Whether it's England in a major tournament, Tim Henman at Wimbledon or Rovers embarking on another season in the basement division, it's always the same time after time - everyone gets over-excited and proclaims this is the year we're going to win it. Haven't we been smacked across the face enough in recent years? Will we ever learn? There have already been predictions of promotion from various parts and I suspect these are the same people who forecast glory days under Gerry Francis and Ray Graydon. Last year I stuck my neck out and rather foolishly said that Rovers would finish in the top half, and while we did threaten to do so at the end, our final position of 15th was a fairer reflection of the season as a whole. This continued the slight improvement from the year before and should this slow progress continue, then the top page on Ceefax should see a bit more of us this time. Most of the people I have spoken to say that a play-off position is realistically within reach and I agree. An automatic slot would be the stuff of dreams but I think that the huge turnover of players will mean that it takes us a while to find a settled team and early results will be erratic. In attack we have five strikers who are all capable of scoring goals and any one of them could be top scorer come the end of the season. Jamie Forrester has a prolific record in the lower leagues, Lee Thorpe hit double figures in three separate seasons for Lincoln, Richard Walker was top marksman in pre-season, while Junior Agogo appears to be flying and we shouldn't forget the emerging Lewis Haldane, scorer of six goals in his first campaign. There is strength in depth throughout the midfield and in defence too, so the manager may not need to use loan signings as readily as previous incumbents, like last year when Graydon had to bring in Calum Willock for the first game of the season at Scunthorpe. It is reassuring to know that if someone has a slump in form, such as Adam Barrett or Christian Edwards did midway through last year, then there is another equally competent player waiting to take over and the starting eleven does not pick itself by default. Atkins is a fan of wing-backs and used this system predominantly at Oxford where they conceded very few goals, yet most of Rovers' pre-season games have seen him utilise a 4-4-2 formation. When Steve Elliott was signed, I thought he would play him alongside Edwards and John Anderson to go with three centre-backs, particularly as Ali Gibb suits the right wing-back slot perfectly. However, Ryan Williams' form on the left flank has forced the manager to set out a four-man midfield with wingers and therefore Craig Hinton looks like a sound choice to come into the defence at right-back. It will be interesting to see which way Atkins plays on Saturday and we may see Rovers play with both systems throughout the course of the season. There is also the issue of who will be his captain. Paul Trollope was my guess before pre-season and he was duly given the role at Bath, but Kevin Miller has since assumed the armband and would have to be favourite to keep it. © Chris Chappell - Friday 6th August 2004 Back to Index