The big story of last week was undoubtedly the red card shown to Junior Agogo up at Lincoln. Within seconds of smashing home a crucial equaliser he was being escorted from the pitch and initially it was a mystery as to why he was sent off. The post-match interviews on the radio with manager Ian Atkins and Stuart Campbell hinted that a gesture may have been made but there was still a great deal of confusion and nobody admitted to seeing it. Later that evening I paid a visit to the Rovers web site to see if there were any more details and thanks to the eagle-eyed club photographer, promptly got a picture of the hand 'signal' in question to crush any doubts about what the card was for. In most cases like this, the gesture is aimed at the opposition fans as an ill-advised retort to abuse from the stands, like Wayne Rooney's blowing of the cheeks at Anfield the same day. It has since emerged that Junior's moment of madness was made in the direction of his own bench, probably in answer to Atkins' repeated orders to get stuck in more. In all walks of life, some people react better to the sensitive arm-around-the-shoulder approach while others need their fuses lit by a good old-fashioned rollicking. Agogo perhaps falls into the latter category and so this gesticulation must have been badly-conceived sign language for "how about that then?" There is no evidence of any rift between the player and his manager, seeing as he has come back into the starting eleven recently and scored in his last three outings, so I think the euphoria of netting this vital goal just got the better of him and the fussy referee construed it as malicious. It is a shame to lose him in the middle of such a purple patch but as we all know, there are plenty of strikers queuing up to replace him. In past years, if our top scorer was out for a short while, we either had to get someone in on loan or give the youth teamer a go. This was when the likes of Mike Davis, Martin Paul and Jon French got their chances but this season's squad is so bloated that it would take a major crisis for Lewis Haldane or Scott Sinclair to be handed a start. Midfield is another area where we have umpteen permutations and the left flank in particular has been the subject of much experimentation this year. Paul Trollope, Stuart Campbell, Dave Savage and even Jon Beswetherick have been tried out there - everyone, it seems, apart from our sole resident left winger Ryan Williams. Williams has the ideal professional attitude that Atkins strives for in his players, yet he has only had three token cameo appearances from the bench, while other less-suited and less-enthusiastic individuals have been rewarded with more. He has been a tremendous presence on loan at Forest Green Rovers, where the previously doomed Conference side have remained unbeaten in all the games Ryan has played, but then we hear last week that Rovers are tracking Accrington Stanley's Rory Prendergast, another Conference left winger. I remember Williams was one of the few members of our team to come out of last season's collapse at Yeovil with any credit and hopefully he will get recalled in time for our next daunting appointment at Huish Park, which is now looming large on the horizon. © Chris Chappell - Friday 21st January 2005 Back to Index