Bristol Rovers Vs Accrington Stanley, Memorial Stadium, Bristol, Sky Bet League 2, Saturday 12th September, Kick Off 3:00PM Accrington Info: http://www.not606.com/threads/a-guide-to-sky-bet-league-2-2015-2016-season.302580/#post-7993199 All the news and build up to Saturday's game will appear on this thread. Don't forget to vote on the poll above. My Prediction: Gas 1 - 0 Accrington (Harrison For The Gas)
Accrington has only lost 1 so far. Drew 4 and won 1. They got a 0-0 draw away at Portsmouth which is a good result! Wont be easy thats for sure!
The last time I saw Stanley play the GAS was in our relegation season when we outplayed them for virtually the whole game and they broke away to score in about the 90th min. their goal keeper took time wasting to a new level with the Rovers players retrieving the ball for his goal kicks only for him to pick up the ball and move it to the other side of his area with the ref looking on before finally booking him in about the 80th min., so I am hoping for a bad performance with us scoring the winning goal in the dying seconds or alternatively beating them about 6 or 7 nil
By Gerry Prewett This weekend Bristol Rovers face Accrington Stanley with both teams having individually identical win loss records. Rovers with 3 wins and losses and Stanley 1 win and 1 loss. Despite this Rovers are 2 points and 5 positions above the Reds. Rovers three defeats have come after a dozy first game, a dozy first half at Leyton Orient and a dozy Referee last weekend! Referee James Linington earned the ire of GasHead when he sent Ollie Clarke off for an innocuous challenge on Oxford’s Danny Rose. The card has now been overturned but the damage was done with Rovers having to play 75 minutes of the game with 10 men. Whilst Rovers lost their live televised game on Sunday, the day before Stanley earned their fourth draw of the season from six starts. Both Accrington and Portsmouth failed to take their chances in a battling 0-0 draw at Fratton Park. The Reds have still not won on the road this season. Michael Doyle had an early shot on goal for Portsmouth with a spectacular attempt from his own half but goalkeeper Jason Mooney watched it fly wide from outside his box. The Reds skipper Terry Gornell headed narrowly wide before Pompey's Gary Roberts ghosted past Matt Pearson and flashed a powerful strike on target. Pompey replaced keeper Brain Murphy at half-time with Paul Jones and he was brought into action on 55 minutes when he took on Stanley’s Sean McConville and came out on top. 21-year-old Josh Windass (yes the son of Gas hero Dean) tried to emulate his Dad’s Play-Off strike with a dipping shot from just outside the area. Mooney held Matt Tubbs’ overhead kick. With 5 bookings it was a battling performance by the Lancashire team. Rovers and Stanley have played one another 10 times before. The very first time was an FA Cup tie on 14 December 1929 at Eastville, the home team running out 4-1 winners. Four years later at the same stage Rovers visited Peel Park and came back out of the Cup, losing 1-0. Fast forward over 70 years before the rejuvenated Stanley were back into the League after their 1961 demise and visited Bristol once again. The very first league meeting again took place in December 23 2006. Once again Rovers hit 4 goals but this time Stanley were scoreless. The return game in Lancashire on 6 March ended in a 1-1 tie. When Rovers visited the Crown Stadium on 5 November 2011 little did Paul Buckle realise that it was to be the start of fireworks for him. A defeat that day was the beginning of a run of 8 games during which Rovers were to pick up just 2 points and culminated in his sacking. Rovers finished their 2011-12 home programme with a flourish as they disposed of Stanley with a 5-1 victory. The following season Rovers lost both games 1-0 and again 2-1 at the Crown Stadium in October. In the last game between the clubs Rovers lost out after the Reds scored in added time to take all three points at the Memorial Stadium on 28 January 2014. The Gas dominated for most of the game, and put the Accrington goal under plenty of pressure, but they could not find the back of the net and the visitor’s took advantage at the last minute to win 1-0. It was heartbreak for Rovers when Peter Murphy volleyed home the winner in the final seconds of added time. Stanley boss John Coleman spoke after the draw at Portsmouth (his team’s fourth in 6 games), “I am happy with a draw because I know how difficult it is to come to places like this with 15,000 fans baying for blood.” “I applaud that, you want fans to be passionate for their team, and I had some banter with some of the crowd and these are the games you want to play in. It’s just a pity we can’t play in front of a crowd like that every week and they can.” “We came here and had a game plan, we focused on our jobs and we had a couple of great chances. We didn’t come here to settle for a point. Some teams will come here to shut-up shop and go for a 0-0, we have come here and tried to win and we could have but a draw was probably a fair result.” “We’ve spoken about behaving like winners and that’s what we’ve got to try and do, we’ve got to play with a swagger and we’ve got believe we’re going to come to places like this and not be settling for a point.” “We’re going to go everywhere we play and try and win. We need to start winning more games,” said Coleman. “We’ve only won one and that’s a concern, the big problem we had last year in conceding we’ve addressed, now we need to marry that up with scoring goals.” Talking about centre back Tom Davies, who signed after his release from Fleetwood in the summer Coleman noted, “You wouldn’t think Tom has played only a handful of games. The way he defends belies his inexperience and I cannot comprehend how he has only played this many league games.” “He had the pressure of the crowd, he picked up an injury in the first half but there was no way he was coming off and you have got to applaud that. And he wasn’t alone.”
