MARK McGhee has told his players that it is time to "walk the walk" in a bid to get their season up and running by making progress in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy tonight.
Rovers welcome Gary Johnson's high-flying Yeovil Town to the Memorial Stadium (7.45pm) in the first round of the competition tonight and are determined to make up for the second-half capitulation that saw them suffer a 3-0 reverse at the hands of Morecambe on Saturday.
McGhee held a two-hour inquest at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday evening in an attempt to find out what had gone wrong and revealed yesterday that individuals had accepted responsibility for their part in Saturday's confidence-sapping defeat.
The manager went on to say, however, that the players now have to prove their sincerity by taking responsibility for their mistakes on the pitch in an attempt to turn their early-season fortunes around.
He said: "We've had our meeting to discuss what happened on Saturday and what we now have to do is pick the players up for the next two home games.
"I can't say that I've got all the answers now because I will only know that the next time we send the players out on the pitch.
"We can all talk the talk, but now it is time to walk the walk. It's fine for people to admit they know they didn't do this or do that, but I want to see them actually do the things that they never did on Saturday.
"The most worrying thing about what happened Saturday is that we conceded a goal and then it was almost like there was a mental capitulation.
"That really did concern me because it is not impossible to think we could go a goal behind in either or both of the two games we have in front of us at the Memorial Stadium this week.
"The question is: What happens then? What needs to happen is that we need to respond differently to the way we did Saturday.
"Will they do that? We'll only have the answer to that question when and if that happens."
When McGhee was asked if he would accept displays like the one witnessed Saturday for any length of time, he replied: "Listen, I'm not ready to start talking like that yet.
"The players were fantastic at Wycombe the week earlier and were also good in the second-half at Barnet in the game before that.
"Yes, we played poorly on Saturday, but over the last three games we have had one very poor 45 minutes or so of football.
"That doesn't mean the players have become bad people, but questions have been asked of us and we now have to provide the answers.
"I'm confident we have enough ability to win matches in this division and that we also have the desire and determination within the squad to do that."
McGhee was giving little away in terms of team selection yesterday – admitting only that Cian Bolger, who signed on loan from Leicester City on Friday night, would definitely start the game.
The manager hinted that the formation could be changed to accommodate the young defender, but a number of players from Saturday could be offered an opportunity to redeem themselves.
"It's a case of getting back on the bike," said McGhee.
"We have an duty to our fans to try to win every game and we're only going to do that against a team that is second-from-top of League One is by playing our strongest team.
"We can't mess about and think that we can beat Yeovil with a second-string team. I watched them against West Brom last week and they were fantastic. They have a bit of everything about them and I'm not surprised they have started the season so well."
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