‘A continuation of our dire away form’

We’ve had another week of shocks in this topsy-turvy season. And not just defensive ones for once.

While I think most observers of events in North Bristol would have guessed that some players are coming to the end of their careers in the famous quarters, and some would have had a stab at naming those players, I’m not sure that many expected Darrell to immediately withdraw four first-reamers from ever wearing the shirt again.

Only those who enjoyed the bad old days of overspending on wages and relegation battles in the basement division can really slag off our manager, and it’s a matter of public record that your correspondent has huge respect for the manager.

But this, to me, seems a bit of a harsh move. Will Puddy, Jermaine Easter and Mark McChrystal have played first team football and performed capably, if not brilliantly, very recently. By all means give them advance notice to look for clubs – if anything this gives them a head start ahead of the summer where an average of 500 players are battling for contracts. None of those three, or Liam Lawrence, would be shocked to hear that they’d be leaving BS7 in July.

But to totally pull the plug? I can’t agree with that. It only takes an injury here or a suspension there and one of those lads would be needed, at least on the bench. Those affected also weren’t named in the reserves XI in midweek – so they’ll lose their match sharpness. Bearing in mind that they’re on the payroll for another six months, why not keep them fresh and ready if needed? It seems a bit short sighted.

One thing that is slightly more predicable is the continuation of our dire away form. Walsall didn’t have to move mountains to find gaps in our defence on Saturday and at least two of their goals were avoidable thanks to poor defending. Tom Lockyer looks in need of a break and I hope Joe Partington is ready to start games soon, alongside the hopefully fit again Jake Clarke-Salter, or perhaps the new loanee from Stoke, Ryan Sweeney.

Many will bemoan yet more loan players joining the squad, citing the difficulties we had with the summer intake. While I agree entirely that a squad with half a dozen loanees isn’t my idea of heaven, Sweeney and QPR’s young keeper Joe Lumley look to be decent additions, additions.

Plus, if the clubs’ number one targets for permanent transfers in those positions aren’t available on the right terms this month, I’d rather we spend a couple of quid on loan players’ wages than blow a few hundred grand on second choice players.

Keen observers of the club’s recent past will note that it’s easy to get a player on the payroll but much harder to shift them off of it when things don’t work out. By the looks of things we’re only an outside bet for the top six anyway so it’s understandable that we don’t want to bet the house on an improbable third successive promotion.

Swindon are the visitors to Fortress Memorial, early on Saturday afternoon, 12:30 to be exact. The Robins are having a torrid time on the field, languishing in lower mid-table, unable to string two wins together all season, and, before a shock win over promotion favourites Bolton at the Macron two weeks ago, they hadn’t won on the road since the leaves were still on the trees.

They’re averaging fewer than a goal a game in the league, which should reassure even our defence. But they’ve recently strengthened so we shouldn’t count out the prospect of conceding a few goals. Islam Feruz, once the great white hope of Scottish football at the tender age of 14, has joined on loan from Chelsea, the latest in a long series of loan moves in a career that is meandering at best. He’s joined by Charlie Colkett, who we all know well of course from his recent spell at the Gas, and Ben Gladwin, on loan from QPR, who was highly rated in his original spell at the County Ground.

It’s not easy to predict the future at Rovers at present, but I hope we stuff them, just to teach their chairman yet another lesson for scandalously charging our fans double for the away fixture earlier in the season.

James Hodges is Bristol 24/7’s Bristol Rovers columnist for the 2016/17 season.