calderon walks out at the Mem(Image: Will Cooper\/PPAUK)<\/p>\n

Inigo Calderon has pleaded to Gasheads that they support his Bristol Rovers<\/a> players throughout the 90 minutes of their final home game of the season against Reading tomorrow lunchtime and reserve any boos, jeers or chants until after the full-time whistle.<\/p>\n

Rovers have one last chance to put themselves in the best possible position for the League One relegation battle to go down to the final day when they host a play-off chasing Royals side in the early kick-off.<\/p>\n

Between the full-time whistle on Saturday and kick-off at Blackpool on the final day, closest relegation rivals Burton Albion will play twice, hosting Cambridge United and Wigan Athletic. The Brewers are above the Gas in the final safety spot on far superior goal difference while also boasting a game in hand.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Isaac Hutchinson details key contributing factor to Bristol Rovers’ reduced survival chances<\/a>READ MORE: Inigo Calderon maintains stance on external activity as Bristol Rovers seek final day chance<\/a><\/p>\n

If the Pirates lose to Reading, Burton would need just three points to all-but seal their safety and, as a result, condemn Rovers to relegation. Even a draw would mean that the Brewers would only need four. Meanwhile, Crawley Town are three points behind the pair and still mathematically in with a shout of survival, although it would require an incredibly unlikely series of events.<\/p>\n

Essentially, in order to pull of what is now looking like an unlikely survival, the Gas need to pick up more points in two games than Burton do in three.<\/p>\n

The club’s last home game, a 1-0 defeat to Stevenage on Easter Monday<\/a>, prompted supporters to boo and chant at the players and Rovers’ head coach. Calderon has insisted that he can take the criticism, but added that his only request is for it to be saved until after the game.<\/p>\n

“As I say, I have to understand because I am the first one,” the Spaniard told Bristol Live<\/a>. “I have been a player, you know? If I was in the stand I would probably do the same as the fans. In the game, they always support us and after they can say whatever they want because obviously they\u2019re not happy. They have to show the unhappiness.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s important that, during the game, I ask, please help us because you can see that the boys are emotionally struggling sometimes. When you see players miss a pass, they\u2019re playing at a good level so it\u2019s not like all of a sudden they forgot about playing football. It\u2019s just the situation that hijacks your emotions and you don\u2019t look as good as you truly are. But that\u2019s football.<\/p>\n

“Listen, it\u2019s because we create that. No one put us in there. After that many games, it\u2019s because we deserve to be there, but at the same time I have been saying that if we have a chance, we probably deserve an extra chance because I think there were games that we probably deserve more and we didn\u2019t get anything.<\/p>\n

“Maybe that\u2019s why we still have a chance, because it is real that we still have a good chance.”<\/p>\n

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Calderon has already admitted that he will likely not even look at what happens elsewhere if Rovers don’t win on Saturday as even a draw would all-but see the Gas relegated. However, if they win it will be a bizarre scenario where they will have condemned Cambridge United to relegation while also requiring a favour from the Us who visit Burton on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

All that is in the Pirates’ control is winning this weekend. Victories for the Brewers against Cambridge and Wigan on Tuesday would all-but condemn Rovers to relegation even if they beat Reading as the goal difference margin would require a monstrous goal swing, even greater than their legendary 7-0 victory over Scunthorpe United three years ago to seal promotion.<\/p>\n

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Monday’s defeat and performance against Stevenage was particularly disappointing as, not only did it mark seven defeats in eight winless games, but it was incredibly flat. Only three days prior, the Gas had performed well at promotion chasing Wrexham and came away with a hard-earned 1-1 draw.<\/p>\n

But, according to Calderon, it hasn’t been down to a lack of effort, who added: “We will do [everything we can]. I cannot question at all the commitment from the players. It’s different after what you see, but trust me, that is not the reality because I see them every day and I see the pain they feel. At the same time, I see the commitment they have and it’s important, last game at home, I know that the fans are going to be behind us because we need them. We know we need them and they’ve been there the whole season.<\/p>\n

“As I say, after the final whistle if they want to shout to me, I will take it, but please, during the 90 minutes we need them because every single [bit of] help will be a big thing for us.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bristol Rovers team news ahead of Reading as Inigo Calderon provides fresh Ruel Sotiriou update<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol Rovers survival scenarios mapped out as Gas look to take Burton Albion to final day<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Rovers have to beat play-off chasing Reading on Saturday lunchtime to have a realistic chance of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2707,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-50457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-rovers-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114400847906695915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50457","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=50457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}