Rovers year to close on high?
YOU will recognise the sensation I’m sure; you have been driving for, say ten or fifteen minutes, when that voice inside your head suddenly perks up...
“You did lock the front door didn’t you ?”.
Similarly, I will accept “switched off the hair straighteners/set the alarm/unplugged the iron/turned off the grill*” *delete as appropriate.
When, as a Rovers fan you arrive at a game only to discover that Charlie Mulgrew has had a “problem” in the pre-match warm-up and Elliott Ward is in the starting line up; there starts a nervous shudder, beginning at the shoulders, reverberating down the spine and leaving your heart pulsing in the manner of someone who has received a £100 Starbucks voucher for Christmas and has blown the lot on Double Espressos in one sitting.That was the scenario at 1.55pm last Saturday ahead of the Northampton game.
That said, Elliott Ward was far from Rovers’ biggest problem against Northampton. The whole team looked somewhat sluggish, out fought, outmuscled and struggling to cope with the direct tactics of a Northampton Town side doing simple things, simply but effectively.
I expect Craig Conway will still be waking up in the middle of the night with cold sweats wondering quite how he tied up his own feet to such an extent that when presented with an open goal he chose to hit the side netting. As for *THAT* penalty from Marcus Antonsson; the stuttering run up was more suited to a Strictly Come Dancing routine and the outcome delivered a wholly predictable hash worthy of a Boxing Day frying pan, laden with stale turkey, yesterday’s roasties and a smattering of brussels sprouts.
The point saw the run of six consecutive wins ended and in the shadow of Franklin Gardens, an overwhelming sense that hard as they might try, Rovers were determined to ruck it up, failing to convert easily when within sight of the posts.
These slip ups were not the fault of Elliott Ward and the “fan” who shared his opinion at full time was not watching the same game as your correspondent. I do despair sometimes at the behaviour of some of our alleged “supporters”; this on the back of six wins and a draw. Heaven forbid we ever lose six on the bounce…as we once did under that notoriously hopeless leader, one Kenneth M Dalglish.
Rochdale at home on Boxing Day was a sharp reminder that festive fixtures in the third tier are more prosaic than those of days of yore. Ensconced in the relegation spots, they threatened a banana skin to rival those experienced already this season when Rovers struggled against the likes of both AFC Wimbledon and Plymouth Argyle.
However, a throwback to the halcyon days of the Premier League was the pre-match sight of huge queues stretching out from both the ticket office and the collection window. It seemed that everyone had persuaded a family member or friend to join them at Ewood. I saw Tim Farron in the lengthy collection queue; naturally somewhere towards the centre but seemingly resigned to his fate as a latecomer to this particular contest.
The game was scrappy, bitty, fragmented and rarely threatened to linger in the memory longer than yesterday’s weather forecast. That it was settled by an own goal and a penalty was entirely in keeping with its status. Marcus Antonsson I trust watched the dispatch of the spot kick with keen interest. That Rovers deserved three points was not really up for debate, but the final whistle was nonetheless as warmly received as the half time selection box chocolate.
So 2017 will end on Saturday with a home fixture against promotion rivals Scunthorpe Utd; not a sentence I expected to type pre-season if I am being truly honest and offers the potential to climb into the automatic promotion spots should Shrewsbury Town slip up away from home against Rovers’ opening day nemesis Southend Utd…and there’s another!
And 2018 will open up with a New Year’s Day visit to Rotherham, a fixture that will surely resonate with Richie Smallwood in particular. I still recall clearly the Rotherham fan, who after last season’s dreary encounter, raised a chuckle with his wholly accurate summation to nearby Rovers fans; “…at least tha’ll know where to come next season…”
Rovers have already beaten each of these teams earlier this season and six points more from these two fixtures would set up the mid-January clash with Shrewsbury Town quite beautifully. The difference between automatic promotion and play-off aspirations could well rest on it.
Had someone asked me at the beginning of August, if at the half-way point of the season I would shake hands on being 3rd place, just one point behind second - the answer would be a categorical, unqualified “yes”.
I am pleasantly surprised that we are very much in the mix for automatic promotion, I am delighted that Bradley Dack already looks like a shoe-in for player of the season, but at heart I am a Rovers fan – unlike our absentee owners’ day job, you NEVER count your chickens.
Have a Very Happy New Year. AN inevitable loss to Spurs that we could only sit back and admire, kicked off our Christmas period.
Harry Kane, back to winning ways, put three past us with such ease that we could only applaud.
And the applause extends even further to Pochettino, who well and truly read our game from the off.
They’re just an unstoppable force which kind of gave us that reality we’ve been trying to avoid - perhaps the last Champions league spot might be a bit of a stretch after all.
We’re always going to have to have moments where we hold our hands up and admit that some teams are just better than us, and that they really were.
Fast forward to Boxing Day, and we were giving Manchester United a run for their money in a wonderful whirlwind of a first half.
For the first time ever I sat behind enemy lines due to not being able to obtain a ticket in the away end and I cannot begin to describe how difficult it was to stay quiet after Defour’s screamer of a free kick.