‘Wimbledon was a small-scale remake of Coventry last year’

Should we talk about Wimbledon? What does that result, a 1-0 defeat away at Kingsmeadow, mean?

Judging from the highlights, it looked like a scrappy, bitty sort of game. No real quality was shown by either side going forward. Wimbledon’s excuse for that was their chronic lack of form; ours was presumably tiredness. We looked knackered after two games in a short stretch of time.

On the face of it, we lost an awful game, devoid of clear-cut chances, away at a team that we should have beaten on paper, because of one defensive lapse late on. It was basically a small-scale remake of the defeat away at Coventry last season.

The manager was out in force, as he usually is after a defeat, giving his midfielders and forwards a bit of deserved stick. But he also repeated his overtures about budgets. He speaks of us having a “bottom six budget”. Could it be that Rovers, only non-League Two years ago and with a stadium that must cost more to upkeep than it earns, have a smaller budget than a lot of our League One colleagues?

My respect and admiration for DC rings from this page almost weekly. But I’m a little bit sick of budget talk. Why should we spend more money we don’t have, after giving him a big transfer budget in the summer? Of course, everyone associated with the club wants it to grow and succeed, but pumping in loads of cash into budgets, when Financial Fair Play watches over us, isn’t a great idea.

Onwards, then, to the weekend. Back at home, with a double-header against two of the top five: Scunthorpe (Saturday) and Wigan (Tuesday).

If there’s anything left in the tank in terms of making the top six this year (and that’s a HUGE if), maximum points are surely required here.

First up are The Iron,who are in a really rough patch of form. Perennial overachievers at this level (given their size and fanbase), they looked a decent bet for automatic promotion until the New Year rang in. Two wins from nine since then ain’t what Graham Alexander needs. The only away success in that time was at Fleetwood, who are so bad they’ll will be driftwood is they keep losing games like they have been lately. (Does that work as a gag? I’m not sure. I laughed though).

Woefully lacking in goals from their frontmen, it’s been left to Josh Morris to do a Billy Bodin-last-season sort of job for United. He did a job on us last season, scoring a pearler (am I young enough to still use that term?) on opening day and is the obvious man to watch.

For my money, we’ve got the measure of Scunthorpe, especially at home. Their wretched run of form is one thing, but they could only beat us at their place by a last-minute goal. And that was when we utterly, utterly stunk away from home.

Wigan is an entirely different kettle of fish. Go behind against these lot, and it’s over. They’ve conceded 18 goals all season (fairly sure we’ve shipped more in a month at times this year), kept Man City, Aguero and all, out on live telly in the week, and score goals for fun.

Now, there are a few things that every normal, well-rounded human being can agree on regarding the Latics. Their owner, Dave “I broke my leg, y’know” Whelan is the most annoying man in world football, their relative financial might is the reason they’re high up the league this season, and that song they sing about a certain Northern Irish striker is as funny as it is original. That’s right, it’s neither.

But they’ll give us a thorough test on Tuesday. DC will be hoping that the visitors have half an eye on their televised promotion six pointer at Blackburn next weekend. I’d take a point here, if offered. Hopefully they won’t fancy a cold night in north Bristol, and the likes of Nick Powell (how is this guy in League One?!?) will be kept quiet. Sadly I don’t think the ‘let ’em score first, mount a glorious comeback’ shtick will work here.

Finally, if you’re going to the Mem on Saturday, bring some supplies for the foodbank, please. A couple of properly decent folks have set up a collection at the Memorial Gates. See @Gas4Foodbanks for the details. It’s utterly shocking that so many people are left to rely on public generosity to meet basic human needs in 2018, but without the dedicated volunteers who run these places, things would be even worse. Most folk are one or two bad pieces of luck away from needing help like this, so please be generous.