Dave Horseman reacts to boos and gel claims after gutless Bristol Rovers defeat at Leyton Orient

Dave Horseman has called Bristol Rovers’ 3-0 defeat at Leyton Orient “nowhere near acceptable” after a woeful performance at Brisbane Road from the Gas.

The hosts swarmed around their visitors from minute one with Rovers struggling to produce any play of note before Dan Happe, Ollie O’Neill and Dan Agyei scored first half goals.

Agyei had a couple of further opportunities in the second half as the Gas continued to struggle to create anything of note but a couple of good saves from Josh Griffiths and a goal line clearance from James Wilson kept the scoreline to just three.

READ MORE: Leyton Orient 3-0 Bristol Rovers live: Reaction after gutless Gas well-beaten in East London

READ MORE: Bristol Rovers player ratings vs Leyton Orient: Miserable first half condemns Gas to defeat

Horseman, who is still taking charge of Rovers while Matt Taylor deals with a family emergency, conducted post-match media duties again following an evening where his team were booed off by the travelling supporters at half-time.

Fans have been continuously frustrated with a number of recent results and performances, suggesting that this new-look team should have gelled by now. However, Horseman believes the problem is consistency.

“It's really interesting because, I think tonight, of course, so they should boo,” the Rovers coach exclaimed to Bristol Live post-match. “That's nowhere near acceptable. They spend good hard money. I'm a Bristolian, it hurts me far more than probably most.

“I haven't felt that disappointed and hurt for quite a while so I totally understand that. I agree. I've got no problem with that bit. We have to show a level of commitment to trying to create chances to try to win tackles.

“It's really interesting that if, after certain games, that everybody would say it did gel. Now what we have to do is find a consistency. I think consistency is the word.

“You know, we went Saturday Mansfield, everybody thought we gelled. Blackpool, they didn't. Then we went to Barnsley. Okay, not so much with the ball, but in terms of the defensive resolve and a good goalkeeper. Then tonight, they wouldn't.

“Who knows what'll happen Saturday? We have to put back to back performances together. I think that's the key to what we're doing or what we need to do.

“So yeah, I understand what everybody's saying but I think that's sometimes dependent on the result and I totally get that and until you put together consistent results then everybody says gelling and it’s consistency that we have to do better with.”

Rovers mustered just three shots and zero on target with efforts on goal increasingly difficult to come by for the Gas in recent matches.

Against Barnsley three days earlier, although Taylor’s side struggled to produce notable attacking moments, they defended resiliently for 120 minutes before winning the FA Cup tie on penalties. However, there was very little endeavour at times from Rovers with two of the goals conceded coming from individual errors.

With the first half display undoubtedly the Gas’ worst of the season so far, Horseman took full responsibility, declaring: “Listen, I think first of all we have to apologise to our supporters as a group. That was nowhere near acceptable. I take full responsibility for the performance because you can't perform that bad.

“So, to put your finger on it, I have to do better than that because that was a really, really poor…that's as bad as I've seen and I've got to look at myself first. That's just not good enough from me. So I think we'll leave it at that.”

READ MORE: Wael Al Qadi: 'I've had a wonderful time at Bristol Rovers but new owner needs a run at it'

READ MORE: Josh Griffiths details career first after Barnsley heroics as Bristol Rovers progress in FA Cup