‘Rovers’ frantic start to the season’

I’ll bet that Darrell Clarke was secretly pleased to get a weekend off after what can only be described as a frantic start to 2016/17. Three cup games in August, partially thanks to our League Cup run (it counts as a cup run if you don’t go out in the first round, okay), added to a schedule that has seen four completed games and a farcical abandonment.

While we were all “enjoying” England’s laboured 1-0 success over Slovakia which kicked off Big Sam’s Brave New Era™, most of League 1 carried on without us, because they aren’t packed with international superstars like we are.

The consequence of this is that we currently sit in the relegation zone. This might provoke feelings of panic until you remember we have two games in hand over most of the division; in fact, if we’d played those two games and got four points from them (hardly beyond the realms of fantasy given that we held Swindon to 0-0 before the heavens opened and bearing in mind how strong we are at home) we’d sit happily in the top half of the table.

The two home games coming up in the next few days will be a great barometer of what this squad can do in League 1 this term.

As I mentioned a few weeks back, Walsall are the archetypal League 1 team; they can play some good passing football and they can also mix it up with some rough stuff.

They’re not a League 2 club promoted beyond their station, nor are they a higher division giant, fallen on bad times. They are as wedded to the third tier of English football as can be – the Saddlers have spent three quarters of their league existence in this division.

If we’re looking for a solid mid-table finish (and I know that the ever-ambitious Mr Clarke definitely isn’t) then we shouldn’t be struggling against a team like Walsall.

There’s a bit of ex-Gas interest in the shape of their goalkeeper, Neil Etheridge. Etheridge has one of the more interesting back stories of recent Rovers players.

He used to moonlight as an underwear model! When I heard reports that there was going to be an underwear model turning up at the Memorial Stadium, I thought that some marketing genius had decided to take us back to the un-PC 1970s, when clubs had mildly sexist “girl of the match” sections in their match programmes with a scantily clad female fan adorning the pages. I certainly didn’t expect said model to be 6’2 and male.

But first, Rochdale at home. They’ve accrued fewer points in six games than we have in four. They’re a better side than their lowly league position suggests but they’re also the kind of team I expect us to beat at home; they’ve had a rough start, could be low on confidence, and have a long trip ahead to get to BS7. Not to mention that they played their first tie in the demeaning insult cup  Checkatrade Trophy in midweek while our lads enjoyed a night in.

Rochdale and Rovers’ main link is, of course, Rickie Lambert, the finest forward I and many others have seen in the blue and white quarters. Those who claim to have seen better might just be old enough to have seen Geoff Bradford, and it’s dreadfully difficult to compare players from different eras.

I was pleased to see Sir Rickie escape from his West Bromwich Albion hell on Deadline Day; a player of his undoubted quality deserved better than to rot in a reserve team.

Finally, well done and congratulations to all involved in the Fans’ derby last weekend. It’s great to see the return of this occasion, all to raise funds for Children’s Hospice South West. Rovers fielded our President, Wael Al-Qadi, and City ran out convincing winners thanks to two “fans” who looked suspiciously like an ex-Moldovan internationals and a striker who was on the books of a League 1 club three years ago.

If you didn’t make it to the Mem, please consider giving the organisers a few quid at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Marc-Rees3.