I am not keen on this competition. I never want Rovers to lose of course but sooner we are out of this competition the better. I only feel this way as I am dead against prem B teams being involved. The reasons behind them joining, I understand. It to help young English players gain proper experience against experienced pro's. But these B teams are mainly full of foreign youngsters, so it benefits other countries and not just England so its counter productive. All the while, we haven't been able to (until this season) use these games to give our own youngsters some match experience.
I did though, listen to the game last night. No way would I spend a tenner to watch it but free on the radio, fair enough. I just wanted to see how the team gets on, if they build on Saturday's win. I thought we played well - going by the commentary. Game should have been wrapped up before our late penalty. But it wasn't. Not clinical enough yet. But the penalty should have killed the game. However, Leahy had his penalty saved but was gifted an easy tap in on the rebound. Somehow, he missed that too! So many chances to finish the game and would have been a well deserved victory too. But straight after the penalty miss.... Oxford go down the other end and score to send the game into a penalty shoot out, which again we lost!
So the game should have been won, which would have made 2 wins in a row, increasing confidence among the squad, along with 2 good team performances, which included a very youthful team last night. But now that penalty miss by Leahy, followed by losing our clean sheet in the 89th minute and going on to lose our 2nd shoot out of the season, how much would that now dent the confidence of the squad, especially when the confidence have been so low for months.
Saturday will now be very interesting to see how we bounce back following lasts night's disappointment result. We are only facing the team at the top of the league.