Will the real Bristol Rovers please step forward today and deliver three home points please?
Last Saturday saw Rovers concede our ninth home defeat of the season which must be getting close to a record for the club. It was of course at the hands of probably the richest and best supported club in the division but, just as at the Stadium of Light in Graham Coughlan’s first game in charge, I thought that Sunderland were efficient and well-versed in all that they did rather than be particularly brilliant. Rovers by contrast were a pale shadow of the team that performed so well the previous Tuesday night at Fratton Park where only an own goal and a penalty miss denied us all the three points that we deserved.
The atmosphere at kick-off last Saturday was electric with a fantastic noise being created by the Clubhouse end but Rovers seemed flat after a good start and the ‘Achiles Heel’ of succumbing to set-pieces cost us dear yet again. I do feel sorry for those ‘Gasheads’ who cannot or do not follow the team away because they really are watching the lesser of two different sides at the present time. We have been better away than at home all season and thankfully have been supurb on the road since Graham took over being unbeaten since that rather unlucky defeat on Wearside in his opening game. Quite why Rovers are so unproductive here is a mystery that both Graham and Darrell Clarke before him have struggled to find the answer to. Perhaps we will get the answer this afternoon because we certainly need the points to try and climb out of the relegation zone. Our 3-0 victory at Bloomfield Road last November was probably the most comfortable of the season to date but the ‘Tangerines’ have improved considerably since then and are sure to pose a big threat as they, like Portsmouth and Sunderland before them, go chasing promotion/play-off points.
All that we can do as supporters is get behind the team again as everyone did last Saturday and hope that those in quarters today can turn in a match-winning HOME League performance for the first time this year. It’s long overdue but I know the lads are capable as the away displays prove it.
Up the Pirates!
Jim Chappell.