Aaron Downes plans to extend his stay with Bristol Rovers
Aaron Downes says he hopes to agree a deal to extend his stay with Bristol Rovers this week.
The Australian central defender has impressed since joining for an initial month-long loan spell from Chesterfield early in the new year.
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Bristol Rovers' Aaron Downes is challenged by Aston Vila's Gary Gardner during the FA Cup.
And he was singled out for praise by new boss Mark McGhee after playing a major part in securing the Pirates' second clean sheet in a row during the 2-0 win at Cheltenham last Saturday.
McGhee has already indicated he is keen to keep the 26-year-old at the club for a longer spell, and Downes says he will be more than happy to remain.
"It's something we are going to sort out this week," he said. "At Chesterfield I was in the side for two or three games but then out again for the next two or three. It was very frustrating for me, but since I've come here I've played every game and I'm really enjoying it.
"It's a great club, everyone has been very supportive and they are a great set of lads.
"If I can prolong my stay here then it's definitely something I'd like to do – whether that would be for another month, until the end of the season or permanently I'm not sure yet. We've not spoken about that.
"But staying here is definitely something I want to do."
Downes' experience and organisational ability has helped the Pirates stem the flood of goals they were conceding before his arrival, and he is also a talker on the pitch.
"There are a lot of people who would tell you I can talk under water with my mouth full of marbles – I do like to blabber on a bit," he said.
"It's part of my game. I've been around professional football for eight or nine years now and I've learned from playing alongside other experienced central defenders who like to talk.
"I think it's massively important and every side needs three or four talkers to organise the team. If you have that, it makes it a lot harder for the opposition to break you down.
"Cian Bolger alongside me is only 19 and hopefully some of it will rub off on him. He has real ability and he will be a great player, but sometimes that is an area he lacks – and when I was 19, I was the same.
"I was quiet and it was something I had to learn to do. Now I'm getting older, I realise how important it is and how much it can add to the team."
Downes hopes Rovers can build on the impressive performance at Whaddon Road when they face the Bantams on Saturday.
"It was a really good team performance at Cheltenham – everyone worked hard and put in a good display. I think we thoroughly deserved the win," he said.
"When a new manager comes in, I think the players want to impress him and they give a bit more.
"It probably shouldn't work that way because personally I think everyone should be giving 100 per cent anyway. But it probably does give you a boost.
"The manager said he wasn't going to change the whole ethos here, but just tweaked one or two things and brought in one or two different tactics that we probably wouldn't have thought of, and they worked. A lot of the things he said were spot on."
Rovers have now taken seven points from the last nine, with four of them gleaned from two of the top three sides in the division.
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by ARBIE0489
Thursday, January 26 2012, 11:40PM
“Walker had lots of ability and nous, BUT....atrociously SLOW. I could have run faster than him and I was fifty, at the time. If he had only reasonable pace, the modlands club would NOT have let him go.”
by manchestergas
Thursday, January 26 2012, 3:33PM
“I never said any of them were brilliant, I said they were 'very decent'. I was slightly playing devil's advocate. I would have kept Elliott and Lescott, and wasn't too dissapointed at losing Phillips & walker, but I did find it very strange the WAY it was done.
I agree phillips wasn;t perfect, but I don;t agree with any player being frozen out. Either use what you have or get rid of them properly. Too many managers freeze players out and just try to forget they exist rather than work with them. Can you imagine if your manager at work did that? Andersen was good but it did lead to 2 years without a goalie of our own, which I found disappointing.
(as an aside, Jocky was a winger and Gerry turned him into a RB, Billy oceon was a RB at Stoke and turned into a striker, and Gareth Taylor was a CB turned into a striker, and many have been coaching into better players over the years - You need to work with contracted players not just discard them!)
Haldane was the ONLY player we had at that time with power and pace. Ok his end product was poor but that could have been coached into him if we had bothered. He was the ONLY player that other teams were terrified of. No-one else ran at teams like he did and opened up space. A much maligned player, especially at lge 2 level.
Walker was given 12 starts at lge 1 level (16 sub appearances). I wouldn;t call that a fair chance! Especially after fighting so hard to keep and giving him a 2 year contract.”
by JimmyMcnulty
Thursday, January 26 2012, 10:53AM
“manchster gas.
Have to disagree with you on your assesment of some of our past players. Phillips was in dreadful form at the time of his dropping, Andersson was a far better bet as keeper, Walker was given plenty of chances and just couldn't cut the mustard at League One level (his subsequent career has shown this), Haldane was quite frankly rubbish, he could be useful coming off the bench for very short periods but that was it. In hindsight getting rid of Elliott looks like a mistake but he was getting beaten for pace a lot in his final season. No idea what happened with Lescott as I'd agree he was a decent player. Williams showed gimpses of immense promise, again in hindsight it didn't work but he was one of any number of players who seem to have the basic talaent but not the ability to apply it propely, so was possibly 'worth a punt' at the time. I'd agree with Duffy- what was he for exactly?
Mistakes were made under the Trolls/Lennie partnership, but we were a comfortable mid table League 1 side, you just can't argue with what happened fater Lennie left, the facts speak for themselves.”
by manchestergas
Thursday, January 26 2012, 12:49AM
“Kyngsmeadboy - that brought a smile to my face :-)
We'll never REALLY know what went on behind the scenes with LL and Trolls.
What we do know that is that some relatively poor and expensive players were signed (Duffy, Williams etc), and several very decent players were released (elliott, lescott), frozen out (Haldane, Phillips) or not given a fair chance in Lge 1 (Walker)”
by Fullofgas
Wednesday, January 25 2012, 10:03PM
“They spoke quite highly of Lennie in his role with the young Palace manager.
Its funny how we let him go and he ends up doing the same job 2 leagues higher.”
by Kyngsmeadboy
Wednesday, January 25 2012, 8:31PM
“I also noticed Lennie in the Palace dugout last night, I am sure that PT missed his input after Lennie was released from Rovers. Certainly his know how was missed by Rovers, he was a very experienced manager/coach and would be an asset to any young manager. I am biased, I knew him at Carshalton before he became famous, he doesn't mention me in his book so I won't mention him in mine.”
by 1merv
Wednesday, January 25 2012, 8:23PM
“i agreee 100% about lennie”
by londongas
Wednesday, January 25 2012, 7:22PM
“Did anyone notice Lennie Lawrence in the Crystal Palace Dug out on the tv match last night
Ok they lost on pens, but is it just coincidental Rovers seemed to lose their way with his departure ?
BUT the Pirates/Gas are now on the way back, and deserve our full support”
by Fullofgas
Wednesday, January 25 2012, 6:23PM
“I think Trolls shipped a few out under the remit of constructing a championship squad. I cant recall what happened after that.”
by Roversteve
Wednesday, January 25 2012, 4:28PM
“It's odd really,Uncle Bucks did get some quality players in but why didn't they all want to play for him? It was very similar with Trolls at times,why did Steve Phillips suddenly go out of favour and Stevie Elliott,Lescott and others get shipped out?”