ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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One minute you're up, the next minute you're down. What a performance we saw at Leyton Orient, with chances galore and the sun beaming down on a lovely playing surface. Unfortunately, Tuesday night meant it was back to the bobble field at the Mem, and infuriating antics from both York and the referee. Orient have been hovering over the struggling seven at the bottom of the table for some months, and with an unbeaten run stretching back six matches, Rovers were certainly capable of getting something. With Di Piedi injured, Paul Tait came back in to reform his initially successful partnership with Grazioli, and between them they made Brisbane Road look like Gay Meadow all over again. Tait was absolutely superb on his return, especially with his clever little headers, and after one near post flick-on was wasted by Grazioli, a carbon copy saw Graz hook home minutes later. Most of us thought the ball had gone wide at first, but when we saw it rolling back out, a belated roar went up. Soon after that, Grazioli missed a real sitter when he leant back and skied the ball over an empty net, and in the second half he thudded the bar having shown great strength to get round the defender and then lobbed over another open goal after the Os' debutant goalkeeper had come out and stranded himself. Despite these misses, he scored with probably his hardest chance and I think we can forgive him, seeing as it was only his first goal in seven games. And talking of barren runs, Paul Tait's thirteen-game drought was ended thanks to a lovely glancing header. Before the kick-off, both Chris Llewellyn and Wayne Carlisle were practising swinging the ball in to the near post from the corners for about ten minutes, but by the time we actually got a corner Carlisle had been withdrawn and instead the sub Astafjevs, crossing the ball for the first time that afternoon, put it right on Tait's head for the winner. Most of the Rovers fans were level with the goal on the side of the stadium, and I don't think there was much doubt in anybody's mind that the ball had crossed the line. The linesman was very quick to flag in our favour and maybe we were due that decision after the dubious penalty call just before half-time. It was a deadly cross between Howie and the defence, but Sonny Parker dived in at the ball with their striker and I don't think there was enough of a case to award a penalty, and Rovers were terribly unlucky to go into the interval on level terms, having dominated the half. Then on Tuesday night we saw another ropey penalty shout as the otherwise rock solid Kevin Austin went to clear the ball on the edge of the area only for York's striker Anthony Shandran to nip in and tumble over his legs. There was absolutely no intent to foul him, if Austin knew he was there at all, but if you are asking me whether there was contact, then I would have to say yes. It is like when you see strikers burst through on goal against the goalkeeper; we can all see that the likes of Francis Jeffers fall into the challenge looking to win a penalty, and no matter how much the keeper tries to avoid touching him, there is usually some minimal contact and the ref has no option but to apply the rule. In this instance, York hooked the spot kick wide so there was justice done in the end. Throughout the game, the Minstermen constantly moaned away at the officials and wasted as much time as possible, and these negative tactics certainly worked in spoiling the early initiative Rovers built up from a barrage of pressure right from the kick off. The only goal was a fluke from 30 yards and while Rovers definitely deserved something from the match, we didn't get it. The moral of the story is that if you try your luck and have a shot you might get lucky, but again we tried too hard to walk the ball over the line, and subsequently came away with 'nil' next to our name.
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