Bristol Rovers boss is up for challenge

Paul Trollope has stressed his determination to lead Bristol Rovers out of their worst run in almost 50 years.

But the manager, pictured, said improvements are needed at both ends of the pitch if Bristol Rovers are to turn around their six-game losing sequence when they face Carlisle United at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

The last time Rovers lost six games in a row was back in the 1961-62 campaign when they opened with seven straight defeats in a season which was to see them suffer relegation. "A run of consecutive defeats is not easy to take and I have to show resilience. I see it as a challenge and people have to learn lessons from the last six games – myself included," said Trollope.

"We have got to keep calm, maintain our belief and have a positive spirit. The mentality of the group is still strong – people still believe in what we are doing – and the opportunity is there for us to learn and improve. We have had the odd bad run in recent seasons and you don't usually suddenly turn it around by winning 4-0 – you usually come out of it with a scrappy or a tight win. We'd take that right now."

The six defeats have seen Rovers slip down to ninth in League One and make a first-round exit from the FA Cup following their 3-2 home defeat to Southampton. During that spell they have scored six goals, but conceded 18.

"It's what happens at either end of the pitch that is your bread and butter, and we need to improve in both areas," said Trollope.

"We have created chances in all the games, which is a major positive, but we have not taken enough of them in matches when we could have gone ahead.

"The Southampton defeat showed that we need to react a bit better when we do suffer a setback because, within the space of a few minutes, the game was almost out of reach.

"They went ahead when we didn't react quickly enough to a free-kick and then added two more goals in a short spell on the counter-attack.

"There are a lot of things to work on and speak about this week, but the underlying spirit in the camp is still there.

"The work ethic is decent too but we need our concentration levels to be better at times and a little bit more on-field organisation so we don't leave ourselves too open to counter-attacks.

"We're disappointed to be out of the top six, but we are not far away from them and one win can spark us again.

"Once that happens, there's no reason this group of players can't put a run of results together to get us back up there."

Rovers will have keeper Mikkel Andersen and striker Chris Dickson available to face the Cumbrians after the on-loan duo were forced to sit out the Southampton game – and also hope to have central defender Danny Coles back.

"Danny had an injection in his knee last week to help it settle down and he is back in training, so we are delighted he should be available for Saturday's game," said Trollope.

The manager has not ruled out looking to the loan market to add to the squad over the next fortnight.

"We do need strength in depth and when we had a couple of people unavailable and a couple out injured for the FA Cup game, we did look a little bit short," said Trollope.

"We are looking at a number of positions we feel need strengthening and assessing the situation very closely. We hope we can add within a week or two."