FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – NO.5: BRISTOL ROVERS AWAY

In, extended and out temporarily

With Kyle Joseph joining us on a year long loan from the team we put out of the Carabao on Tuesday night, we’ve now got a striker who is a bit over six feet tall. Karl says he’s got high energy, is pacey and a threat. Good luck to the young lad. Hope he can win a few in the air and hold the ball up a bit as that’s largely missing from our other strikers.

I’m trying to work out whether extending Jack Stevens’ contract by a year then immediately loaning him out to Port Vale is shrewd business or a little bit nuts. One thing is obvious though, it would have been a waste having him at the club along with Easty and our mullet man. Don’t laugh. They’re back with a modern re-boot where the hair at the back isn’t so long as it was in the 80s version. He’s ahead of the game in these parts.

Our opponents – ownership and finance

The Gas are owned by the Al Qadi family who took over in February 2016. They’re Jordanian investment bankers.

In March 2020 after the club announced debts of over £20m Rovers President Wael Al-Qadi told fans that he would protect the club and its staff. The family did this by capitalising the balance of a loan from the parent company Dwane Sports Ltd, owned by the Al Qadis, reducing net liabilities from £15.9m the year before to £1.8m. Consequently the share premium account shot up from £0.25m to £15m.  Their latest accounts show that net liabilities have increased again. They were £3.1m. Not a bad loss for a pandemic hit season.

Our opponents – on the field

They’re probably still coming down from cloud nine after their almost impossible finish to the 21/22 season when they nicked the final L2 automatic promotion place from Northampton on the finishing line. Of their last 12 games they only lost one, drew two and won nine. Replicated over the whole season that would have netted 111 points.

And then that final day. They needed to better Northampton’s result or if both teams won, their winning margin needed to be greater than that achieved by the Cobblers to the tune of at least five. A quarter of the way through the task had got even harder when Northampton were 3-0 ahead and Brizzle only 2-0 to the good. Yet they made it with five minutes of the 90 to spare because Northampton, having conceded just before half time, ran out of steam and couldn’t add to their tally. To say that there were “scenes” at the Memorial ground would be an understatement in the extreme.

They’re a very young side but now have the experienced John Marquis in their ranks.

Their start to the campaign has been mixed. In their opener they lost 2-1 at home to Forest Green who I think might surprise a few people. Last Saturday they hammered Burton away 4-0. The Brewers though are staking a strong early claim for the title of L1 whipping boys so perhaps that result isn’t quite as impressive as at first sight. In the first round of the Carabao Cup they went out 1-0 at L2 Crawley.

Not the most appealing

Excluding the Papa Johns and friendlies I have a great desire to get to every game although some have more pull than others. The best bit about Rovers away is the two pubs we frequent, the Annexe and the Drapers Arms micro pub. They’re certainly not top of the list of trips I most look forward to and I know of a few who don’t take much persuading to give it a swerve. Nevertheless I still bag tickets for all ticket games not long after they are released in the misguided belief that every fan of the Yellows is as addicted as me and that they’ll sell out immediately.

Tickets weren’t moving particularly fast when they went on sale and since then circumstances have conspired against us. First there was the train strike. The legal requirement is that they have to be announced 14 days before they take place. Tickets for the Rovers game went on sale long before the announcement. That screwed some fans but fair play to our ticket office who were good at giving refunds.

Then despite the kick off being announced as 15:00 and that time being printed on the tickets, a fair while later the police in their wisdom changed the start time to 12:30. I get that they have a concern about potential trouble between certain elements of supporters on either side but the timing of the time change stinks. No concern whatsoever that it might, and did, cock up some plans further.

Travelling by car from Oxfordshire this change is just a minor inconvenience though.

I have not even mentioned the ticket prices yet. They possibly have to be the biggest rip off we’ve experience for decades and I can understand why a boycott of sorts may have taken place. The view from the seats is awful. They’re housed in a tent of sorts. The view from the terraces is crap too. Prices: Seats £30 adults, £25 over 65s. Terrace £25 adults, £21 over 65s. The Gas are rapidly going down in my estimation.

Throw in that the terracing is uncovered with hardly anywhere to find shelter and the temperature is going to hit over 90 (I’m old school and still do Fahrenheit), the only reason to be there is to support my football team. I’m already thinking how oppressive it is going to be for all the players taking part in any game throughout the country. I suspect there will be many drinks breaks and on that note: “Supporters are advised to carry water and will be allowed into the ground for this game with their own plastic bottles, with the tops removed.” How very bloody kind. So easy to carry bottles around with no tops on them. Surely in these circumstances a bit more common sense could have been shown but no, we’re football fans and still at times get treated like shit – and for this privilege how much have we paid? Yes I know a plastic bottle or two have been thrown at games over the years but if any moron were to be stupid enough to do that in this heat instead of drinking the contents then identify, arrest, charge, ban and let the rest of us get on with it.

You can probably tell I’m not approaching this in the best frame of mind.

It was hot, very hot. The hottest we’ve ever been in an away ground?

