AWAY THE GAS
BY DARREN STOBBS
With the new year now with us and halfway through a difficult season so far, myself and Gasheads alike will see this as an opportunity for a fresh start to put the footballing disaster of 2025 behind us.
There was no better opportunity to start this than at fellow strugglers Shrewsbury Town, themselves on a poor run of results and with the feeling our own terrible form had to end somewhere.
We set off at 9:15am from The Mem on a very quiet coach for most of the way. I couldn’t help but think that the evening before may have been celebrated well into the night for some, I hold my hands up – I was guilty of that as well, although not planned!
We stopped at Hilton Park Services for 45 minutes and then arrived in Shrewsbury for 12:20pm.
The club bar, which forms part of the fanzone has always welcomed Rovers fans in the past, and this season was no different. The friendly bar staff and a mix of home and away fans was no issue. Live football was being shown on the many TV’s and drinks were served in glasses. They had a real ale available called ‘The Spirit of 79’ at a reasonable price of £4.80p. Lager and cider was £4.30p a pint.
The fanzone had a burger van selling all the usual varieties, but I decided to try something inside the ground instead.
Various flavoured pies were on offer at a decent price of £4.50p and they didn’t to disappoint. A steak and ale pie had a decent amount of beef inside and piping hot.Bovril and other hot drinks were £2.50p each.
As I was taking my seat, I was lucky not to lose all the Bovril as a stray ball came flying in my direction!
On to the match and the first half was very even but was lacking in quality from either side. Shrewsbury hit the post through former Rovers striker John Marquis. Rovers then had a penalty given but was ruled out for Fabrizio Cavegn being in an offside position.
The second half proved to be a much better flow to the game, and we created some very good forward play. Cavegn scored his first goal when a mix up at the back let him in for an easy tap in. The second was set up
by Shaq Forde down the right with a low cross and Cavegn put in from six yards out.
Then for his hat trick, a similar move by Senior then found the Swiss striker at the back post to put in from close range. Cavegn was a clear Man of the Match, including the vote on the Supporters Club coach, but Forde was also very good, causing the Shrewsbury defence many problems. It was definitely the correct decision to put him back in the Rovers lineup after his sending off against Bromley, to put a wrong right.
Attendance: 5,872 which includes 611 Rovers fans.
Another important factor was keeping a clean sheet in the closing stages of the match. It was a great relief at the full time whistle, with wild scenes in the away end, realising what winning was like again! Onwards and upwards into 2026.
We left the ground at 5:10pm and went straight back to The Mem arriving at 7:30pm.
