OLLIE: LET’S RACE FOR PLAY-OFFS
Rovers keen to finish with a flourish again
THE Beast from the East may have blanketed the country with snow in the past week but Ollie Clarke spies the green shoots of recovery at Bristol Rovers.
We’ve reached spring, as far as the calendar is concerned, and, with just over nine weeks to go, Clarke believes the Pirates are placed for a late assault on the play-offs.
Darrell Clarke’s men have proved to be strong finishers in recent seasons.
They won six of their last ten in League One last term, seven of their last ten during their 2015-16 League Two promotion season and six of their last ten again in 2014-15, as they returned to the EFL via the National League play-offs.
Reliable midfielder Clarke has no qualms in drawing on the past for inspiration.
“We’ve always known that, if we give ourselves a fighting chance of something to play for come the end of the season, we’ll always pick our form up,” said the 25-year-old.
“I think we started quite inconsistently this season and we took some heavy defeats at times, but we all knew we weren’t a million miles away from where we wanted to be.
“It was just about getting the right balance as a side and, recently, we’ve managed to get that. We knew what we were capable of, getting towards this part of the season.
“At this time of year, the weather changes and everyone gets that feel-good factor back. If got something to play for, the momentum you can get through the fans and through the club is huge.
“That’s probably what’s pulled us over the line in previous years and with the squad we’ve got, we should be looking to better last season’s performance (Rovers finished tenth).”
Rosier
Before this weekend, they lay 12th, seven points off the playoffs with a dozen games to go.
The current outlook is certainly a lot rosier than earlier in the season, when they picked up just two league wins across November and December.
The first half of the campaign came as something of a shock to Clarke and Co.
“I think you know that, at some point, you’re going to have a bad spell,” he said. “For one reason or another, we were conceding a lot of sloppy goals and it took a lot of hard work to come out of the other end.
“We all knew we were capable of doing better but, at the time, there were silly individual errors or decisions going against you and you can’t help that.
“In the long run, that’s made us all mentally stronger and I think, on our day, we’re capable of competing with the best in the league.
“Since Christmas, we’ve given everyone a good match and we haven’t been conceding the goals we were doing before.
“I don’t see why we can’t get to where we want to be.”
Still a young man, local lad Clarke is the longest-serving player at the Memorial Stadiyou’ve um and is now vice-captain behind Wales international Tom Lockyer.
This term, the academy graduate has also been asked to contribute more defensively.
It’s a side of the game he is convinced Rovers need to get right if they’re to finish with a flourish.
Clarke added: “At times, we’re the architects of our own downfall. Sometimes, we get a little carried away with our forward play and leave ourselves a bit open.
“I think we need to give ourselves the best possible chance of winning by being tighter defensively, taking the lead and being a bit more clinical when we get our chances.
“I think that’s the difference between the top sides and midtable sides.”