ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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The match report of Wednesday's Cheltenham game on Ceefax opened with the words 'Draw specialists Bristol Rovers' after we had shared the points for the fourth consecutive fixture. A look at the table revealed that we had now equalled Chester City's tally of 11 stalemates this season, an unwelcome record only 'bettered' by Watford in the entire League. Drawing half your games may not be the form of champions but in this crazy division Rovers are still only three points from Rochdale in the play-off places as we enter the new year. While the teams that win the most matches obviously stick around at the top, it is often the case that those who are hard to beat eventually rise through the ranks come the end of the campaign and we have lost fewer games than most of the top half, including third-placed Swansea. It may not be pretty but Ian Atkins' team has ground out a six-game unbeaten run and all we need is to have a few more goal gluts like the 4-1 battering of Chester to turn one point into three. The two Christmas fixtures passed with two 1-1 draws, the first where we came back to equalise and the second where it was Rovers who took an early lead only to let it slip. Leyton Orient have done a lot better than many expected this year after struggling last season and this was a tough assignment for Boxing Day, so when Matt Lockwood tucked away a third-minute penalty on the back of Robbie Ryan's sending off, it was made all the more daunting. Even though he could do little about it, I knew Ryan would get his marching orders as soon as I saw him dive to his left to block the ball on the line. Nowadays refs get abuse simply for giving decisions against teams, regardless of whether they are right or not. Handball on the line is one of those situations where the culprit nearly always sees red, so I had no arguments. There were more flashpoints in the penalty area throughout the rest of the game, as Dave Savage received a booking for 'diving' after he appeared to be tripped and then Stuart Campbell was denied by what seemed to be a tug when he was all set to nod the ball home from a couple of yards. In fact the most innocuous incident occurred when Junior Agogo took the ball into the box and tried to clip it back inside two defenders, only for the referee to point to the spot when hardly anyone was appealing for it. Jamie Forrester seized the chance and shot right into the top corner to complete another unlikely comeback in the wake of our exploits against Yeovil and Boston. That visit to Boston at the end of October was the last time Agogo found the net and in the meantime Forrester has taken over the goalscoring mantle and scored five to add the three he netted in the first three months of the season. Despite the sad news of the death of his father, he opted to play at Cheltenham and duly struck number eight with a trademark finish from the edge of the area. This now puts him only three behind Junior overall, and he must be hoping to bag a few more after scoring only five for Hull last season and ten the year before that. At the moment, whenever Rovers hit the net it is nearly always Forrester, and he is showing that a proven goalscorer will always come up with the goods eventually.
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