ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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Any trip to Lincolnshire is always a pain seeing as there are no motorways in that part of the world. My first visit to Boston last week coincided with what seemed like a mass programme of road works throughout the town and after being delayed meeting up with family members on the way, sitting in traffic was not a comfortable experience with 2:55 showing on the dashboard clock. We missed the kick-off but fortunately all the action happened in the last five minutes of the game rather than the opening five. In fact, there was not a lot to write home about during the first hour and Ian Atkins' adventurous team of five defenders and three holding midfield players looked sure bets for another clean sheet, if little else at the other end. Then Boston's brute strength finally overcame the nine-man barrier when Kevin Miller appeared to swipe the ball into his own net under immense pressure from the home side's heavies, not least 6ft 3in Jason Lee. It was hard to tell who got the last touch and inevitably Miller did not want to claim it after the match, though there was no doubt over who bagged Boston's second. Andy Kirk, until recently a prolific scorer for Hearts in Scotland, showed his pedigree with a clinical overhead kick after Miller had parried a fierce shot. Our worsening away record seemed to be showing no signs of recovery as we entered the last few minutes with three strikers now on the pitch, and some Gasheads had evidently seen enough and walked out with the score at 2-0. Didn't they learn anything from the Yeovil game? Jamie Forrester curled a delightful free-kick into the bottom corner with 88 minutes gone and then Junior Agogo calmly waltzed across the area in injury time to smash in an incredible equaliser. Nobody could quite believe that we had done it again. We were back at the Mem on Wednesday night for the LDV Vans tie with Barnet, a clash billed as the battle of the returning hit men, Agogo and Grazioli against their old sides. It turned out that both strikers were rested in the end, with Richard Walker also putting his feet up on the sidelines, but it doesn't seem to matter who starts up front at the moment as Forrester whipped in another free-kick before fellow stand-in Lee Thorpe sweetly struck a second goal. Swansea manager Kenny Jackett described Rovers' strike force as "intimidating" earlier in the week and it is easy to see why when even fifth-choice Lewis Haldane can tear defences to shreds as he did in the closing moments on Wednesday. It would be great to have another crack at beating City in the Vans and I'll bet the sponsors would relish a repeat of the record crowd set in January 2002 at Ashton Gate. It's a shame we are unable to meet in the Final itself, although I'm sure South Wales Police are glad we can't!
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