Smash and grab brought Bristol Rovers victory as Hartlepool somehow left BS7 with nothing. Aaron Collins smashed the door down and Antony Evans grabbed the loot as the Gas ran for the getaway car with 3 points.
A performance full of promise against Peterborough translated into expectant optimism by the time Hartlepool arrived at the Mem. An above par showing in Cambridgeshire despite a weakened line up filled Gasheads with hope, and this was boosted no end by Barton’s injury revelations on Friday.
It seemed as though Rovers have been without most of their first choice XI for most of the campaign, so to hear of the return of most of them was music to supporters’ ears.
Connor Taylor back to shore up defence was the pick of the bunch, with Josh Grant, Alfie Kilgour and Anssi Jaakkola amongst other notable returnees. I worried though that we had made too many changes and would be rustier than we needed to be.
It must also be said though that Nick Anderton did not deserve to lose his place in the XI. He has been a leader and a warrior of late, putting in confident and consistent performances.
Rovers combined rustiness with poor defensive play for the majority of the first half and failed to make any impression on the game. It was Hartlepool with the better chances, with a Ferguson delivery going begging and a Harries block denying them the opener.
Harries, though, was poor and was lucky not to be sent off in the first 45. After a yellow card for a clumsy tackle, he backed into an attacker in the box and was equally fortunate not to concede a penalty. Anderton should surely have started and protected Harries from further bookings, which have carried him closer towards another ban.
Aside from Taylor, Kilgour and Harry Anderson looked even more off the pace and as though they’d not played together before. They may have been rusty, but in my opinion the defensive issues are on Barton for his selections. Changing an entire defence and slotting in five players who hadn’t played competitive football for over a month was a risky move.
There were selection issues further forward too. Evans, deployed in a deeper role alongside Paul Coutts, would have been much better suited to the freer role that Sam Nicholson took up.
That, in turn, did not allow Nicholson to do what he does best and run at players, but also left Rovers more open without a solid midfield partner for Coutts. Tough, physical games like this are not the time for Evans to play in a defensive position – he is better deployed further forward, breaking down stubborn opposition.
Whatever our tactics, they were hindered by the above selection issues, but made worse by our failure to provide service to new signing Ryan Loft. The 6ft 3 frontman needs balls to feet, balls into the channel or even in the air, but he got next to nothing on Saturday.
Long balls wide were sent towards the wing backs, which caused little problems with Hartlepool defenders stationed wide to counter this. Rovers must do better to get Loft into the game if he’s to make the impact we know he can.
It could have been so much worse. Our lacklustre display until the 87th minute could have been worsened if it had not been for James Belshaw.
The Rovers No1 made several fine saves and somehow ensured Hartlepool failed to find the net. There were six golden Hartlepool chances before Rovers scored, and the men in red and black must have wondered how they didn’t manage to take the game away from the hosts.
Barton has previously baffled me with substitutions and sometimes his lack of them. It was the latter that irritated me on Saturday. Rovers had fired blanks for most of the evening and never looked like troubling Ben Killip in the Hartlepool goal. We had a strong bench too, with Luke Thomas amongst the options, who had looked lively the week prior.
So why then, don’t we make changes? On any other day, to a stronger team, we would have lost that and Barton surely would have regretted not trying something different. With many of those on the pitch without match fitness and any game time for over a month, it’s odd that we didn’t put some fresh legs into the game and try to save late heart attacks and win the game earlier.
There are two sides to every story though, and the flip side to this coin is that we managed to win whilst not playing well. Grinding out or stealing results is a hallmark of any good team. Make no mistake, a win is a win and you’d take that every week.
The individual brilliance we have at the top end of the pitch can win us tight games and that’s exactly what happened on Saturday. I’m certainly not bemoaning the result, quite the opposite, but rather pointing out we will need to improve quickly if we are to reach the play-offs.
For Collins, the enforced five-week absence couldn’t have come at a worse time. Fresh from a strong scoring run and in great form, he would have wanted to play week in week out to cement that.
But any worries he had about the break hindering him were blown away with his emphatic strike. He was the only Rovers player to deserve a goal, having been the sole shining light of a dire first three-quarters of the game.
Evans is unlike any other footballer Rovers have seen in recent times. I have waxed lyrical on his delivery, his finishing and his potential for many weeks and this week’s column is no different.
Whatever his performance level, he still manages to impact the game positively. He just needs that one opportunity to make the difference. Give that man a new contract and let him write his own numbers; whatever it takes to tie his future to north Bristol.
With a win in the bank, there are plenty more positives than negatives when looking ahead.
Evans and Collins are scoring for fun, the injury list has drastically reduced in size and we finally have a mobile striker to bed in to the team in Loft.
The attacking options we possess are mouth-watering for this level and if we can find form, we have a real chance of doing something special. We may be 16th in the league, but the reality is that if we win our games in hand, we could find ourselves right on the cusp of the play-offs.
Now the dust has settled on a first win of 2022, attention turns to Swindon away. What a fixture this will be, with Rovers already having sold over 2,000 tickets and surely selling out the remainder of our 2,500 allocation. This has been a spicy fixture over the years and with both sides having won two of their last three, it will be no different on the weekend.
Ben Garner, who was unfairly lambasted for his time at the Gas, will want to do the double over us and it is up to Barton and the players to ensure that does not happen. The Rovers troops will be bang up for this one and I think we could see quite the game too – let’s hope we’re on the winning end of it this time.
SIGN UP: For our newsletter to receive more exclusive Bristol Rovers content
