ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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This time last year, a 0-0 draw up at Carlisle left Rovers languishing in 23rd place with just two points to their name. Twelve months on and we are in a much healthier state, rubbing shoulders in the top ten and with double the number of points even before this weekend's return to Brunton Park. Our solid defence has been the major factor, as Christian Edwards has come in from a higher level over the summer and immediately clicked with Adam Barrett in the centre. In last Saturday's home game with Rochdale, Edwards was tremendous and saved the team's skin twice with last-ditch tackles as the striker wound up to shoot. Meanwhile, Barrett is not the most graceful centre-back in the League, but he wins a lot of challenges through sheer determination and so far his judgement has been much improved. No-one deserved to score the first goal of the season more than him up at Scunthorpe on the opening day, as he was my pick of the bunch in our 2-1 victory there. Unfortunately, last week he found himself on the receiving end of a red card, after committing two bookable fouls. The first was a shirt tug as Rochdale's tricky midfielder Leo Bertos reached the edge of Rovers' penalty area, while the second was for mistimed tackle on the touchline right on the stroke of half-time. Not wishing to sound like Arsène Wenger, I couldn't really see the second incident clearly as it took place on the far side of the pitch to me, but when I saw it on TV afterwards it looked like Barrett caught the winger's leg without making contact with the ball. The referee had set his stall out with a flurry of yellow cards early on, and so he could hardly baulk at handing out another, especially as this was more of a booking than the first foul. Cautioning players for every bad challenge is slightly pedantic, but at least the ref was consistent in his lack of leniency and Barrett would have been aware of what might happen when he lunged in just before the break. Kevin Austin came on at the interval as a ready-made replacement and at the time I thought that we could only take a draw from the game, particularly as we had sacrificed striker Junior Agogo. As it turned out, Rovers turned out the more threatening team and at the end I felt disappointed that we had not forced a winner from somewhere. We headed several good chances straight at Rochdale goalkeeper Matty Gilks and it was Paul Tait who came closest in the final throes of the game when he threw himself at the ball from a yard out only to see the keeper claw it away on the line. It would have been a just reward for his efforts, and already Tait has won more headers this season than he appeared to during the whole of the previous campaign, and he is now looking the target man his 6'1" frame suggests. At the top of the Division 3 scoring charts, Huddersfield's John Stead and Daniel Chillingworth of Cambridge are among the front-runners and both possess a similarly tall and lanky physique, so there is no reason why Tait should not weigh in with a decent share of goals this year. None of our strikers are off the mark as yet, but a bit of pressure seems to be coming from the reserves where lightning-quick Lewis Haldane and Northern Ireland youth forward Ryan Weisberg are impressing. They grabbed a goal each in last week's second-string clash with Cheltenham and it is encouraging to see them find the net. We certainly need someone to be pushing Agogo and Tait in the scoring stakes, as there is hardly cut-throat competition at the moment.
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