Last 6 games. Pompey: 3-0-3 - 8-9 - 9 (11th) Rovers: 1-2-3 - 4-7 - 5 (21st) Pompey last 6 homes: 3-2-1 - 3-1 - 11 (5th) Rovers last 6 aways: 0-3-3 - 3-10 - 3 (21st) v fellow bottom half teams: Pompey: 20 - 7-9-4 - 1.50p/g (12th) at home 10 - 5-3-2 - 1.80p/g (11th) Rovers: 20 - 7-5-8 - 1.30p/g (20th) away 9 - 0-4-5 - 0.44p/g (24th) Reverse Fixture: 21st December Rovers 2-0 Pompey What are your score and attendance predictions?
Hi Dev I reckon 3-1 to Pompey, with an attendance of 18,800. With a packed ground, including an impressive turn out by Bristol Rovers fans, the atmosphere should be excellent. The way Andy Awford has got our players performing immediately following kick off, we should be able to hit them early on, and gain an advantage. Should be a cracker of a game.
Our last 6 home games. please log in to view this image Rovers are going home with a ceramic "Dusty bin" while AA drives up the Eastern road in his 1979 Talbot Horizon.
Bristol Rovers have been in dire form recently. In their last ten games they've won two, drawn three and lost five, and their six results have been in this order: D L W L D L, it's another game I think winnable and if we play like we did last week then it could be a drubbing. If we do win, and other results go in our favor today, we could go up to 13th in the table, but for this we need a draw between Wimbledon and Newport and Cheltenham to lose at Fleetwood.
According to Andy, if results go our way, and we win tommorow, we'd be safe? Unless I'm being really dense (always possible!) but I don't think that's correct? If we win, we'll go onto 54 points. The maximum points the losers of Northampton v Wycombe (if there is a loser) can get is 55, if it's a draw, then the maximum will be 56, as would be the maximum Bristol can get if we beat them. So in theory, we would need one more win or for them to drop points in the next game (and even then we could go down on goal difference).
We got a draw between Wimbledon and Newport and Cheltenham lost. Results going at they have today, if we win tomorrow we're up to 14th and seven points clear of the relegation zone
Lapras, while we might not be mathematically safe if we win tomorrow, can you see Northampton or Wycombe winning all their games while we lose all of ours, because that is what would need to happen. So I think AA can justify his statement.
Good luck for tomorrow!! I am beginning to warm to you guys again!! There seems to have been a complete mood swing amongst the fans, and hopefully players and staff since AA's appointment. As people say in Mallorca, "poc a poc" Step by step!! Maybe the players are not that bad and perhaps a little tinkering is needed to continue in an upward trajectory. What is important is to keep hold of your better young players as it is interesting to notice the number of players that Pompey jettisoned when in the Premier League, Ritchie, Buxton to name but two, are regulars for their respective teams in the Championship.
Definitely all to do with Andy Awford's excellent man management skills, Ides. Almost all the players were at Fratton Park under the Barker regime. They had no momentum under Barker, who constantly criticised them publicly when they did not perform well. The reason they weren't performing well was to my mind, Barker's total lack of football management ability. He was a muppet, whereas Awfs is a football man who has worked wonders running our youth academy, and knows how to handle players.
Perhaps Andy has learnt a lot from observing Barker's lack of man-management skills and thought hard about the time he played under the guidance of Alan Ball - didn't he sign him as a youngster and then as a player thought about how Jim Smith handled players and subsequently as a one of the backroom staff under Harry Redknapp!!
Awfs was one of our most passionate players, he has played and worked around some of the industries best, not all of whom are house hold names. When yu look at some of his pre/ post match interviews, he exudes confidence.......then take a look back at some of barkers........you can see where it went wrong, i dont doubt barker had some good plans for tactics (dont think we saw them ) but man management was not his thing........ stability was the key for this season, awfs seems to have brought that at last........
Agree, bp, but the 64 million dollar question is, do we appoint him as permanent first team manager for next season, or does he revert back to being an excellent Academy manager, as he was before ? Does Andy want the managers job permanently ? He didn't before, earlier this season, when he was caretaker boss following Guy Whittingham's departure, he made that quite clear at the time. Personally, I'd love to see Awfs get appointed, on the basis of what difference he has made to the side since he was named caretaker boss. Possibly bring in someone with experience like Jim Smith as assistant manager would be a good idea, keep Alan McLoughlin as first team coach, and name Paul Hardyman as Academy coach.
Awford has said he's wouldn't be against getting the job perminantly but he's just focusing on the short-term for now and wont think of the future til the end of the season. I dont want him to get the job perminantly next if all that's going to happen is that the fans and club by-and-large turn on him during the first extended bad patch and we end up sacking him, but if he wins most of the remaining games of the season he'll have had a very good auditioning period and it'd be hard to suggest a better alternative. If we could guarentee he wouldn't be the victim of trigger-happy sackings and that he'd be here for several seasons to come then I'd support him getting the job, but if not then I would not.
