Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Backing from fans is electric – Rodman
after (James Clarke’s) winner at home the other day was fantastic – I said to Tom Lockyer that the place was going to erupt.
“That’s why I wanted to come to a club like Bristol Rovers because the atmosphere can be electric and it was like that against Fleetwood.
“We want to put in performances and get results that can bring more days like that.”
Rodman, who joined from Shrewsbury in the summer, initially struggled for regular football this season, flitting in and out of the team under former manager Darrell Clarke.
Yet he has started every game under caretaker boss Graham Coughlan and has repaid that faith with two goals in three matches, and the 31-year-old feels he is benefiting from consistency.
He said: “One of the main things Cogs (Coughlan) has said that if you’ve got the jersey, the shirt is yours to lose and no one wants to lose the shirt once they’ve got it.
“Everyone is doing everything they can to keep that and I think some of the continuity and confidence building you can get from that continuity is obviously showing in some of the performances.
“I think there’s a few of the lads, myself included, who would have benefited more from playing more regular minutes and having that continuity and hopefully that’s showing on the pitch.”
He added: “Cogs and Chris Hargreaves have been fantastic with me. As I said, the fitness and playing regularly, 90 minutes after 90 minutes and the continuity gives you more confidence and allows you to really up the levels. Hopefully we can continue to do that.”
Things seem a lot more rosy for the Pirates after two wins on the bounce, and Rodman admits the club was not a nice place to be before the Christmas period.
He said: “This is one of the main times that you look at the league and really take stock of where you’re at because there’s games coming thick and fast. If you come out of this with a few good wins, which we potentially could do, I think you can look at it as an absolutely vital period.
“The position we’re in, with obviously Darrell leaving, and everything going on with the club, it wasn’t a great place to be just before this period and there were a lot of games coming thick and fast. If we look at it from the other side of things, coming out with a couple of losses over this Christmas period could have put the club in a really bad place.
“The fact is the boys have dug in really well and ground out a few fantastic results and clawed our way out of the relegation zone, and we can put a bit more daylight between us and the relegation zone tomorrow.”
Non-League Blyth Spartans have insisted they are not endorsing the oppressive regime in North Korea after allowing a firm promoting trips there to advertise at their Croft Park home.
The National League North club found themselves in the spotlight after photographs of an advertising hoarding for a firm called Visit North Korea were shared on social media.
But commercial director Mark Scott, who revealed in the club’s match programme that he had set up the deal with Visit North Korea’s Tom Fowdy, a Chinese Studies graduate from Sunderland, says the move has nothing to do with the country’s politics.
He insisted: “We have had a little bit of, not abuse, but people making comments. We are promoting a business offering trips to North Korea, we are not endorsing the North Korea regime. But as I have said to a few people, if they’re wanting to promote the country and wanting people to visit, surely that’s a good thing?”
Scott admitted that the deal is the most unusual he has been involved in, and that it had come out of the blue.
He said: “We were on the way back from Nuneaton Borough on the team bus when I got an email asking about our prices and at that point, I didn’t know where it was from and who they were.
“Usually our advertisers are from a ten-mile radius, the local plumbers and electricians amongst a few bigger businesses.
“Then the guy told me it was all about promoting trips to North Korea and after we had talked about it, there was no legitimate reason to turn it down.”