They say that going out of a Cup competition at the final hurdle is one of the worst feelings in football. A missed penalty cost us at this stage in 1996 when we lost out to Shrewsbury and so it proved again this time as Junior Agogo’s spot kick miss in the first leg ultimately made all the difference. Although this turned out to be a pivotal moment over the two legs, Junior should not be blamed for our exit from the competition, as he did as much as anyone to get us into the Final. He teed up Richard Walker for our first goal of the night and then struck an absolute beauty, netting with a dipping left-foot volley right in front of the away end to make it 2-2, which certainly made a close game of it in the final few minutes. The Agogo-Walker partnership is really flourishing at the moment and the pair of them set each other up on Tuesday night. Agogo has undoubtedly proved himself as Rovers’ first choice striker this season and he is now on the verge of breaking through the landmark 20-goal barrier that all forwards set their sights on at the start of the year. Ian Atkins has tried out a few different partners for his main man and while Jamie Forrester and Lee Thorpe both put the ball in the net on occasions this term, they seemed to play better with each other rather than Agogo. Junior’s purple patches have tended to coincide with Walker being in the starting line-up and only now are we seeing both our front two get on the scoresheet at the same time. We may have failed to score in Saturday’s bore-draw with Rochdale but that was the first time we had drawn a blank in 13 matches, which is pretty good when you think back to the goal-shy Graydon era. It was a rather drab stalemate but frustrating as it was not to break down such average opposition, I don’t think it was worthy of the booing that was heard at the final whistle. Maybe my tolerance levels have been expanded after years of watching disappointing performances from the men in quarters or perhaps I am too loyal for my own good, but it would take a lot more than a near-meaningless nil-nil to get me worked up. It could be that the instant success demanded of clubs higher up in the game is starting to filter down to the lower leagues because there have been calls for the manager’s head both at Rovers and City, and in each case the gaffer has had less than a season in charge. It takes a while to change things exactly to the way you want them and neither Bristol club is facing a relegation crisis in the way that we were this time last year. Far from being abysmal this season, I would say we have been mediocre. History dictates that Rovers only get promoted every 15 years or so and therefore we are probably due our next taste of success, seeing as the last promotion campaign was in 1990. Patience is something Gasheads have had to develop over the years and now is as good a time as any to show it, rather than by over-reacting. © Chris Chappell - Friday 11th March 2005 Back to Index