‘An improbable hunt for a play-off spot’

I don’t know about you but I’m relieved that club football is back. I’m not one of those who hates internationals, quite the opposite, but after a week of the constant negativity that surrounds the England team, it’s nice to get back to Rovers.

Saturday marks our first game in two weeks (The Checkawhatsit reserve team cup doesn’t count in my house), and I’m not sure whether our manager will be frustrated that the time off has broken up our recent momentum, or if he’ll be happy that some weary legs have had a bit of a rest after a seemingly endless run of games in quick succession.

Not that everyone had a rest, of course; our two usual suspects turned out for Wales Under-21s, Ellis Harrison scoring a neat header in their 3-1 win over Armenia, and Chelsea loanee Jake Clarke-Salter contributing to England Under-20s’ cause.

That’s right folks, other players currently plying their trade in Bristol play international football, not just that one guy over the river who is now seen by the football press as the next Pele. Not to criticise Tammy Abraham personally, despite his dreadful choice in loan clubs, but he is being built up to be England’s next great hope based on 2 good months. We never learn, do we?

Anyway, enough whinging. Gillingham make the long trip west on Saturday. And it’s a very long trip. I know, having once made it only for the game to be called off half an hour before kick-off. It was an FA Cup tie, and by the time it was rearranged we had a few players out with suspension and lost the replay. Gillingham went on to play Arsenal’s brilliant early 2000s side at Highbury. So I do hope there aren’t any torrential rainstorms over BS7 on Saturday afternoon!

Gillingham are a side I expect Rovers to dispatch without too much trouble at home. Their only win since the end of August was at home to the tragic soap opera that is Coventry City, the league’s bottom club, and they’re bound to be low on confidence. Do look out for Paul Konchesky, their left-back, once ridiculed for being signed by Liverpool (whatever happened to the man who made that purchase? Roy something?) but was previously best known to Gasheads for being turned inside and out by Aaron Lescott in an FA Cup replay at the Mem. And let’s face it, Aaron wasn’t exactly Cristiano Ronaldo in the dribbling department.

Buoyed by 3 points from that game (probably), we make our way to the imaginatively named Stadium:MK for a game against everyone’s second least favourite team on Tuesday. They shouldn’t really call themselves MK “Dons” should they? The story of how they came to be is one that most football fans in this country know so don’t let me bore you with it. But the only thing they kept from the “Dons” was the right to play League football. The whole sorry affair was a long time ago now and to many people’s delight, AFC Wimbledon are, for now, temporarily above Milton Keynes in League 1.

They’re a good side on paper, and their manager, Karl Robinson, sets them out to attack from the outset, but they bizarrely haven’t won a home league game yet – I guess Stadium:MK won’t be rebranded as Fortress:MK anytime soon. Given that they’ve got free-scoring league leaders Scunthorpe away before they play us, which should take something out of them, I think we’re good value for a point at the home of roundabouts which should keep us in, whisper it, another improbable hunt for a play-off spot.