Inigo Calderon has declared that "confidence is one of the keys to play football better" as the Spaniard looks to ensure the early improvements overseen by him at Bristol Rovers are continued as opposed to being short-lived.

Rovers recorded back-to-back wins in League One for just the second time this season with victories over Cambridge United and Barnsley and are targeting three consecutive league wins for the first time since October 2022 when they travel to Wigan Athletic this weekend.

The Gas massively rode their luck at times against Barnsley last Saturday as their visitors produced 26 shots with nine on target but were incredibly wasteful, although Rovers looked dangerous whenever they got forward and managed to find a clinical edge that has been severely lacking this campaign, going on to win 3-1.

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Confidence amongst supporters has certainly improved on the back of that victory with the Gas now as close to the top half as they are to the relegation zone. According to Calderon, he can see the same in his players too.

In his post-match press conference after the Barnsley win, midfielder Isaac Hutchinson, who scored Rovers' second, detailed how the new head coach has encouraged the Gas to be brave and to not fear making a mistake which, according to the Rovers boss, should be the case in football anywhere, not just in his philosophy.

"No, because for me, confidence is one of the keys to play football better and most of the time, the players have to create that confidence in themselves," Calderon told Bristol Live. "But at the same time, I think the coach is a big, big part of that because if you tell them to be brave and as soon as they make a mistake, you start to shout at them or you change them, that does not make sense.

"So they know that, for me, a technical mistake is not a problem. For me, it's about if it was the right decision and you try to do your best, that's it.

"Isaac was the perfect example because the first 30 minutes was like, 'what is he doing?' He was making mistakes but he was on the pitch because I know how good he is and he nearly scored a screamer five minutes after and in the second half he scored a goal and he was much better.

"Another thing, he's a great player and I see him every day so that's why you trust them because, like I said before, I trust all the ones that are here because sometimes what you see on the Saturday is not the reality. They're much better players and that's why if we can climb a bit up the table, you will see us much better and the players will look much better."

After 16 players were brought in during the summer, the suggestion that it would take time for this team to gel has been repeated for virtually the entirety of the campaign so far. Although, it looked as though Rovers were taking a step back as opposed to forwards in the final weeks of Matt Taylor's reign with their ball usage and retention extremely poor as they struggled to produce goalscoring opportunities.

That has led to many supporters expressing beliefs that another busy transfer window is required in order to survive relegation but, in reality, that was never going to be the case. The hope now is that the squad constructed over the summer starts to bear fruit more consistently and the early stages of the Calderon era have certainly suggested that that could be the case.

Although they conceded way too many chances for comfort against Barnsley and were also somewhat lucky at times in their 1-0 win at Cambridge, Rovers have looked significantly improved in the final third under Calderon, scoring six goals in their four league games under the Spaniard.

There is still major room for improvement but players who were struggling to produce earlier in the season are now starting to show their quality for longer spells which, seemingly, is down to injected confidence from the new boss.

Asked if he has physically seen an improvement in the players' confidence, Calderon said: "100 per cent and, as I say, the coach can give the confidence to the players, but at the same time, the results, because you can give the confidence but if they don't see it's not working or they see that we keep losing, I can tell you that the situation is getting more and more complicated.

"We are still in a bad situation because we are still down but you can see that they feel with a little bit more freedom and every single point we get and as we get high up the table, they're going to be much, much better and that's why if, not in the long-term, but in the mid-term, if we can start to be high up the table, we look much better the way we play and everything will be better. But the reality is that we are still there and we’re going to be there for a while so that’s up to us."

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