ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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It was pleasing to read Ian Atkins' comments last week about consistency in team selection, where he said, "I will try not to make too many changes because I think we are starting to look like a settled side." Our inconsistent results since September have mainly been down to the manager constantly chopping and changing players and formations in my opinion. But since the LDV win over Wycombe, Atkins has kept faith with as near an unchanged line-up as he has been able to field, and subsequently Rovers have put a little run together. Leaving out Junior Agogo has sparked some debate amongst fans and the boss resisted the temptation to throw him in alongside Jamie Forrester and Lee Thorpe in a three-pronged attack against Macclesfield last Saturday. With Atkins sticking by the 4-4-2 system that had served him so well against Chester, this allowed Craig Disley the freedom to once again cause chaos, particularly in the first half. How he missed that chance just before the interval when he burst into the box, dinked the ball over two defenders before blazing over from six yards, I will never know, but it was a scintillating bit of football that almost created a goal out of nothing. Dave Savage was the only player performing anywhere near that level and it was he who was our strongest competitor after half-time, coming closest to breaking the deadlock when his forceful run culminated in a shot that bounced back off the post. Aside from these two efforts, it was a game of few chances and Macclesfield kept a resilient defensive unit, which showed why they are up near the top. Being organised counts for a lot in this league and the teams that end up getting promoted aren't necessarily the most talented in terms of skill. For instance, Lee Thorpe has won a lot of balls in the air in recent matches but last week he was on the receiving end of some unsettling treatment from the Silkmen's centre-backs, who were using all the little tricks in the book to put him off his stride. A point did not help our position in the table much, as we slipped down to 14th but at the time of writing there are only three points between us and sixth-placed Southend, which shows just how close everyone is as we approach the halfway stage. Apart from leaders Scunthorpe, who have already pulled seven points clear, and then Shrewsbury, Cambridge and Kidderminster, who seem to be drifting away at the bottom, the rest of us could easily finish anywhere in between come May. Our squad has more strength in depth than some of the teams currently above us like Bury, Rochdale and Wycombe and therefore you would expect us to end up a bit higher than our present position. With so many senior professionals on the books, a few have had to look elsewhere for games and Liam Burns left us for Shrewsbury, Ryan Williams joined Forest Green on loan and Ryan Clarke extended his loan at Kiddy, while Richard Walker turned down the chance to join him at Aggborough. As our only proper left winger, Williams has been unlucky not to feature more this season when we have played four across midfield, with Paul Trollope preferred wide on that side. However, he took just 13 minutes of his Conference debut to make an impact by teeing up their only goal with a terrific cross.
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