ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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With so much misery to deal with during recent seasons as a Rovers fan, the prospect of facing a joyous and upwardly mobile Yeovil Town was rather daunting, considering that the last dose of misery Glovers supporters experienced was probably when they dropped into the ICIS League in the mid nineties! And true to form, the shiny happy people from Somerset continued their adventure with a smile as their team bounded on towards another high finish after beating us on our own patch. As we've been struggling to put two results together in recent weeks, Yeovil have been rolling over their opponents of late, particularly in the Cup where two hammerings have deservedly been rewarded with a glamour tie against Liverpool. On Geoff Twentyman's phone-in, several Yeovil fans rang up with understandable confidence ahead of Saturday's derby, while Gasheads were contrastingly few and far between as we nervously awaited the game. I for one was not expecting much from the match, despite our positive efforts in disposing of Hull City two weeks previously. I was especially dreading the return of Kevin Gall, as I was one of his strongest sympathisers when he was wasting away in our reserves and thought he could do well given a chance. Thankfully the law of the 'ex' was not applied last week as our defence kept him at bay for the 79 minutes he lasted on the pitch, with much of the praise going to Christian Edwards. In the end there was not a lot between the two sides and much of my fear was unfounded. It was a cracking end-to-end game in the first half-an-hour and if Ryan Williams' dangerous low cross had been poked in, then we may have gone on to win it ourselves. The teams evidently tired after that thunderous opening and with both rearguards keeping things tight, the game would only be won by something special - and Nick Crittenden supplied it. I initially thought Kevin Miller had got enough on Crittenden's screamer to paw it out, but the ball flew into the top corner to ultimately decide the contest. It was another defeat but this time we had matched our opponents and only lost the game due to a moment of brilliance and not down to a stupid mistake like on other occasions. Shortly afterwards, news filtered through that assistant manager John Still had been released by the club and in the wake of other cost-cutting measures by the board recently, it wasn't a complete surprise. Apparently Still was on a decent wage and in all probability would have been one of the best paid assistants in the lower leagues. On top of that, Still had been a reputable manager in his own right at Peterborough and Barnet, so to have two experienced bosses at the club was quite a luxury really, when many clubs at our level cannot afford to have even one. I also found it quite strange that Ray Graydon, himself earning a comfortable salary, chose Still as his number two without ever working with him before. Most gaffers tend to team up with someone they know and trust inside out, like Glenn Hoddle and John Gorman for example, or Ian Holloway and Gary Penrice. Hopefully we won't have to cut too many more costs and I hope we can hold on to Wayne Carlisle, who was transfer-listed the other week. In these lean financial times, putting players on the list no longer means they will leave within a few weeks, as Vitalijs Astafjevs seemed to be listed for about two years. Carlisle is one of our best players and delivers a great ball, especially from set-pieces, and possesses a lovely shot too. Surely this decision can only be a monetary one, as why else would the manager list him and then play him the next day? It can't have done much for his confidence.
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