Clear pre-season positive for Bristol Rovers after previous problems: View | OneFootball

Bristol Rovers Manager Matt Taylor has expressed his satisfaction at the lack of injuries in pre-season

Highlights

Bristol Rovers go into this Saturday’s Sky Bet League One season opener against Northampton Town with manager Matt Taylor feeling satisfied with how pre-season has unfolded for the North Bristol side.

The Gas enjoyed a pre-season in which they won five of seven matches (including against Wayne Rooney's Plymouth Argyle and Portuguese second tier side Portimonense), got plenty of minutes into the majority of the squad, and made 12 signings to-date, which included breaking their transfer fee record for the second time this year.

Taylor has expressed his satisfaction at the availability in his squad going into the new campaign.

It’s certainly not always been the case, with injuries literally being somewhat of an “Achilles' heel” for the Gas in recent seasons. But having made several signings well before the start of the season, to a strategy set well before the summer, he can be pleased not to have too many concerns on this front so far.

Matt Taylor "generally pleased" with pre-season

In an interview for the club website ahead of the new season, Bristol Rovers manager Matt Taylor said: "It was a busy five weeks and we got a lot put into it physically from the players. We played nine games all in and we did a little bit of travelling with our trip to Portugal too.

"We’ve been generally pleased with what we’ve seen in pre-season. That’s testament to the planning done by Tom Short and our strength and conditioning team at the Club, and the medical group as well, because the lads certainly seem to be in a good place, fitness-wise, as we head into the first game of the season."

Ever-growing injury problems led to players playing out of position

Fitness and durability have become big questions at Rovers in season's past, with the Gas finding themselves with an ever-growing injury list and needing to juggle the squad with players playing in positions not familiar to them.

Gasheads may have started to fear the worst when new signing Ruel Sotiriou fell injured early in pre-season and Taylor did remark on some players not being up to match sharpness currently.

Taylor said: "Generally, fitness and availability-wise, we seem to be okay at the minute. That being said, we’ve probably got half-a-dozen players away from being fully fit. That could be down to signing late with us, or a disjointed pre-season, or a previous injury. We’ve mentioned Ruel and Chris already. But, in the next couple of months, we expect those players to fully up to speed. In the next two weeks they might have more-limited game-time but we still expect them to affect the pitch.

"Right now, the squad is strong availability-wise but who knows where we will be in six games’ time? But I hope the group, as they have shown, have more resiliency about them."

Bristol Rovers hold an unfortunate record

The Gas have found it somewhat difficult to get off to a winning start in the EFL and have an unfortunate record when it comes to opening day. According to footballrates.com, the Gas have the longest winless run of any team across the top four divisions, having gone 12 straight seasons without a win on opening day.

Rovers will be hoping that the good vibes from pre-season and the added intensity from a talented and hungry squad competing for places can help them break this opening day jinx.