ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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The new management team's winning streak was bound to come to an end eventually and the Easter weekend yielded just one point from the six on offer. That said, the performances against champions-elect Doncaster and promotion hopefuls Mansfield were undeniably strong ones and we were unlucky not to continue our surge up the Third Division table. There did not appear to be any weak links in the Rovers team in either match and Junior Agogo looks livelier than ever, despite continuing moans from certain sections of the crowd. Like Jamie Cureton a few years ago, he may not chase down every ball but if he finds the net on a regular basis, which he seems to be doing under Russell Osman and Kevan Broadhurst, then surely he is fulfilling the role of a goalscorer. Agogo produced another powerful header to score in his second successive game on Saturday and was unfortunate to be denied at Mansfield where he must have had about five shots on target in the first half alone. Saturday's narrow defeat to Doncaster was also notable for the sending-off of Kevin Austin, which appeared very harsh compared to the antics of Donny's Adebayo Akinfenwa, who lashed out more than once in the scuffle. Many onlookers did not see Austin do anything and I am glad that Rovers are to appeal the decision. He was the victim of another dubious red card down at Bournemouth earlier in the season and this second ban would confine him to the stands for as long as four matches. If some of the referee's decisions got your goat in that game, there were more to come at Field Mill on the Monday thanks to the officiating of Alan Kaye. Every so often a team comes up against a real 'homer' on their travels and Kaye was certainly one of them. Nothing was given our way in the first half and he even had the gall to blow for half-time when Agogo was tripped in the box, thus saving him the hassle of making a decision either way. A minute of added time had just been announced over the tannoy and we got nowhere near 60 seconds. After the break it was the same story until stoppage time, when we were finally rewarded for our patience as Kaye disallowed a goal from the brutish Andy White for a foul on Kevin Miller. Midway through the second half though, Ali Gibb was shoved off the pitch and ended up disappearing completely from view after falling over the advertising hoardings and there were a worrying few moments as we waited for him to pop back up. There is a drop of a few feet on the other side of the boards and Gibb landed on a concrete path. He could have been severely injured but luckily he was able to carry on, yet we were fortunate to get a free-kick with no punishment whatsoever for the offending Mansfield player. Gibb has been a very good signing and has shown a tremendous work rate by always appearing to track back to his own box to help defend. He was outstanding up the right wing against hapless York but his attacking instincts have been hampered since by having to mark arguably our opponents' best players in the last three games. He kept Grant McCann quiet at Cheltenham, minimised the threat of Michael McIndoe at home to Doncaster and had Wayne Corden in his pocket up at Mansfield. In fact he's done so much defending recently that people are beginning to think he's a right back.
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