This could prove to be a vital result in the final reckoning

OVER the years the very mention of Accrington Stanley has been seen as a bit of a joke in the football world but they have never been a laughing matter for Rovers fans.

For some reason they have been a bit of a bogey team for us so to go there on a miserable wet January day when they are having one of their best-ever seasons in the league and the FA Cup filled me with trepidation. Therefore, I will take this hard-earned point any time.

It may turn out to be vital come judgement day at the end of the season and also it keeps the feelgood factor going under the Graham Coughlan regime as he has now gone three away games unbeaten.

It was another indication these players are willing to give everything for the new manager and there is certainly more of a positive feeling around the place, especially with the added plus of going well in the Checkatrade Trophy.

The bonus of having a defensive coach as the manager is now there for all to see as Rovers have certainly tightened up since Coughlan took over. Having said that, it took another superb performance from Jack Bonham to keep a clean sheet. Let’s hope there were no spies from Leeds or anywhere else watching him with a view to buying him over the next month.

I doubt if there have been too many spies watching Rovers at their training ground in recent years but if there were, they would see Tom Nichols scoring plenty of goals in practice matches.

Saturday was always going to be tough on the heavy pitch and it was good that Tareiq Holmes-Dennis got another very good 60 minutes under his belt. When he is fully fit we should have a decent player for that left flank.

It does not seem as if there will be many comings and goings through the Rovers swing door in the transfer window. However, while I think GC is doing a great job, I am a bit concerned that three of our more creative players in Danny Leadbitter, Chris Lines and Kyle Bennett (is he injured?) don’t seem to be flavour of the month at the moment. I would hate to see them leave. They are all the sort of players I would like to see in home games as we attempt to get the wins needed to get us out of trouble. However, I am delighted we are where we are after that dark December day when we lost 4-0 to Doncaster.