Bristol Rovers head coach Inigo Calderon has admitted that he was enthused by the Gas' performance against Leyton Orient in his first home game in charge but equally voiced frustrations with the fact that his side ended up on the wrong end of a 3-2 scoreline.

Rovers started their opening match of 2025 brightly but fell behind as Ethan Galbraith fired home an impressive finish after just nine minutes. However, they responded well and found an equaliser through Chris Martin from the penalty spot after the striker replaced the injured Promise Omochere.

Calderon's men then pushed for a second before conceding completely against the run of play as Jamie Donley curled a superb free-kick past Josh Griffiths.

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Orient then added a third early in the second half through Charlie Kelman before Martin halved the deficit with 16 minutes to go. However, despite pushing for an equaliser and seeing a goal disallowed late on, Rovers fell to a third consecutive defeat.

Reflecting post-match, Calderon confessed: "I have a mixture of emotions. Obviously frustrated because we didn't win. That's the most important thing. But at the same time, I saw big improvements in the team and I think in the moment we are [in], it's really important to be positive because without being with them that long, even in the sessions, to see the improvements is so good, so positive. I don't think it's too easy to stay there and start the game well and the first time they have [a chance] they score.

"So it's difficult when you are dealing with that situation. I enjoyed it so much with them, especially the first 50, 60 minutes.

"I think the chances we created, they were better than the ones they created," the Spaniard added. "It's true that second half probably as you have to chase the game, you put a winger as a left-back so you know there's going to be more chances for them. But until the third one, I think we created more than them but as I say, that's quite typical when they're in a good run, we are in a bad run. That happens. They need half a chance, we need to create three chances. But at least we created them so I am quite positive with that."

Just three days after Calderon's time at the club began with an abject display in a 3-0 defeat at Stevenage, the improvement in Rovers' performance levels was stark as they looked the better side throughout the first half and in stages of the second period.

Orient's best spell in the game ironically game when they were already 3-1 up and threatened to extend their winning margin with Josh Griffiths called upon to make three saves in relatively quick succession.

However, a moment of indivdual quality from substitute Shaq Forde to set up Martin for his second goal injected belief back into the Gas as they pushed for the equaliser.

Rovers thought they had found their third goal when Gatlin O'Donkor bundled the ball over the goal line from a yard out after Orient failed to clear their lines but it was correctly ruled out for handball.

Despite an improved performance, the Gas are still only two points clear of the relegation zone with 21st place Crawley Town's match against Charlton Athletic on New Year's Day postponed and have won just one of their last 11 league matches, losing three in a row while conceding nine goals in that time.

Although there were aspects of the Orient defeat that were unlucky, Calderon instantly squashed any suggestion that his new team were out of luck, saying: "Don't think we are unlucky. It's not unlucky. We have to do more things right and then probably we'll have more luck.

"I don't trust in luck. I just trust in doing things right and I think we will have to do more and more and more and maybe, hopefully, in one or two months, we don't need to do too mutch to win games. But at the moment we'll have to do lot of things right with and without the ball."

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