Bristol Rovers is a tough place to go, but I want my players to go and attack the game

The Reds will be hoping to carry on their improved league form after getting a hard-fought point against Huddersfield Town last weekend. But Bristol Rovers will be a tough away test for Elliot’s team, with the Pirates sitting up in 16th place, five points ahead of Crawley.

The hosts will also be looking for revenge, with their surprise defeat to Crawley in last season's EFL trophy knockout stage, with Rovers being a league higher than Crawley.

Looking towards the game, Elliot said: “It’s going to be a tough game, it’s a brilliant atmosphere down there. They’re a very good team, very robust, very physical but also can play.

“I think the challenge for us is to go to these places now with the confidence we’ve built in the last few games and make sure we have that mentality to know to get any points away from home at this level is tough.

“We need to go there and really imprint ourselves on the game in terms of our mentality and our bravery on the ball but also our bravery out of possession, keeping a good line, be more aggressive higher up, and just keep improving the things we’ve improved on.

“We need to get better from set pieces, because at this level it is such a big thing, but what has been good is our defensive line and shape from in-play is getting better and better, and we need to make sure we not only continue with that but get more aggressive with it.”

Elliot also praised the atmosphere at the Memorial Stadium, as he said: “It has a really good atmosphere, when it gets going it gets going well, it’s a big club supported well. I played there a few times and it is always a really good place to play.

“On the flip side is that these are the games you want to go to. The step up in going to some of the away grounds you go to is big crowds, big clubs, good atmospheres and I think the lads thrive on that.

“I want us to go there and attack the game, make sure when the game finishes after 90 minutes we’ve given absolutely everything.”

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Last week’s draw against a strong, inform Huddersfield team showed the improvement in Elliot’s team from previous games, and will hopefully be the building block for more great results, starting this weekend.

Elliot said: “The Huddersfield game zapped everything out of us. But that’s what you have to do to get points at this level, especially as we made this step up and playing against some of these teams and clubs that have been established higher up.

“The big thing for me is from that game had absolutely everything on Saturday, our physical data was the best it’s been in terms of our high intensity running, it shows the lads are working, willing to run, willing to work, and I felt in transition moments when we did lose the ball, we got men around the ball really quickly.

“What I took from the game is that the lads didn’t let their heads drop. When previously we have conceded first, or teams have pulled things back it’s knocked us but even though it’s disappointing to lose two leads I thought we still reacted well to the go on and get the second goal, and to get through and get a point.”

Elliot has had to deal with a very busy patch of games, with league and cup games coming along at a rapid pace, something that has been a challenge to deal with, especially for a new manager.

He said: “I’ve been in five weeks now, and it’s the ninth game (Wycombe), so it’s non-stop and it would be great to have more time on the training pitch with the lads because we feel like we are patching people up and we are not able to get everyone on the pitch all the time because the knocks we’ve got.

“On the flip side to that, the mentality of the group has been exceptional. Players have been playing with knocks and issues and are still rolling out every single week for us.

“There’s pros and cons to everything, but we can’t worry about that, we’ve just got to attack Saturday in every way possible. If we want to survive at this level, we can’t survive by sitting back and by hoping to nick results. We need to have a positive attacking mentality, especially to go to score goals.”

The number of games played has had an impact on the Reds squad, with there still being many injuries and players with knocks. But there is a positive with Tyreece John-Jules having grabbed his first minutes in a Crawley shirt.

On if anyone would be back, Elliot said: “No, not as it stands. Obviously Ty (John-Jules) got minutes in the cup game which was brilliant. We won’t get carried away as that is his first 30 minutes in ten months, we’ve got to be really careful with Ty because he’s showed glimpses of what an exciting player he would be, but we want to make sure he is on the pitch as much as possible.”