Dave Horseman will be in interim charge of Bristol Rovers' League One fixture at home to Wrexham on Saturday with the Gas understood to be closing in on a permanent appointment to replace Matt Taylor.

Rovers confirmed the sacking of Taylor on Monday afternoon after the Gas fell to 20th place in League One following a 2-0 defeat at Birmingham City and are just two points clear of the relegation zone.

The identity of the successful managerial candidate is currently unknown but Rovers are believed to be hopeful that they can appoint a new permanent manager in time for them to take charge of their Boxing Day trip to Exeter City.

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Horseman took interim charge of Rovers' FA Cup penalty success at Barnsley and the woeful 3-0 defeat at Leyton Orient over a fortnight ago when Taylor had taken a leave of absence to deal with a family emergency.

The former Forest Green and Southampton Under-21s boss was a club appointment made in the summer and, on the former Gas manager's sacking, said: "On a personal note, I think it's really important...I never knew Matty before the start of the season. I think I met him a week before pre-season and for him and Wayne to embrace me as a new member of staff where we don't really know each other, I'm really grateful and to bring me to this club...it's a really good club. So I'm really grateful and I want to put that on record.

"It's always tough and I've been through some times where managers change and unfortunately it's part of the game. The lads are all anticipating the next one but they can go one of two ways. They can either lose their energy or refocus and get ready to impress the next person and lucky enough they've probably gone the more positive way in terms of wanting to know who the next person is and be ready for him.

"They've trained really well. Also, the game against Wrexham is one to look forward to. It's on TV so it's exciting.

"So, since the weekend, it's been a tough time but actually the lads have responded really well and we've had a good week's training so far."

It has been confirmed that Horseman will be in charge for the Wrexham game with Rovers close to appointing a new manager. The club announced on Monday that the 40-year-old would be taking interim charge of the team alongside new coach Lee Cattermole. Bristol Live are aware of rumours surrounding Lee Cattermole leaving the club and have approached the club for comment.

The interim boss is well aware of the Gas' recent struggles, particularly in the final third, and has looked to reassure fans that they have been working on improving their offensive play in training this week with a view to instant improvement on Saturday.

"It's become clear that I'll be taking the team now but before that I wasn't sure if maybe we'd have somebody in and that would've been brilliant and I'm more than happy to support them," Horseman added. "It hasn't come on and I will be taking the team Saturday so we've prepared properly, we've done some research, we've shown some clips, we've trained. I won't go into too many of the tactical details.

"It's no secret that we're not creating any chances. We've worked on, and I'll be really open and honest, we're going to cross the ball a lot. That's the aim, that's been worked on. Shots from outside of the box. At the moment, we might need to create the volume to then start to then refine and find a way of creating really good xG-based chances.

"The boys have really embraced it. They know that once they cross the white line they've got to make good decisions. They've got to be technically better than we have done in recent weeks. There's good players in our dressing room but we have to show that fight. That's probably the two bits, we're not creating enough chances and we seem to flip too much and that's some of the stuff we've talked about.

"They've got to put it right on Saturday. No matter what happens, they've got to show a bit of fight and desire for the badge and we've got to create a volume of chances. There's no secret in that."

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