Garner built solid foundations but results cost him his job
FLEETWOOD Town delivered the fatal blow. Ben Garner’s time at Bristol Rovers is over.
His team were well beaten both by The Trawlermen and the conditions, as the Pirates sank meekly to a 4-1 defeat at the Mem on Saturday which proved the final act in a difficult 11 months in charge.
That Saturday’s game could be Garner’s last seemed improbable to impossible a week ago, after the FA Cup win at Walsall, yet the decision also feels right.
A summer overhaul did not change his fortunes, Rovers’ flaws remained and Wael Al-Qadi had seen enough. Less than 90 minutes after full time, the club announced Garner’s sacking.
The world of football spins rapidly and the Gas have aspirations of battling in the top half, not the lower reaches of the League One standings.
Garner had been warned internally about Rovers’ form across the opening two months of the season, but his post-match message of determination to rectify the defeat in the coming week indicated his feeling that he had not yet run out of lives.
The manner of the defeat to Joey Barton’s Fleetwood, however, undoubtedly hastened this decision. The utterly grim weather at the Mem was somehow less depressing than Rovers’ shambolic first-half display in the torrential rain and howling wind of change.
Garner had irked supporters with his post-match comments after previous heavy defeats where blame was largely shifted to the officials, but under leaden skies on Saturday he admitted it was impossible to put a positive spin on the performance. Culpability lay only with him and his players.
With club president Al-Qadi watching in Jordan, CEO Martyn Starnes was tasked with relaying the news to Garner, and most will have sympathy for the now former Gas boss, whose commitment to the job and desperation to succeed was demonstrated by his decision to relocate his young family from Birmingham to Bristol before the start of the season.
The effort was never lacking and Gasheads endorsed the plans he attempted to enact, but the execution of those plans ultimately failed.
It took 13 games to get his first win - a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Blackpool in February -
and there have been brief moments since that indicated the initial pain may spark long-term gain for the Gas.
Sunderland were beaten on the eve of lockdown and held to a draw on the opening day of the next season six months later.
League leaders Lincoln City were toppled in October before a brave win at Shrewsbury Town made it five games unbeaten in all competitions.
And even on his final day, among the malaise, there was one piece of perfect play for Josh Grant’s goal. That, sadly, proved to be just fleeting respite from an inexorable slide towards a dismal defeat - the 15th and final loss of his tenure.
He needed to start the season fast after the dramatic plunge out of play-off contention before lockdown curtailed the 2019/20 campaign, and three wins from 11 in the league this term was well short of requirements.
Upon replacing Graham Coughlan in December, Garner was eager to leave a legacy at Rov
ers, and to an extent he succeeded in that aim. History at a glance will not reflect kindly on Garner’s tenure, with his six wins amounting to an 18 per cent win rate.
But the 40-year-old has laid foundations which will make the club a better proposition for his successor.
New training ground The Quarters bears Garner’s fingerprints, and his efforts to professionalise the playing operation will give the new manager better resources than any previous Gas boss.
They will benefit from a bolstered staff boasting a team of analysts, nutritionists and strength and conditioning coaches.
There is also a talented squad of players to choose from, but Garner has paid the price for failing to transform his best-laid plans into cohesion on the pitch and, most importantly, points.
There were moments of resilience which earned results, with the wins at Sincil Bank and New Meadow among the limited selection of highlights on the pitch.
But digging out victories through endeavour alone proved to be unsustainable amid a total lack of fluency in possession as the promise of entertaining, attacking football went unfulfilled.
Simply put, Garner was not lacking in good ideas, but he lacked good football and one Gashead summed up Al-Qadi’s ruthless call perfectly on social media.
“It’s not nice, but it’s the right decision,” they opined.
Garner is unlikely to be out of the game for long.
Offers of coaching roles will not be in short supply and he will hope to use this as a learning experience rather than a defining period in his career in a negative sense.
The road back to managing at this level appears a long one, though.
For Rovers, the search is now on for the 34th permanent boss in their history, and with the team winless in four League One games and hovering above the bottom four in 18th place, there is little margin for error this time.