Bristol Rovers 1 Oxford United 0

At least the journey to Horfield was enjoyable. Bibury, Tetbury, a Cotswold touristy thing. Any genuine tourist would have parked up and spent hours exploring the area. If that’s their thing of a Saturday then fair play. No doubt come the evening these types would be in a much happier frame of mind than I was. Anyone who doesn’t understand football would at this point ask why do it then? The answer obviously being that if we’d won I’d have ended up on a way bigger high than anyone who’d been browsing antique shops. (Sorry Mr Wallington).

Today was one of those bad days. A thoughtless summing up being: “utter shite” and “horrendous”. It would only be fair to rein that assessment in a little because we didn’t get hammered and only lost by a single goal. Also I suppose there’s the “someone is always worse off than you” school of thought. Thankfully I don’t support Manchester United.

Losing is bad enough but when you’re surrounded by much younger fans than I whose language for no reason whatsoever was embarrassing, it makes the whole experience even worse. During the game Rovers players who came near and their subs when getting their muscles ready in case they were called up were met with the c word, “your Mum’s a whore” and other brain dead loud comments. (NB: Couldn’t bring myself to say “warming up” in the circumstances) If I had a pound for every time I heard an Oxford player encouraged to “knock him out” I would have had enough for a very good night out to drown my sorrows. If they behave like this perhaps football fans deserve to be treated like shite after all. But we’re not all the same and perhaps if one had a chat with these lads individually you might find them to be decent sorts. Peer pressure has a lot to answer for. It’s easier to laugh at a (so-called) mate’s inane and offensive comments than point out that they’re coming over as a twat. There’s plenty of scope for humour when having a dig – that takes a bit of brain power though.

For the first twenty minutes or so we were the better team. Our game was playing longish cross field balls to the flanks and we were getting joy down the right. We were finding James Henry who was then finding Marcus Browne and we looked much the likelier team to score.

We came close after a quarter of an hour when Sam Long headed a corner on to the bar but other than that we didn’t really work the keeper in the first half, a Cameron Brannagan shot being little more than a back pass.

In contrast Simon Eastwood had to produce a very good flying save to turn over a Sam Finley shot hit from well outside the area. That was just after Long’s effort and gave warning that Rovers were improving.

Our standout player for me at this early stage was Elliott Moore. He was covering, winning tackles and also everything in the air that came his way.

We went behind in the 34^th minute and given the way we are playing at the moment (i.e. not creating many chances and not taking the rare ones we do) that was enough for Rovers who deservedly ran out winners.

A criticism rightly levelled at us in recent seasons is that at times we’ve been too soft and have got bullied out of games. I didn’t think that was the case here and had just begun to remark how we were getting stuck in and giving probably needless free-kicks away. It was a bit of a worry but in a way I liked it and at the time I said to my mate this is okay as long as we can defend those free-kicks. That was when Cameron Brannagan gave one away on the right flank. It was debatable whether it was merited or not but once awarded it has to be defended.

I was expecting it to be delivered directly into the penalty area and our captain to get his head on it. Given what happened I suspect all our players were thinking the same. Whether a training ground routine, which I suspect it was, or off the cuff it was a very well worked goal.

Antony Evans, the kick taker, raises both arms, instead of launching it he cuts it square to an unmarked teammate midway in our half who bends the ball in from a different angle than we were expecting. Steve Seddon didn’t have any spring in his jump and perhaps if he’d been a bit more on his toes and set for a leap, might have got his head on the ball. Perhaps James Henry was expecting that and this was the reason he was so slow thus allowing Aaron Collins to run beyond him. Collins got there just before Eastwood to set up Marquis for an easy conversion as no one had bothered to get goal side of the scorer.

We didn’t offer much from here on in and with Rovers kicking towards their passionate support in the second period I thought there was much more chance of them adding to their tally than us equalising. To be fair though we didn’t fall apart at the back and they never really created clear cut chances.

No getting away from this being a very poor performance from an attacking and creative perspective but if we’d been clinical in our finishing and passing in the final third we would have come away with at least a point.

Early in the second half an excellent cross-field ball found Billy Bodin on the right wing. This showed we were playing as we had done in the first period but without any reward. Sadly this seemed to be our only plan of attack but hey, perhaps it would be different now and have an end product.

Bodin’s cross wasn’t bad but found neither Henry nor Matty Taylor. Our number nine retrieved it and from the left crossed himself. It was a delicious ball right onto Henry’s head on the edge of the six yard box. It was a sitter. No defender jumped with him. He wasn’t marked. Keeper James Belshaw stayed on his line. Henry sent the ball over the bar. For ****s sake.

We had one other really good opportunity but contrived not to even fashion a shot on goal from it. For the one and only time during the game we somehow managed a breakaway. Kyle Joseph, a 64^th minute replacement for Taylor, was coming through fairly centrally and had a chance to shoot but to his left Marcus Browne was much better placed. The pass was under hit and dealt with by a Rovers defender. Some fans near me blamed Browne for waiting for the ball to get to him instead of running towards it at speed. There was a little bit of that but the pass being substandard was more of an issue for me. It would be extremely harsh to have a go at Joseph who had only been on the pitch a few minutes.

