Monday, 19 September 2011

Bristol Rovers 0 Aldershot Town 1

Chants of "What a load of rubbish" and players being jeered as they attempt to thank their own fans at the end of the game - normal service has been resumed at the Mem.

This was my first visit to see Rovers on their home turf this season and it was eerily reminiscent of what happened last term.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be happy either if I were a Gashead, but shouting abuse at the eleven men wearing the club's colours is hardly going to motivate them to do better for you. Doesn't anyone remember the last campaign? The one that saw Rovers go down?

The same thing happened at Swindon - and they are playing in League Two as well!

Once Stuart Campbell took over the reins at Rovers last season, everyone - fans, players and staff alike - started pulling in the same direction and they nearly achieved what had seemed unlikely - League One survival.

I went on record at the end of last season to say that Campbell should have been given the job full time. He probably would have been able to keep hold of most of the squad - a squad that started to prove they were League One standard - and certainly wouldn't have needed to have made as many signings as Paul Buckle has. In the process he would have saved the club a small fortune.

However, the board decided to appoint Buckle, a young coach with a decent track record.

Buckle has brought in numerous signings and it will take them time to gel (I know it sounds like an early season cliche, but that is because it's often true). Injuries haven't helped his cause either, but you can be sure that anyone sitting on the pyhsio's table at the moment won't be busting a gut to get back out on the pitch to play for fans who give their players the treatment they received on Saturday. And that's when the rot can set in.

So why am I so critical? I'm a neutral. What's it to me? Well from a purely mercenary point of view, I'd prefer to be watching Rovers playing in the football league next season then have to travel further afield to watch Yeovil! Have you seen the price of petrol?

On a more positive note, the 367 Shots fans who by nature - and given the total collapse of their club a few years back - don't expect quite as much from their team, were rewarded with three points.

Manager Dean Holdsworth has got Aldershot playing to their strengths and has assembled a group of players who can play decent football to boot.

Winger Alex Rodman showed what a good footballer he is at this level and - his goal aside - was a constant threat. Rodman has got his education out of the way before embarking on his career (see clipping below) and who is to say he won't go on to bigger and better things?

Holdsworth is certainly a big fan, is keen to keep hold of him and keep him out of the limelight for understandably selfish reasons. When I asked about the lad in the press conference he joked: "Tell everyone he is rubbish and that he only played because someone else was ill!"

And when Rovers pushed to get something out of the game, keeper Ross Worner managed to keep them out by saving with his feet in the dying minutes.

Worner may have been lucky to get away with clattering Matt Harrold in the box as well, although he told me the referee had felt the Rovers striker was as much to blame in the collision. I wasn't overly impressed with that decision or the referee's overall performance, but Aldershot also had a penalty appeal turned down and so maybe it was honours even on that score.

There are a few sides in this division who feel they 'should' be promoted. Their fans expect it. Rovers and the Gasheads are one example. There are others - often smaller clubs with smaller squads - who know it's an outside chance, but they are all in it together and may even end up upsetting the odds if they can steer clear of injuries. Who knows? Aldershot may be one of these.

My clipping from this morning's paper





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