What a brilliant turn-out by the ‘Gas’ at Bloomfield Road last Saturday. Approaching 1,200 fans travelling a 400mile round trip for a mid-table League 1 game was a fantastic effort even bearing in mind the undoubted ‘weekend away’ syndrome. A freezing cold 48 hours or so by the sea in Blackpool in the middle of January is not my idea of a holiday break; and thank you for travelling to support the team.
As it was the two teams on show gave everything but completely cancelled each other out with Rovers gaining a third consecutive point on the road. Probably the one player who I thought could have made a positive difference for us was the recently departed Billy Bodin and his trickiness, guile and goals were missed as much by the seaside as they were after his hamstring injury at the demolition of Northampton.
Fortunately Darrell and the Board moved quickly to sign a much-needed replacement with the capture of Bernard Mensah from National League promotion-chasers Aldershot Town. ‘Shots’ fans are clearly as distressed at losing him as we are at seeing our leading goalscorer depart for the second consecutive season but this time at least it seems we have got the transfer fee we wanted and the Manager appears able to spend the money as he wishes. As for Bernard, his first interview in the quartered shirt was most eloquent and he described himself as what seems to me to be a like-for-like replacement for Billy, a goalscoring winger who can play on either side and who likes to attack defenders. I can’t wait to see him get started, hopefully this afternoon. So, very best wishes to both Billy and Bernard with their new clubs.