Bristol Rovers v Brighton - Busy

It looks like I’ve got a busy weekend coming up. On Saturday it’s back to the Mem top watch Rovers taking on League One leaders Brighton and then on Sunday I cross the border to make a second trip in one week to see Swansea take on Cardiff.

I’ll use today’s blog posting to concentrate on the first fixture and then focus on the battle of the leeks and daffodils tomorrow.

New boss Dave Penney appeared to have stopped the rot at Rovers and managed them to their first clean sheet and then their first win since October. The jeering from the stands started to subside and the Gasheads were smiling again … for a few days before fellow relegations candidates Walsall thumped them 6-1 at the Bescot and then the MK Dons beat them 2-1 on their own turf last night.

I have to admit that I didn’t see either game and so can’t give an opinion on what went wrong, but it would seem from reading reports that the fragile confidence that Penney had started to give the players was well and truly shattered at Walsall.

Depending on your point of view, Brighton is either the last club they want to face at the moment or the side that – should Rovers win – good boost their collective self confidence and get them on a roll. It’s a glass half full, glass half empty question.

Like every other division this season, League One has been a tight one, but there are signs now of gaps appearing at the top and the bottom of the table and Rovers need to make sure of a few postive results. One win since October is real relegation form.

Brighton lead the table by one point from Bournemouth who have been the only team to beat them in the league in the last six games – and they’ve won four of the remaining five.

I suspect that Gus Poyet will be in demand in the summer whether the Seagulls get promoted or not and at the moment you’d have to say they are red-hot favourites.

But despite Rovers last two results, the word from Bristol is that they did bounce back against the Dons and showed a decent amount of fight and passion and so maybe there is a glimmer of hope.

Brighton were also held to a 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture back in November and so Penney’s boys may also take some self-belief from that result.

And that, for me, is the main reasons for the problems at the Memorial Ground. Self belief and the confidence to take what you do from the training ground and into the games. Rovers have a decent squad of players and Penney has bolstered it with some good loan signings – a mixture of experience and youthful potential. I can still see them beating the drop, but they better start pulling their fingers out soon.

Indeed, following the defeat to MK Dons Penney said:

"We finished the game strongly and if we can start like that against Brighton on Saturday it should be a good contest. Losing McCracken and Campbell is a blow but we have Danny Coles and Chris Lines back from suspension at the weekend, which now looks timely.


I feel the new signings have given us more physical strength and provided me with more options. After conceding six at Walsall last Saturday we desperately wanted to start off tight, so to concede a goal after 45 seconds was terrible.

It gave us a huge mountain to climb, but I credit the lads for keeping going and with a bit of luck we might have got a point."

And two of those new signings have waded in withtheir own thoughts.

Loanee striker Rene Howe is hoping for a fresh start. The Posh hitman revealed he was itching to face Brighton and said:

"I enjoy playing against the top teams, so I'm looking forward to it – and I'm sure the rest of the lads are, too. I prefer the bigger games and maybe do feel like I raise my game a bit more when they come along."


My contract there (Peterborough) is up in the summer, I'll be a free agent and I can't wait. Hopefully, I'll have a contract sorted somewhere else and can go to another club on a permanent deal. I've got on pretty well with most of the managers I've played under. It's just been difficult at Peterborough and I'd be happy to consider staying here if things work out."

And midfielder Gavin Williams moved across from rivals Bristol City earier in the week to join the five other new faces Penney has brought in and he warned:

""There's quite a few new lads here and it always takes time when so many people come in to a dressing room, but we haven't got a few weeks to play with – we have to try and gel straightaway.

We are struggling a bit at the moment, but I think we have enough in the dressing room now to turn it around. There are a lot of good attacking players at the club and now we have to try and get the wins we need. We have to turn games into wins because if we don't, the gap is going to get bigger and it makes it more difficult when you are chasing teams."