This told me that we were never going to score even if referee Oliver Langford, who’s been officiating at Championship level for many years, had added on the warranted extra minutes at the end of the game. Given drinks breaks and the time taken over throw-ins, restarts and home fans not returning the ball for goal-kicks, the six minutes were way short. Three at the end of the first half was not enough either.

That’s 270 minutes of league football we’ve played this season and scored one goal. None away from home in two games. True we’ve only let in two which is a positive but a positive worth sweet FA if you’re not scoring at the other end.

We were unlikely to get promoted given the number of goals we’ve leaked over the past seasons, particularly the last one. No chance whatsoever of getting promoted with our current goal-scoring record.

Time and again I’ve said we had to improve the defensive side of our game whilst recognising that in order to tighten us up we would have to sacrifice a degree of our attacking flair and goal-scoring exploits. I didn’t expect that degree to be as huge as it is. Basically we’ve just stopped scoring.

There’s a balance to be had. It is Karl’s job to get that right. Now for him to say “we’re caught between two styles” is very worrying. He should have got this sorted by now. We’re three games in already.

Other teams are able to crack it and are able to deliver both.

Last season champions Wigan and Oxford were the highest scorers in L1 with 82 goals. We conceded 59. They conceded 44. The second placed team Rotherham only scored 70 goals but let in TWENTY SIX fewer than us. Sunderland, who went up via the play-offs, had a record more akin to ours. Scored 79 for, 53 against.

One thing is for sure, we’re in no shape at the moment to get automatic promotion. I keep hearing that we’ve got a top six budget and KR has been heavily backed by the board. On the evidence of the few games so far we’re way off a top six place too. We appear to have taken a backward step from last year.

Football teams are always to a greater or lesser extent a work in progress. The key is to get as close to the finished article as possible. We look like we’re only just beginning a building process which is a concern when ten of our starting eleven were with us last season. Perhaps in this instance continuity is an over-rated concept.

Whenever players leave I try and talk myself into believing the loss won’t be significant. Perhaps I’ve got it very wrong this time but that said we’ve got players here who are way better than they’re now portraying themselves.

Goal-keeper strength wise I think we’re the same as last season. I’ll say glass half full on this but that’s forcing myself to be optimistic.

In central defence we’ve got two big strong lads who can win it in the air, tackle and don’t get bullied. I like all that. Rob Dickie, Rob Atkinson, and Luke McNally all carried the ball out from the back setting up attacks. Stuart Findlay has not yet demonstrated that he has that ability in his locker so I am assuming it doesn’t exist. No criticism of the player by the way but knowing that it is not Moore’s game either we’ve suddenly lost an attacking threat from this source.

Don’t start me on full-backs. They’re told even with a four at the back to get forward a lot. When our gifted players are seemingly unable to beat opponents or unlock the defence in front of them, the contribution of Sam Long and Steve Seddon is hardly going to make a difference is it? Sam is a defender. We saw what SS offered last season. Ciaron Brown’s name would be one of the first on the team sheet if I had pen in hand.

Let’s be honest, since we kept him out of Blackpool’s clutches Bran has been a shadow of the player we know he is. Our best player over the ninety minutes here was his midfield partner Marcus McGuane but one on form player when the rest are mostly well off it isn’t going to make a difference.

Pace? We’re not going to get that out wide when the occupants are Henry and Bodin. I’m not yet pining for Gavin Whyte and Mark Sykes but ….

Henry has been with us a long time and has really contributed to our club but at 33 I was surprised that he was given a new two year deal. One year I could understand but I no longer consider him a starter.

Bodin I looked upon as someone who would be sharing game time with Henry. I’m not sure about them both being in the team.

Marcus Browne is without doubt a talented footballer and it showed a bit in this encounter but by the end everyone was making mistakes. Understandable I suppose given that we didn’t seem to have much of an attacking plan and there was hardly any close link up play.

Taylor was once again (or should I say “as always”) an isolated figure. He hardly touches the ball in the set-up we now have. As ever there were a few high balls played to him that he did not win. The Gas loved it as they sang “Judas”. We played into their hands.

Our 56% possession counted for little with no creativity thrown in. We achieved 370 passes to their 312 and seven shots, two of which were on target. They were poor efforts. Rovers only had six shots with 50% being on target.

I can’t recall us putting any move together of note that involved more than a couple of passes. It was so removed from what we saw last year when we were on song. That said though it has to be remembered that some of the better teams were able to stop us playing then too.

Perhaps another part of the problem now is that we are no longer actually playing out from the back. That might be down to personnel, our set up or the way the opposition don’t allow us to. It’s probably a combination of all three but when Rovers got on us quickly we didn’t look comfortable.

At least when Joseph was on those high balls we had to hit, they were being properly contested. Although he wasn’t really winning them he wasn’t losing them either but this was all new to us and it was a blue and white shirt on to the “second ball”.

All very depressing so it’s my duty to spin some positivity.

We’re at home to Lincoln on Tuesday. We’ve got a 100% winning league record at the Kassam this season. We’ve scored in every game there and have not conceded.

Sam Baldock’s injury is not as bad as first thought. (Don’t know where I heard that. Perhaps it was in a dream).