ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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A cacophony of boos and a mass walkout is not something you would expect from your fourth game in charge but that is what Phil Bater was greeted with at the end of the Darlington match last weekend. Anyone hearing that result on the radio or reading it in their evening papers would have been shocked to find out Rovers crashed 3-0 on their own turf to the side next-to-last in the Football League. This sort of scoreline is unacceptable but still I felt the reaction by several fans was a little extreme. True, we were toothless in attack but I thought we looked quite solid defensively up until that unstoppable dipping volley from Darlo's captain Craig Liddle in the 74th minute. It was only during the last quarter of an hour that our heads dropped and we seemed to give up on getting anything from the game. Darlington's second and third goals were as simple as passing a hot knife through butter but both were as a result of our full-backs pushing up and leaving our centre-back pair exposed in two-on-two situations. Edwards and Barrett are not the quickest defenders in the League and they were simply beaten for pace on the break. Had their goalkeeper been sent-off for racing out of his area to upend Junior Agogo in the first half then the game could well have been completely different. I was expecting a few boos at the final whistle but to see hundreds of people streaming out of the ground with a full ten minutes left on the clock was a big surprise, as we are normally more durable than supporters at other clubs. Thankfully most of those fans were back on Tuesday night for the Huddersfield game and what a difference we all saw in the performance from the team. Phil Bater proved he was not afraid to make sweeping changes and out went Ray Graydon's rigid 4-4-2 formation and the side lined up with five at the back and three central midfield players, with a welcome recall for Simon Bryant. Wayne Carlisle, Ryan Williams and Lee Hodges are all decent wingers but to play with such width in the team you need dynamic players in the centre to compensate, and with respect, Graham Hyde and Dave Savage are not exactly Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira. With Anwar Uddin back from a loan spell at Hereford, we now have four senior centre-backs to choose from and playing with five at the back should stop us conceding so many soft goals. On the flanks, Boxall and Anderson both like to get forward and playing as wing-backs should suit them. Bryant was outstanding on his return to the team as he retained the ball well and confidently sprayed passes with both feet to try and unlock the Huddersfield defence. After throwing everything at the visitors for an hour, the breakthrough finally came when the Terriers' goalkeeper Phil Senior let Graham Hyde's shot slip through his grasp and no-one could deny that we thoroughly deserved it. It was just gutting to let one in right at the death, particularly as it was Huddersfield's first shot at goal in the entire match. Luckily Ryan Clarke repelled their second shot of the evening to stop us falling to yet another defeat, which would have been a travesty on this occasion.
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