Bristol Rovers frustrated but kept themselves in it, despite taking one point from six last week. A shock loss was followed by a decent draw, but ultimately two golden opportunities were missed.
Oldham on a Tuesday night is hardly the trip of dreams, but it was one we expected to bear more fruit than it did. Joey Barton warned that teams at the bottom of the footballing pyramid are the toughest to face given they’re fighting for their lives. He wasn’t wrong, but Rovers played into Oldham’s hands.
The Latics scoring almost as soon as we’d kicked off was a real kick in the teeth. Not least for those who had travelled almost 200 miles, only for their team to hand the opposition the advantage right from the off. We should have expected the early aggression and fight that we saw from the hosts, but instead we resembled a rabbit in headlights.
Tactically, Oldham got it right. They got men behind the ball rapidly and didn’t allow Rovers time to build attacks. The Latics stationed men in vacant areas either side of our midfield, who were in a position to receive the ball unchallenged and advance play into dangerous attacks. That’s seriously effective when you have the threat of Davis Keillor-Dunn and Dylan Bahamboula upfront.
We didn’t recover a foothold in the game and allowed them a second goal with another ruthless Keillor-Dunn finish. Let’s be honest, it could have been three or four and we were lucky Oldham didn’t have more with a Callum Whelan shot somehow ruled as not having crossed the line.
We were defensively all at sea, particularly on that left-hand side and this was characterised by Cian Harries. He had fault for the first and allowed Oldham to run at will down their right-hand side. Nick Anderton played his part in that too though – he and Harries had been well and truly Baham-boozled.
A new contract for Luca Hoole on Friday was welcome news and somewhat lifted the mood after the mess of Tuesday night.
In pre-season, Rovers were looking for a right-back and Barton said some of the fringe players had the opportunity to stop him going into the transfer market. Hoole did just that and ultimately has been rewarded for rising to that challenge. If he can make quicker decisions in attacking phases of play, he’ll be quite some player.
Another game brings another opportunity and Mansfield rolled into town on red-hot form. Rovers needed a big improvement to take something from the game and banish Oldham from the memory. It didn’t look like we’d improved much on the pitch in the first half, but thankfully conditions stopped Mansfield playing much of their football.
The opposition were measured in the press early on, making Rovers’ backline nervous and having to play quick balls to escape trouble. The Stags were good without the ball, taking up aggressive positions and cutting out passing lines for Rovers. We hadn’t learnt much from Tuesday, with no foothold in the game and failing to get our foot on the ball and enjoy some possession. Still, 0-0 at half time against the form team of the 72 is not a bad effort.
Barton’s team talk looked to have done the trick as we managed to exert some dominance on Mansfield.
We looked the more likely, got ourselves much higher up the pitch and found ourselves in some dangerous positions. It just seemed that final pass or that killer shot was lacking. There were numerous moments where the final ball was off, where we chose the wrong option or we couldn’t get the ball out from under our feet.
Of course, we should have had a penalty too. How that was not given is beyond every Gashead in the stadium, and in all likelihood, beyond most Stags fans too.
The standard of refereeing has been consistently poor for the whole season, and only Bobby Madeley comes out of officiating a Rovers game with any credit. The gulf in standard between top officials and those that frequent the lower leagues is plain for all to see.
But you cannot blame our failure to win on that penalty call alone. As many have pointed out, these decisions even themselves out and you only have to point to Tuesday and Oldham’s misfortune with the officials to see why.
Instead, we needed to click better and earlier in the game, get going from the off instead of half-time and show some more desire. Credit to the players, they improved in difficult conditions, but it wasn’t enough.
After no wins and one point from six in a week, Rovers are still in it. We’re 14th, but have up to three games in hand on our play-off rivals. We’ve just taken a point from the form team in the league and did so a week earlier when we faced Sutton. Teams around us have dropped points too, with only Exeter securing maximum points from the week’s two fixtures.
That though, is not enough to get us to where we want to be. Rovers need to get ahead of the curve, and with every dropped point, that curve becomes further away. That in turn adds extra pressure to every game week and none more so than this week.
Sutton on Tuesday night represents the ideal opportunity to get back ahead of that curve. We’ve beaten them before on our own patch, and we will back ourselves to do that again. Sure, Sutton represents a stern examination of our physical and footballing qualities, but in our own ground we know we can do the business if we perform well.
It’ll be a different kind of game than the recent reverse fixture, with no firm and bouncy pitch to contend with. On a bigger pitch, we’ll have more space to get the ball down and pass it. We’ll need to be at our best though. This is a must-win too as one of our games in hand. Win, and we’re back on track and have taken points off our rivals.
Stevenage away is another in that must-win category and it comes with the added spice of being the first Paul Tisdale reunion since his sacking almost exactly a year ago today.
It’s also a reunion with former players Zain Westbrooke, James Daly, Ed Upson and fan favourite Chris Lines. Many eyes will be on the pre-match build up, with Barton having publicly blasted his opposite number’s methods and Tisdale threatening legal action in return.
The Gas will be well supported despite the lengthy journey. Wherever we’ve gone, we’ve taken big numbers and the fanbase has been superb this season.
We can do our bit by backing the boys to the hills and back again and give the team all the support we can. Whether the results are good or bad, we’re at the business end of the season and have no time to waste on a bad result or performance; it’s the next one that counts and we will play our part in that.
It’s getting towards do or die time for Rovers, with so much ground to make up. One week has the ability to make or break our season. With six points on offer this week, let’s hope we can take all of them to get back on track.
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