THE GAME
A tenth consecutive league defeat saw Head Coach Darrell Clarke’s tenure, in his second spell at the club, come to an end at 6.00pm Saturday evening following a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Swindon Town.
There’s no doubt that the visitors thoroughly deserved their win and if it hadn’t been for goalkeeper Luke Southwood the margin of victory would have been greater.
Alfie Chang hit a shot wide of the target before Swindon took a hold on the game they never relinquished. There were 16 minutes on the clock when the ball fell to Joe Snowdon on the edge of the area and he rifled a left foot shot into the net.
Former Rovers midfielder Ollie Clarke headed home from a Finly Munroe corner on 28 minutes to double Swindon’s lead while Aaron Drinan added a third five minutes later when he ran on to Snowdon’s through ball and whipped a shot past Southwood.
Shortly afterwards Rovers were down to ten men as Kacper Lopata was red carded following a late challenge on Gavin Kilkenny.
Clarke made a triple substitution at the break, but it made little difference and Swindon might have added more goals had it not been for Southwood.
The visitors were also reduced to ten men when Drinan, booked in the first half for his goal celebration in front of Gasheads on the Thatchers terrace, picked up a second yellow for alleged simulation when he went to ground as he and Alfie Kilgour challenged for a loose ball in the box.
Southwood saved from Kilkenny and Snowdon saw a shot blocked before the referee’s whistle signalled the end of a miserable 90 minutes for Rovers.
WHAT WAS SAID
There were no post match interviews following the Swindon game and at 6.00pm the club issued the following statement.
‘Bristol Rovers FC can confirm that Men’s First Team Head Coach Darrell Clarke and Assistant Head Coach Jon Stead have been relieved of their duties.
‘The Club would like to place on record our sincere thanks to Darrell and Jon for their hard work and efforts. Darrell’s legacy at the Club is assured and he will always be warmly welcomed at The Memorial Stadium.
‘The process to recruit a successor is underway and the Club will be making no further comment at this time.’
‘From my point of view, where you score a brilliant finish like that, it’s an absolutely unbelievable goal and your supporters are right down the other end. You get booked for celebrating and I know we were warned about that at the start but that didn’t seem right.
In the second half we should have had two clear penalties, completely and utterly. One handball that I’ve never seen anything likeit – where he took the lace out of the ball. That’s another penalty on Aaron Drinanand he gets another yellow, which you can’t go against.
‘I’m going to lose him for, I don’t know however many games when I think the referee’s made a terrible mistake. I’ll probably be in trouble for what I’ve said. I don’t really care. I think it’s an abomination. It’s totally ruined the game for me.’ Swindon boss Ian Holloway
