A lot has been said about the lack of entertainment at the Mem this season with some fans even vowing to stay at home until a new manager is appointed. But you've got to laugh at the people who decided not to come last Saturday, as the more loyal (or gullible) Gasheads witnessed one of those games that only come along every few years. We may have failed to add to our meagre tally of two league victories in 2005 but it's not every day you score four and still don't win. The end result was a culmination of two stark extremes that were evident in both halves of the match - bad Rovers saved right at the death by good Rovers. The first half gave just a taster for what was to come after the interval, with slack defending gifting Mansfield the lead only for a quartered comeback at the end of the period. For the opening goal, Craig Hinton had been shadowing the left winger on the line when the ball was played back inside to an unmarked runner, who had plenty of time to wind up for the shot that led to the goal. Far from learning from this mistake, the Rovers defence let exactly the same move take place just minutes later and this proved to be a sign of things to come. Thankfully Ryan Williams replied instantly, running through from deep to shoot past the exposed keeper, before we were awarded a debatable penalty by the linesman for a trip just inside the area, which Richard Walker converted. Having clawed ourselves back from behind once, we then had to do it all over again when we tossed away the lead within a couple of minutes of the restart. John Anderson had been among the contenders for man of the match in our previous home game with Rochdale but had a shocking period here when he passed the ball vaguely towards Ryan Clarke without seeing Mansfield's Colin Larkin lurking for the equaliser, then left another man open for a free header soon after. Aaron Lescott was moved to right-back with disastrous effect when Disley was brought on for Hinton, as the midfielder was caught napping within seconds and the Stags charged through all-too-easily to make it 4-2. One of the positives of the Ian Atkins era is that we are never beaten until the final whistle, having already shocked both Yeovil and Boston with Lazarus-like revivals from two goals down. Despite the loss of Lewis Haldane through illness at the break, the manager still had Jamie Forrester on the bench to throw up front and after another penalty, flagged by the other linesman for a blatant shirt-tug, Jamie pounced in the box to slot home an unlikely leveller. With Lee Thorpe leaving in January, Forrester probably thought he would be seeing more action not less, but the re-emergence of Richard Walker has left him on the sidelines once again. There was talk of another striker, Swindon's Rory Fallon, arriving on loan on Transfer Deadline Day last Thursday, while Junior Agogo was laughably linked with Mansfield, but it was refreshing not to see much transfer activity where Rovers were concerned, throwing lots of money around that we don't have. Kevin Miller was shipped out on loan to Derby, which will hopefully save us a few pounds, and through the entrance doors came former Birmingham player Jon Bass and Chris Carruthers on loan from Northampton. Bass is primarily a right-back and will provide much-needed competition for Hinton there, while Carruthers is a left-sided midfielder who will hopefully be played alongside, rather than instead of, the ever-dangerous Williams. © Chris Chappell - Friday 25th March 2005 Back to Index