Our dreadful away record took another notch in the defeats column last week as Macclesfield became the latest side to send us back home with nothing. Here we are at the beginning of March and the last thing any fan wants is for there to be only one meaningful match left to play but that’s the situation we are faced with. The fact that this all-encompassing fixture is away from home is not something that fills anyone with much confidence, yet we went to Orient and won in the last round so anything is possible. Out of the four area finalists, Southend are the only side in any kind of form at the moment, dove-tailing around the play-off spots in League Two, and you have to say that despite being in a lower division to either Oldham or Wrexham, the Shrimpers are probably favourites to win the trophy. I will be at Roots Hall on Tuesday, more in hope than expectation, but the prospect of watching our back five try and nullify Macclesfield was not enough to tempt me up to Cheshire last week. As I was moving house, I was saved from having to make the decision myself and in any case the fixture was unlikely to be as exciting as the first time we went there in May 1999, when we won 4-3 in a final day epic. Ian Atkins teams may be defensive but at least they can score in most games and however we feel about the current manager, Rovers are slightly better than in recent years. For a start, we are not on the verge of breaking club records for the most minutes without a goal, which was an accolade both Gerry Francis and Ray Graydon went chasing after during their spells at the helm. The only problem is that we are always having to come back and equalise at the moment and the Macclesfield game was the third in a row where we had gone 1-0 down. It is heartening for Tuesday that we have enough about us to hit back and level from being behind in games and we will need all the comeback spirit we can muster at Southend seeing as we go into that match a goal down already. One man who would really suit the present wing-back system is Ali Gibb, a quality winger who does not mind doing a lot of defensive work. It is surely no coincidence that his absence has seen Rovers’ fortunes take a turn for the worse, as we were 8th in the table when he was first forced out of the team through injury in October and then we beat Northampton and stayed undefeated during his brief return to the starting line-up in January. Playing this system with five out-and-out defenders is not working because we are still letting goals in and have kept only one clean sheet in fifteen games. That single shut-out against Grimsby was only earned by an stunning display from Ryan Clarke, as the visitors had more shots than we did, even though it finished 3-0. Clarke is back in the stands after his commendable 11-match stint between the posts and while I would love for him to take over as the first-choice Number 1, the stats show that the Grimsby match was his only clean sheet. © Chris Chappell - Friday 4th March 2005 Back to Index