Football Stead pleased with Rovers' winning workout against Bath

BRISTOL Rovers assistant head coach Jon Stead has insisted he and his fellow staff members are "constantly learning" about their players after preparations for the upcoming League Two campaign continued with a 1-0 friendly win at Bath City on Wednesday night.

- Dan HARGRAVES

Bryant Bilongo tucked away a lovely free-kick delivery from Josh McEachran for the game's only goal midway through the second half after Rovers had squandered a number of other opportunities to break the deadlock.

The players who started for the Gas lasted at least 60 minutes before seven substitutions were made just after the hour-mark with the start of the new season now less than a fortnight away.

Asked how much work is being put into the decision-making regarding the look of the starting 11s, Stead told the Bristol Post: "Hours of work and though process goes behind it. We've got to remember that we've got to get a certain amount of volume into the individuals. They need to be ready for the start of the season. We need to get as many of them as we can, but at the same time we are trying to instil and embed our principles into the team, so sometimes you have to work with the group that you maybe think that we'll be looking towards at the start of the season.