The Rovers players and management left the Memorial Stadium pitch last weekend to a cacophony of boos after a shocking second half had seen one of our fellow strugglers at the bottom leapfrog us in the table. The magnitude of this hostile reception was a bit of a surprise for me, seeing as we were playing well for 44 minutes and this was only our second defeat in seven games. Indeed a like-minded man near me cried out "hypocrites" at those around him who were venting their spleens, and were presumably the same people who were going wild with delight at the end of our previous home game with Scunthorpe. There was Wayne Carlisle, one our best players and statistically one of the best wingers in the Division, facing odious jeers from irate mouths around the tunnel, having been roared to the rafters for his free-kick a fortnight ago. Some may say that they deserved it after that collapse, and this could have been the straw that broke the camel's back for a few fans after a fragile recent recovery of form for Rovers had again come to an abrupt halt. On top for nearly the whole first half, we got our noses in front and it seemed as though a commanding win would propel us out of the bottom five and into the wonderful world of lower mid-table amongst the Shrewsburys and Rochdales. Then right on the whistle, one of Carlisle's midfielders probed his way to the edge of the box and despite five tackles going in from Rovers players (I counted them on the telly) the ball still managed to roll across to Craig Farrell, who stroked home. It was a major body blow to lose that advantage right at the death, and the team didn't look the same after half-time, especially with Astafjevs forced off through injury. With his forced withdrawal there was a distinct dearth of creative spark, and even before Carlisle were reduced to ten men (unbeknown to their manager) they had completely won the midfield battle. The second goal came from a regulation cross towards the back post, and with three Rovers defenders in line with the ball, their striker Richie Foran was still granted a clean header at goal. In the end, the one consolation I took from this survival setback was the return of Giuliano Grazioli, who marked his reunion with Paul Tait by scoring with a typically opportunistic finish. Most of us thought he had been injured recently, but obviously our eleven-goal top scorer had otherwise been stuck at the back of a queue to play in a team desperately looking for goals. At the moment it seems as though every team at the bottom has brought in an experienced striker, with Swansea's Kevin Nugent grabbing three in four games, Exeter's Sean Devine hitting three in five (as well as missing a penalty last week) and Richard Logan smacking in six in ten matches for Boston, so leaving out your own best goalscorer is pretty risky and I just hope Graz is coming into a purple patch both for his sake and ours. One striker who was never given a real chance in his proper position is Kevin Gall, who has moved on to Yeovil. Ray Graydon only ever played him on the wing, and as most of us gathered, he was definitely not a winger. His super goals against Wycombe when we were relegated two years ago, and at Lincoln and Orient last season proved that he was more skilful than some fans give him credit for, but no manager let him show it. The fact that he scored as a striker for Wales U21s and then notched a hat-trick up front for Yeovil in a recent friendly show ominous signs that he may go on to be yet another Zamora, Alsop, Ipoua... perhaps even in a higher league the way things are going. © Chris Chappell - Friday 7th February 2003 Back to Index