ROVERS FANZ VIEW COLUMN
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It was going to happen eventually, and despite taking the lead twice, Rovers' unbeaten run finally came to an end. Those who travelled to Brisbane Road for last Saturday's 4-2 defeat to Leyton Orient were certainly treated to a thriller, although there was no happy ending for Gasheads. In terms of creating clear chances, Rovers dominated the hosts but as we all know, games are won by how many you put away and Orient's conversion rate was much better than ours. There were a few sitters missed, we hit the post and the bar, plus Robbie Ryan was denied a pretty blatant penalty. The referee even admitted seeing contact between the goalkeeper and Ryan but failed to award it because our left-back had "made a meal of it". I am already annoyed at the current rule that seems to insist that a challenge in the box is either a penalty or a dive, with no credence given to the notion that players do actually tumble over due to momentum and loss of balance, not just because they are looking to deceive the ref with a pre-meditated fall. Perhaps some players feel they need to exaggerate contact these days as an undeniable foul may not be penalised in the area unless it is seen as blatant. Even if we had added a third from the spot, Orient ended up scoring four to put the game beyond our reach after a deadly spell of three goals in seven minutes, all of which involved former winger Wayne Carlisle. The 'law of the ex' often tends to strike in football when players play a blinder against an old employer and I was not too surprised that Carlisle had an impact on the game as he made and scored loads of goals for Rovers in the past two seasons. Some fans may have noticed that we took to the field last week wearing white socks. Apparently Ian Atkins reckons this will help Rovers by making it slightly easier to spot team-mates at a glance with lighter attire. He may have a point because our nearly-year of 1999-2000 saw us play in white socks at home and also away, both with the white shirts and the yellow and navy strip. His teams at Oxford and Northampton always turned out in pale coloured socks and I suppose that when a player is looking down at the ball, then he will spot a brighter sock a split-second sooner than a dreary dark one! This is not the only innovation that Atkins is keen to try as last week saw the arrival of nutritionist Laura Church, who will help the squad to improve their eating habits in a bid to give us another slight advantage on the pitch. I remember Ian Holloway introduced a dietician during his time here and the players would eat together after training from a specialised menu at the Beeches. The training complex has since moved from that base in Brislington, which is probably a good thing as certain players used to be seen in the nearby McDonalds! Rovers have had more old-fashioned regimes under Gerry Francis and Ray Graydon in the meantime, where lots of running was the order of the day and novel ideas regarding diet and fitness were no doubt dismissed as folly. Anything that might improve the team by a fraction is surely worth considering in such a close league as the one we are in this year.
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