Excellent attacking performance yesterday - Collins, Evans and Nicholson are a dangerous front three and it’s great to see Collins’ confidence in front of goal growing. I was delighted when we signed him from FGR but he’s taken a little while to get going. Now he has, he’s a very good player who scores top goals. Evans is a brilliant find and is near the top of the L2 assist charts. All four goals were excellent and it wouldn’t be Rovers if they didn’t give us a fright after letting slip a two-goal advantage. At least this time we grabbed, and deserved, all three points. Slightly worrying that we don’t appear to have many CBs for the next few games though! We just need some consistency now, as we can see what the boys can do when they put their minds to it. We should play in yellow and green at home more often! UTG!
Sadly, getting some consistency with our performances and results is going to be easier said than done I fear, due to this new strain of Covid that's sweeping through the country. To be honest, if we as a country, don't get on top of it sooner rather than later, I wouldn't be in the least surprised to see the season suspended, halted or aborted at some point again. It's getting ridiculous now - how long are we going to have to live with this pandemic rearing it's head every few months, and is it ever going to go away or is this our lot for ever now? Don't know why the World is so concerned with climate change etc, when this Chinese plague will probably kill us all long before climate change affects us!!
Brentford v Man Utd cancelled tonight and possibly others tomorrow and the weekend because of covid, some managers are now insisting that players who want new / extended contracts have to be jabbed or they are not getting one, think Tottenham might be cancelled. Reminded me that the last match I saw at the Mem was v Sunderland March 2020 and lock down started a couple of days later, was reminded of this when Gas against food poverty was advertised as taking place last Saturday and the first game lost to Covid for the fans was Ipswich when a food collection was taking place BG was the manager I believe at that time, followed by Tisdale and JB in quick succession, covid has a lot to answer for
Surprise surprise! The Scunthorpe game now off due to outbreak of Covid in our camp. Will also mean the Boxing Day game will be off , due to the 10 day isolation rule, so that's our lot till well after Christmas at least. Sadly I can only see it getting worse before it gets better, so hope everyone stays safe and well over the coming weeks - at the end of the day, there are far more important things to worry about than football, despite what Bill Shankley once said!!
As Rovers were playing away on Saturday, I had a trip lined up to see FGR v Mansfield with my sons' football club - there was over 100 of us going, free food & drink vouchers for the kids etc. Postponed too. Sodding covid!
Bummer!! Best laid plans out of the window for many people this weekend, I suspect. I suppose the only good thing about it for Rovers, is that by the time games restart, our horrendous injury list might look a little better, and we might have more options to pick from. Hard to think of anything else positive about it!
Covid is here to stay I'm afraid, just like colds and flu. There will always be new strains of covid. I reckon we will need a booster jab for covid every year like the flu jab. Nothing will change. The jabs don't stop you from getting it or spreading it.
Tonight's team v Crawley Belshaw Hoole, En Anden, Altro, Anderton, Une Autre, En Weiterer Anderson, Evans, Nicholson Collins Subs Ward, Otro, Clarke, Westbrooke, Thomas, Spence, Langlais You will notice the new signings in defence and midfield, all under 21 years old and all free signings, Danish, Italian French, German and Spanish
With today's game at Orient being postponed late in the day, (around 10.00am I believe), and then hearing that the team were actually on their way to London when the game was caped, am I being a bit dense in wondering why the team bus would set off, if there weren't enough fit players to make the team?. There may be a perfectly good reason, but if I was connected to Orient, I think I'd be asking the question! Surely if people woke up feeling poorly this morning. they wouldn't have travelled anyway, so why did the coach even leave Bristol?
If they decided not to travel before the EFL made a decision, Rovers would get done for it. Possible points deduction or fine for being unable to field a team. They had to carry on as normal until the EFL postponed the game themselves so there wouldn't be any come back on Rovers. The players feeling unwell woke up with symptoms of covid and not had an actual test done confirming they have it or not. Rovers would have taken a lot of youngsters with them to make up a team and even then, apparently, we had 12 players and 2 of them were GK's. Rovers had to play ball with the EFL to avoid repercussions.
Thanks for that - makes a lot of sense and explains why they set off from Bristol. Such a shame for fans who wasted their time and money travelling, but this is the uncertainty that Coronavirus produces in every walk of life, whether it be essential stuff like hospital treatment or leisure stuff like sports events. I read earlier that Wael has said he'll pay for travel to the rearranged Orient game, like he is going to for the game at Scunthorpe - nice gesture for him to make. As for whether we will actually manage to complete our season, only time will tell, but I'm beginning to doubt it, the way things are heading.
I am getting more concerned about the small squads that League 1 a 2 can register, 22 players plus GKs if the premier teams with 25 players plus u21s struggle what hope have league 1 and 2 have as most now cannot afford U21 teams and therefore send their youngsters out on loan
Well this should be fun. Looking at the lineup we have just one central defender - the 20 year-old new boy Connolly who’s never played a first team game! Plenty of attacking options though. My youngest son’s team beat Brockworth (Gloucester) 15-0 this morning in the driving rain. I reckon we’ll beat Posh by the same margin (said a loony)!!!
Todays line up 4-2-3-1 formation Belshaw, Hoole, Clarke, Connolly, Anderton, Coutts, Thomas, Westbrooke, Evans, Spence, Nicholson Subs Ward, Martinez, Jones, Lawrence, Vaughan, Pitman
