‘We are crying out for wise heads, especially in defence’

Oof.

That’s a short description of events at the Rovers since the 6-0 mauling of Northampton.

Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at home to Oxford is being pointed out as an example of why the squad has gone backwards since last season. “It’s a game we’d have won last year,” I’ve heard some folk say.

That individual point is hard to rebut; our home record over the past few years shows very few defeats. We’ve lost three league games at the Mem already this season – having only lost four on home turf all last year.

Two decent sides who try to play football the right way did a great job of cancelling one another out. That is, until a catalogue of errors from multiple players gave the U’s their opportunity late on.

Tuesday’s miserable-looking display at Shrewsbury did little to fan the flames of discontent. Now, Shrewsbury are top of the division, but you don’t go to any game expecting to be four goals down at half time.

Scoring goals, as discussed previously, doesn’t appear to be an issue. Defensively, it’s not harsh to say we are all over the shop. We’re conceding three or more in a game with depressing regularity. It’s making things so hard that even our prolific frontline of Harrison, Bodin and Gaffney can’t always make up the arrears. Only Forest Green have conceded more out of the 92 league clubs.

But ignore the stats. The evidence is there, on tape, for all to see. Granted, we weren’t exactly solid at the back last year, but the constant errors, and the calamitous nature of them, must be infuriating for the coaching staff.

It comes down to a lack of leadership and experience in the back line. Tom Lockyer may have 200-odd appearances to his name, and has served us with distinction in lower divisions, but he’s struggling in League One now.

He’s clearly a talented player but at 23 he needs someone next to him with experience at this level. None of our central defenders have this; Broadbent looks like he’ll be a heck of a player but is so new to professional football that he’s going to make mistakes. Ryan Sweeney is making them too. One major transfer priority in January has to be a streetwise centre-half who can do ‘the ugly stuff’ that keeps us in games. We are crying out for wise heads, especially in defence.

Back to this idea that we’ve gone backwards. I’m not sure I agree. Even after all the defensive clangers and away batterings, we’re a whole three league places under our finishing position from May. Is the league better than last year? Who knows. Is there more money in it? Probably. But then our conquerors from Tuesday night sit top, and you can’t convince me that Shrewsbury have more to spend than Blackburn, Charlton or Portsmouth.

Maybe we’ve just started to plateau. Or maybe, as the manager alluded to in midweek, it’s hard to go further than mid-table in League One if you’re Bristol Rovers? The days of clubs like ours dragging big second tier clubs to a ramshackle old ground and standing to-to-toe with them seem distant.

Not that this is a plea against moaning; if you go halfway up the country on a school night you have a right not to expect a four goal deficit at the break. The manager clearly knows that.

But we tend to go to extremes. (By ‘we’ I mean all football fans, not just Rovers). Okay, maybe it doesn’t look like we’ve got a big chance of promotion based on the start we’ve had. But that doesn’t mean it’s all doom and gloom. Rovers sit nowhere near the drop, and I’d argue that we’ve got more things working for us in the squad than against us. Any calls for a change of manager will be met with the derision they deserve.

One way of lightening the mood is taking maximum points home on Saturday. One of the delights of a trip to Rochdale is the ability to get a round in and have change from a tenner, but a performance more like the Northampton one and less like Tuesday would be more refreshing than a pint of locally-brewed mild.

Dale are short on goals, notching just over half as many as us. They’re reliant mainly upon Steven Davies, the nomadic ex-Bristol City forward, for most of them. However, Matt Done and Brad Inman, in midfield, are creative talents who can look Championship-quality on a good day.

So, they can’t score, yet we can’t defend. They are there for the beating but we are bound to be low on confidence. I wonder if game 15 of the league campaign brings our maiden draw.