It is often easy to get carried away by a few wins or a couple of bad results, which is why it is wise to wait until you have played about ten games before passing judgement on how the season is likely to pan out. On the eve of the season, the general consensus was that Ian Atkins' new-look Rovers would most likely spend the year tussling in the top seven and after ten league games, our predictions are spot on so far. The fabulous start that put us top of the tree has since been followed by a sticky patch where points and goals have been hard to come by. Last Saturday's outing at Northampton was undeniably Rovers' worst performance of the season and we should have been dead and buried by half-time. The 2-1 scoreline was embarrassingly lenient at the final whistle and the only positives we could really take from the match was that our goal difference remained relatively unblemished and that we finally scored a goal, even if it was courtesy of 9th-choice midfielder Dave Savage. Whether we have played a back four or a back three, we have generally been very solid overall and apart from a crazy ten minutes at Orient, it was the first time our defence had really caved in this season. Ian Atkins teams have always been built from the back on solid foundations and perhaps the need to re-establish our rock-like defence was the reason why we squared up to the League's weakest side, Kidderminster, with five recognised defenders in the starting eleven as well as a midfield anchor man in the form of Aaron Lescott. I was a little disappointed not to see Ryan Clarke, Lewis Haldane or maybe Thorsten Dinkel given a chance in this LDV Vans tie but the squad is so bloated with senior players now that these youngsters can't even get on the bench. It is almost exactly a year since six-goal Haldane burst onto the scene under Ray Graydon and like a caller on Geoff Twentyman's show the other week, I worry that he cannot get near the team because there are four senior strikers ahead of him in the pecking order. Do we really need that many? With both teams setting out to primarily block the other out on Tuesday night, it made for a dire spectacle that was made ever more painful by the score updates coming in from the Manchester United v Fenerbahce bonanza, which we could all have been watching on TV instead. Craig Disley was the sole provider of any sparks in the first half before he tired later on and we only perked up when the substitutes Stuart Campbell, Jamie Forrester and Junior Agogo came on near the end. Campbell and Ali Gibb have been our most creative players by a long way this season, setting up four goals each already with their superb delivery. If we are to recapture our goalscoring form of the opening weeks in the campaign, they must both play from the start to provide our rotating forwards with as many chances as possible. There's only so much emphasis you can put on defending. © Chris Chappell - Friday 1st October 2004 Back to Index