‘Win this one and it’s up for grabs now’

It doesn’t matter if you’re a ‘rose-tinter’, a doom-monger, or somewhere in between. Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to lowly Northampton was an opportunity missed and two points definitely dropped.

Rovers dominated throughout, and had a number of clear-cut chances against a poor side. The Cobblers, wearing the most heinously bad kit I’ve ever seen, were much-improved from the side that took a pasting from us in the Autumn, granted. The manager made overtures pre-match about how they’re a totally different team to the humiliated Northampton side from the 6-0, but they are still struggling and were still eminently beatable.

Liam Sercombe could’ve had two on his own, hitting the bar in the first half and forcing a miracle goal-line clearance after the break. Northampton also found Kyle Bennett hard to handle, resorting to chopping him down, a few minutes before he tapped home the rebound from Ellis Harrison’s shot to give us the lead. The diamond formation employed of late really suits Bennett doesn’t it? Harrison deserved to put us two goals up just before the break, too, before a wonder stop from Richard O’Donnell in the away side’s goal.

But then, as per the well-known footballing script for sides who don’t convert chances into goals, came the equaliser. And what a soft one it was to concede. Substitute, and debutant, Kevin Luckassen managing to rise above Tom Lockyer and head home under no pressure.

There was still plenty of time to take a chance and come away with a deserved three points, especially after Town had a man sent off. But we lacked that cutting edge. Harrison, for my money, needs a strike partner who is scoring goals, to lessen the burden on him. Much has been said about Tom Nichols this season, and he may come good in the future, but right now he can’t dislodge Rory Gaffney. Since promotion to League One, Gaffney has 17 goals in 68 games in all competitions for us. Sure, he’s full of running, his work rate is superb, and he’s got the clichéd ‘good feet for a big lad’. But if a striker with a goal return of one in four has no competition for his place, that speaks volumes.

Harrison has been spectacular this season, worlds apart from the player he was last year, where he looked good in flashes (though don’t ever say that on the internet – the small army of those who see any criticism of him as sacrilege will make you want to switch off Twitter for a day or two). But he can’t do it alone. Obviously we don’t know what’s up with Nichols, who has shown the talent at previous clubs, but Gaffney, for all his work, isn’t contributing to the goals scored column. Again, Dominic Telford wonders what he must do to start a game.

As it stands, we’re six points off the play-offs. That’s great and all, but it makes dropping points on Saturday look like a chance well and truly missed. Now, we’d have given our right arms for that only a few months ago, when we made losing an art form; not to mention a few years ago, when we had to qualify for the FA Cup and counted Forest Green as a local derby. But that’s not a good reason to not want better. It comes down to the finest of margins; if the Nichols money had been spent on a defender, or a defensive midfielder, or a left winger, in July rather than waiting to bring one in once Billy Bodin was sold in January, might there be no gap between Rovers and the Top Six? Again, this isn’t an attack on Nichols. He has the ability to come good in the quarters, but if we’re this close to the promotion mix after the year we’ve had, doesn’t that show you what’s possible if we get recruitment right? Or, in the team’s defence, have a better pitch?

Don’t take that as a slating of the manager. If there’s a coach in existence that never makes mistakes, tell me their name. For a club like ours to even be talking about the third tier play-offs after the time we’ve had is testament to one man. DC is a force of nature. It’s more of a ‘what might have been’ feeling, that’s all.

We are now officially in what we call “the run-in”. Ten games remain, and if Lee Mansell was still in the squad we’d be looking forward to his annual series of ‘X to go you never know’ tweets. Man, I miss Manse more than I even knew!

It’s well documented that (A) we need to go on a brilliant run in order to gatecrash the play-off party, and (B) that we play pretty much all the main protagonists in the race for the Championship in these ten games.

Plymouth away kicks this off, on Saturday. Derek Adams’ men are on a pretty decent stretch of form themselves, losing only once since Boxing Day, and that was to promotion likelihoods Wigan. No doubts here, this is a huge, huge game. Not, as various lazy national media outlets claim, because it’s a local derby – Bristol is closer to Burton-upon-Trent than it is to Devon’s main port. Nope, this one’s a play-off six pointer and nothing else.

Win this one and it is, to quote Brian Moore, “up for grabs now”. Lose it, and with the other three players in the race for sixth facing easy-looking games against struggling opposition, we can expect to have May Bank Holiday free to pursue other interests.

Expect this to be an edgy one. Argyle are in the mix due to their defensive prowess rather than a front line that have scored fewer goals than Fleetwood, who sit fourth bottom. The big games just keep on coming after this one, and other than the obvious need for points, the momentum we’d get from coming out of Home Park with maximum points would bring echoes of 2007, and the famous run from nowhere to the play-off final.

I’ve one question. Who wants to be Sammy Igoe?