Ruel Sotiriou is pleased with how his life at Bristol Rovers has gone despite an early injury setback.
The Cypriot emerged through the academy at Leyton Orient and made a total of 176 appearances for the Brisbane Road side, but finally made his first permanent switch in football to head to the Mem. Since arriving in Bristol, he has made 10 appearances and has started to contribute in front of goal, scoring against Barnsley.
He was one of many new faces through the door across the summer for Matt Taylor as he sought to improve upon The Gas’ 15th-place finish last season. Unfortunately, that hasn’t gone to plan so far, with only 10 points on the board and sit in 18th ahead of their weekend game against Burton Albion.
The Australian manager was rumoured to be on his way out should Rovers fail to get out of their losing run and admitted he had an honest conversation with his squad ahead of their win against Charlton Athletic. Sotiriou played 71 minutes against the Addicks and spoke to Bristol Live’s Dan Hargraves about how he has fared so far.
He said: “I first started at Rotherham United but I was nowhere near ready to start a game. Probably the last two or three I’ve felt really good. I’ve felt like I can play full 90-minute games.
“Obviously I want to score goals and I want to get assists as well but right now I’m happy with the progress, especially missing a whole chunk of pre-season and then the first few games I felt miles off it. But now I feel really good in a good place.
“My Barnsley goal just came from a run I always make and it just luckily fell to me. Even Scotty [Sinclair]’s goal the other day against Wycombe Wanderers, I just pressed and got back into position and it was an easy goal. It’s a big part of my game.
“[Against Charlton] I had, not a different position, but I had to press in a different position and then get back into my position but I worked well,”
“Obviously I just want to win games. I want to win. I want to get us far up the table and I said it before, there’s no point aiming for mediocrity. As long as we’re winning everyone’s happy.”
The 24-year-old, who can play up front, in attacking midfield or on either wing, has played 503 minutes in the League One season but has yet to play a full 90. He has had fitness issues this season after tearing his calf in a pre-season friendly, which saw him miss out on the club’s curtain raiser against Northampton Town.
Reflecting on the club as a whole since arriving, Sotiriou said: “The group’s top. I really like the group. There’s a lot of people especially from the London area as well. It’s one big group and I’m really happy here.
“I just needed to get out and experience something new. It was a different motivation to go somewhere new and Bristol Rovers was the club I chose.
“When I came to sign, the day I signed I went to look at a place. So I was only in the hotel for a week or two. I got lucky.”
Writer’s View
Ruel Sotiriou has fared reasonably well since arriving at Bristol Rovers. Whilst it has been far from ideal for the club results-wise, it would be fair to expect them to pick up form in the coming months. Introducing 16 new players would require a lot of adjusting and so far it is yet to truly come into fruition and could cost Matt Taylor his job in the coming fixtures. Burton are yet to win this season and picking up another three points tomorrow will be a big boost to the under-pressure manager.
The 24-year-old has been somewhat lucky in terms of game time due to the injuries to talisman Chris Martin. Both him and fellow summer signing Promise Omochere from Fleetwood Town could be seen as the big beneficiaries, with both notching up six goal contributions between them. The latter, who signed for a club-record fee, was the deciding factor in the game against Charlton and Rovers will look to him again to be the difference maker when they travel to The Pirelli Stadium.
