Ben Garner transcript: Bristol Rovers boss on Sunderland, referee and plans to enter transfer market

Every word from Ben Garner's press conference after the 1-1 draw at the Stadium of Light on Saturday

Well Ben I suggest that was the least you deserved after a hard-working performance. How did you view the game today?

In terms of hard work, how resolute we were defensively and the character of the team, we deserved to come away with something from the game.

Sunderland were very good today. They’re an outstanding team in this division and they showed their quality.

We had to really grind in that second half, with three enforced changes and we had to move things around, so a really pleasing point at certainly one of the most difficult places to go to in League One.

As you’d expect they had a lot of possession, but they didn’t pepper your goal with shots did they?

There was an outstanding save from Anssi, he’s an unbelievable goalkeeper in this division. He made an absolutely top-class save.

There were a lot of balls in our box, things bouncing around, but there weren’t too many clear-cut chances.

I was pleased with the defensive performance. I thought we did reasonably well with the ball first half and we had a gameplan and caused problems.

We didn’t quite do that as well second half and I think the changes affected the flow of the game a bit.

I think the turning point in the second half was the foul on Brandon Hanlan by Bailey Wright. The referee gets a yellow card out of his pocket and in his hands, and for whatever reason after chatting with Bailey Wright he puts it away and changes his mind.

That would have been a big moment in the game if they go down to 10 and we get the momentum. As it was, the momentum swung their way and they started playing really well.

There were a couple of changes we had to make and lost our flow in the game, but we ground it out. We are a young team and we showed our character today.

Last year Jonson Clarke-Harris was your penalty taker. Did you go into the game knowing that Luke Leahy was going to take the penalties?

Yeah. We had one in pre-season and Luke took it and scored. We were confident in him. He practices them after training every day, he’s very confident with penalties and it was an excellent penalty. Really, really good.

It gave us a foothold in the game. Unfortunately we couldn’t build on that with a second goal, but character-wise and defensively with our shape and structure we were very good.

Is the glass half full because you got a point and had a good performance, or is it half empty because you were just seven minutes plus stoppage time away from a first league win at Sunderland?

Yeah it’s disappointing to concede late on, obviously, but there was a lot of pressure on at that stage. We had to take three players off and one or two were really struggling.

In that respect, it’s even more pleasing to grind and get a result with how we had to do it.

We’re only going to improve.

You’ve come on leaps and bounds defensively today.

We worked hard in the week on our defensive shape. I think when you look at the players they’re bringing off the bench like Lynden Gooch and Danny Graham, they’re top players, and I thought Maguire for them was outstanding with the pockets he gets into and the problems he causes.

We worked hard on that and pleased to get out with a point. On another day it might have been three points.

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Brandon, Luke and Cian all suffered injuries. Is there any word on them or is it too early?

Brandon was just cramp. He’s literally had the one training session with us and went straight in. I thought he was excellent. He showed what he’s going to give us as a team.

Sam Nicholson’s calf just tightened a little bit so we had to take him off, and Luke Leahy was a knee into his hip, so he had to come off as well.

Cian a couple of knocks and showed his character to get through the game, Jayden got fouled and took a heavy one and got through the game. These are 20 or 21-year-old lads some of these boys, so it’s pleasing when you come to a huge stadium, a huge football club and a very good team and grind a performance out and find a way to get through the game.

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Last season was a challenge and then came Ipswich. Does this performance show the work you’re doing behind the scenes is starting to bear fruit?

I think so. As I said I think we can definitely do better with the ball. We had spells in the game, but they’re very good at what they do as well, in how they press and the areas they force you into.

We had a gameplan to go beyond that and play through that and we did that well first half. We didn’t do it as well second half and got penned in.

Defensively, if we’re as solid as that in games this season we’re going to pick up a lot of points away from home.

Finally, Brandon is a very exciting signing. You said one or two after Walsall, so are you still going to be active in the transfer market?

If we can. We’d still like to strengthen further if we can. As I’ve said throughout the window they need to be the right players. We’re not going to take players unless they are the right ones that we feel will take us forward and fit what we’ve already got in the dressing room.

That’s ongoing, we’re still working towards that and we’re also working towards the January window as well in terms of what we might need to do there. Hopefully we can get one or two more in.