ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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Last week was definitely not the greatest ever for Bristol Rovers. Saturday saw the rare sight of a loan striker score a goal as Adrian Coote netted a fabulous header against Orient, but within five minutes we had tossed the lead away and ended up being undone by another loaner - Jamal Campbell-Ryce. Questions should still be asked about the defending, but in all honesty both goals were carved out single-handedly by the spritely Charlton forward and he really was the difference. These days, it's not often that one of our own players gets a standing ovation as he leaves the field, but Campbell-Ryce was applauded from all four corners of the ground as he was withdrawn three minutes from time. The midweek trip was the big one - were you up for it? Yes, it was the old North East cliché of Hartlepool away on a chilly Tuesday evening, and surprisingly there were quite a few raving loonies who made the ten-hour round trip up to the Durham riviera. We cheated a little bit by stopping off at Northampton on each leg of the journey, but it was still nice to get a handshake from Mr Graydon outside Victoria Park before the game - his hands were warmer than mine anyway. Once inside, we prepared for the inevitable against the leading side in the Division, but initially you would have thought we were the ones who were top of the league. Graydon opted for two big men up front against the Poolies, with weekend goalscorer Coote alongside the returning Tait. Rovers clicked into gear from the off but unfortunately saw a couple of decent chances go begging on what was a lovely surface. Soon our relative league positions began to tell, with Hartlepool applying the pressure, but Rovers showed tough resilience and the central pair of Uddin and Barrett were on top of their games. On the right Danny Boxall looked nervous initially, having recently lost his place in the team, but became more sure-footed as the game went on and finished strongly, while Simon Bryant again adapted well in the foreign position of left-back. Hartlepool looked extremely well drilled and tried to spread the play as wide as possible whenever they surged forward, playing lovely little passing triangles around the corners of our box. This left our full-backs chasing shadows for periods in the match, but the important thing was that the final delivery was dealt with securely on most occasions. It was only a beautiful strike from the edge of the area that opened us up, as Paul Arnison dinked an inch-perfect lob over Howie and under the bar. Eifion Williams tapped in a second to seal it after half-time but I think Rovers were beaten by then. I know we have been missing many players through injury, but one criticism of the team on Tuesday was that there was no left-footed player on the left flank. I know Challis and Austin being injured meant that we were stumped for defenders, but playing David Lee out left did not work and we were constantly turning back to cross with the right foot, by which time Hartlepool had taken the chance to get back into shape and our big lads were marked up. Left-footers Drew Shore and McKeever were both unused subs, and when Lee came off we ended up with Coote out there on the wing. Other results that night caused Rovers to slump to 19th in the table - exactly the same position we were in this time twelve months ago. The only difference was that Gerry Francis had about 30 players to choose from, while Ray Graydon has been shuffling a pack of only 22.
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