If you are coming along to The Memorial Stadium for our game against Accrington Stanley on Saturday, we hope you will purchase a copy of our matchday programme, The Pirate. Having undergone a major revamp in the summer, our matchday magazine for the game will consist of 72 pages and will cost you just £3. For those of you who don’t always buy a programme because you think that you have seen all of the articles and features on our website, you might be pleasantly surprised. Much of the content is unique and exclusive to the programme and won’t have been published elsewhere. In this issue manager Darrell Clarke and Chairman Nick Higgs both pen their own columns and we carry interviews with Tom Lockyer and James Clarke, while the latest team photo is featured on the centre pages. Our four page Academy section includes match reports from two U-18 games, a feature on our Academy U-11’s and a profile of U-18 central defender Alfie Kilgour. We’re sure that those of you who have supported the club for a number of years will enjoy our extended history section and in this issue we bring you the second of a series of articles by Jonty Morgan on the history of Bristol Rovers. Our feature titled the Great and the Good, about players who have turned out for the club over the years features England International Mike Channon who appeared, briefly, for Rovers. Alongside all of the official club news, we also bring you an eclectic mix of articles from a number of contributors, all of whom have one thing in common; they are all Gasheads! The latest commercial news and thoughts from the Supporters Club and Young Pirates are also included and we hope that if you haven’t previously purchased a copy of our programme you will make a point of buying one on Sunday. A number of supporters have asked about the possibility of receiving a digital copy of the programme and we are currently exploring the possibility of making this happen. However we would like to know how many supporters would be interested in subscribing, on an annual basis, to a digital copy. There are cost implications involved in producing a digital issue, in spite of some supporters believing that there are no costs involved. It could be as much as £99 per month, which means we would be looking for quite a large number of subscribers. We would be interested to know how many supporters are interested in digital issues, so please contact our Programme Editor, Keith Brookman on [email protected] and let him know your thoughts.
A quick look at today's opponents Bristol Rovers go into today's game looking to bounce back from last week's disappointing loss to Oxford United in front of the Sky TV cameras. Rovers: Darrell Clarke's men will be looking to secure another three points at the Mem and get back to winning ways. Team News: The game might come too soon for Will Puddy, Mark McChrystal and Daniel Leadbitter but new goalkeeper Lee Nicholls is available for selection. Darrell's View:”I went to watch them last weekend against Portsmouth at Fratton Park where they earned a point from a goalless draw. "They played well and thoroughly deserved to share the points with a strong Pompy side so I expect a very tough game today." Opposition: John Coleman's men currently occupy 15th place with seven points from their six games so far this season and Stanley come into today's game off the back of three straight draws against Notts County, Northampton and Portsmouth respectively. Dangerman - Josh Windass: Windass, son of Dean, is a former Huddersfield youngster who joined the Reds in the summer of 2014 after a spell training with the club. The 19-year old found his form towards the end of the 2014/15 campaign where he scored six goals in 14 games after slotting home his debut goal against Burton Albion in February. Last Time Out: Last time these two sides met was in January 2014 where a late Peter Murphy goal secured a fourth successive league win against Rovers. Tickets: Supporters can still purchase tickets on the gate this afternoon. Keeping Up With The Game: Full match commentary of Rovers game with Accrington Stanley can be heard through Gas PlayerHD. Supporters can access our LIVE match coverage by clicking here. Alternatively, stay tuned to the club’s social media outlets. Bristol Rovers found on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your match day fix and make sure you use #BristolRovers! Betting: The Football League’s primary sponsors have priced the game up with Rovers available at 1/1, Accrington at 3/1 with the draw available at 11/5. Bristol Rovers and SkyBet Promote Responsible Gambling for over 18s only. Prices correct at time of writing and subject to change. www.gambleaware.co.uk.
A dip in form, to be sure. And a couple of tough games coming up v Plymouth and Portsmouth. Time to regroup... Stanley seem to be out bogey team!
If DC is serious about a top 7 finish then he had better find a couple of strikers who aren't afraid to shoot and a creative midfielder to provide the openings. can't see us getting any points from our next couple of games which makes the target of 25 wins this season look very slim indeed Lee Nichols impressed today thought he was very vocal and had a go at defenders if he thought they weren't doing their jobs properly
I'm sure DC will freshen things up with the players he's got.But he definitely needs an experienced striker because Easter still seems a bit off the pace.
