The Mem is turning into a bit of a fortress of late as Rovers continue to keep the drawbridge up in front of their own goal while picking off the enemy at the other end. Saturday's 2-0 triumph over Oxford maintained our unbeaten home record and stretched the impressive run put together by our miserly defence to four home games without conceding. Brian Tinnion's Bristol City have so far put the emphasis on attack this season with erratic yet thrilling results, while north of the river Ian Atkins has concentrated on getting his defence right as the main priority. The philosophies of the two managers could hardly be more different, yet for all the goals at Ashton Gate, it's 'boring, boring Atkins' who has picked up more points, albeit in a lower league. The taunts from the Oxford fans last week may well reflect the entertainment value of Atkins' teams but wouldn't they rather be up where we are at the sharp end than lagging behind the leaders with the inconsistent stragglers? There were still relics from the Atkins era in Graham Rix's Oxford team last week, most notably the brutish Paul Wanless (all 15 stone of him) in midfield, and they proved just as tough to break down as we were. The difference between the sides was simply Junior Agogo, whose two goals and trickery to create two gilt-edged openings for Dave Savage and Aaron Lescott could have made a likely goalless draw into a 4-0 hiding. As it was, we had to settle for just two from Junior in the end, the first finishing Stuart Campbell's through ball superbly and the second with a controlled volley into a gaping net after Us' keeper Chris Tardif had seen his attempted clearance career straight up into the air off a bunch of bodies inside his box. This brace took Agogo's tally to seven goals for the campaign, which is more than he got in the whole of last season, and surely there are more to come. The surprise pick for our starting eleven in the Oxford game was Dave Savage, who had recently been made available for transfer so that he could look for a club nearer his Northampton home. When a player says he wants to leave, it is very rare to see them selected for future squads, which is why I was surprised when he came on as a sub at Sixfields, scoring a goal just for good measure. He was then named in the starting line-up against Oxford, which was a bit of a shock, yet he had a very good game against another of his old employers and was left cursing his own finishing when he dinked a glorious chance wide when put through by Agogo. Commuting from the Northampton area cannot be fun and you can see why he would like to work closer to home with a young family in tow. Several other Rovers players do a lot of travelling to get to Bristol with Lescott based in the Midlands and Christian Edwards living near Newport in South Wales to name just a couple. Then there is Craig Disley, who has been experiencing problems in moving his family all the way down from Mansfield. We tried to sign Stuart Barlow a couple of years ago but he would not relocate from the North West and it is easy to forget that there are many outside factors that can affect a player's morale and performance, not least the number of hours he spends in his car every week. © Chris Chappell - Friday 8th October 2004 Back to Index