ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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In the programme at last Saturday's game with Shrewsbury, my roving eye caught sight of an unenviable stat. Under the heading 'Most scoring chances per game' on the number-crunching page were listed all of the clubs in Division 3, and right at the bottom after everybody else was Bristol Rovers. The fact that I was reading the programme during the match tells its own story, as several other supporters no doubt looked for excitement in the 'Ten Questions with' and the youth team reports. When you hear stories of an unbeaten run, especially from a team battling for survival, the first thing you tend to picture in your head is a cut-throat team with blood on their hands, never saying die. In reality though, half of these sadly turn out to be solid defensive units who bore their way gradually up the league. The return clash with the Shrews could not have been more different to the swashbuckling display we witnessed at Gay Meadow way back in September. Nowadays we are lucky to see five shots, let alone five goals. Back at Twerton Park, a few people around me used to partake in a terrace competition to match the minute of the first goal. Perhaps now we should be gambling on the first shot, as substitute Paul Tait won the race last week with an effort in the 77th minute. As a team we appear to ping over a lot of crosses, but if there is nobody there on the end of them who can get up to head it in the vague direction of the goal net, surely some of our more confident players should back themselves once in a while to have a crack at goal from distance, instead of strapping on the blinkers and passing the ball out to the touchline every time. Despite the dearth of quality with the ball, we look as though we have sorted ourselves out when the opposition have it, and we defended very nicely last week without letting them have a chance. Being hard to score against is very annoying for other teams, and in situations like at Bury two weeks ago, Rovers managed to break away on the counter-attack to score a rare goal and nick all three points. After Sunday's televised FA Cup Quarter-Final, the BBC pundit Alan Hansen was positively purring at the fact Watford had gone all the way to the Semis without conceding a goal, and I am sure he would love it if he were to call in at the Mem anytime soon. Although Danny Boxall had to limp off early with a hamstring injury, Sonny Parker made his return to the defence a lot sooner than I'm sure he expected, as he filled in at right-back to great effect. Parker only signed for Rovers in an emergency due to injuries to loan man Chris Plummer and Anwar Uddin, and after a spell warming the bench, he has really seized his chance with some fine performances. Unfortunately Uddin's troublesome groin tweaked again in the midweek reserve game, and so Parker will no doubt get more chances to impress over the next few weeks. Is it any coincidence that Phil Bater's increased influence in coaching matters has come at a time when the defence has tightened up dramatically? Maybe now we should start looking at a specialist forwards coach too, similar to the sort of role Gary Penrice enjoyed under Ian Holloway. Penny's experience undoubtedly contributed to the success of Jason Roberts, Nathan Ellington and Bobby Zamora, and a bit of guidance could be all it takes to see the current strikers firing goals in from all angles. Then we might even move up a few places in the shot-count league!
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