I wanted to delay from posting my opinions of the game as I was very wound up last night and I know from past experience that logging onto the bunker straight after a game is not such a good idea

I do have some negative stuff to say here so if it upsets you then Im sorry in advance but Im a bit concerned about a few things.

I will start with the positives.

* Flinders looks a real prospect! 3 saves he made in the first half were top drawer and were reminiscent of Dimi. I think CT has made a great choice in signing him.

* Behan, although he was a bit more quiet than Saturday looks a legend in the making. He is just a busy hardman bastard with a great first touch and his goal was a proper 'strikers' goal (which we dont score enough of). Credit to him for staying on the pitch after his assault.

* Liddle although quiet did not put a foot wrong again.

* Brown got a decent spell on the pitch. He was clearly not 100% fit but he was still class and set up Behan with a lovely cross.

The negatives.

* The referee was the biggest cheating little tw@ I have seen in a long long time. Im not going to blame him for the defeat as this was our own doing but I have NEVER seen such a one sided refereeing display. Our players got no protection whatsoever but as soon as one of our players looked at a Rovers player in an angry manner a free kick was awarded. The also failed to send off one of their players when it was a red card offence.

* Our defence was every bit as bad as our defence from last season. As soon as Rovers got the ball on the deck around our box we capitulated and could not get the ball. Part of this may be down to having no decent defensive midfielder to cover them (which was alarming last night). Our defence looked slow, cumbersome and like they will struggle against anything other than route one stuff (If it wasnt for Flinders making 3 great saves we could have conceded 5 in the first half. Rovers probably only had five attacks in the first half but they nearly scored each time. Against the pacey strikers in the division we will concede a lot of goals.

* Turners substitutions - what was the point of only giving Foley and Rowell 3 minutes at the end?? Seriously, what can we expect them to do in that time?? As far as im aware, you make substitutions like that at the end of a game to waste some time. These changes should have been made sooner.

* Collins (who on the whole played 'ok') was stuck out wide trying to tackle their winger for one of the goals when surely this should have been Hartley. Instead the ball come into the box and we conceded. Collins also gave the ball away for the other goal in the build up to it.

* Hartley again showed nothing which would suggest he will be an asset. As somebody pointed out after Saturday, he was very nervous. I appreciate this but we need him to get over these nerves if he is going to play. He does not look comfortable at left back and his distribution over the last two games has been appaling. In all honesty I preferred Ritchie Humphries as a left back and people know how critical I have been of him! Hartley looks more of a centre half (he certainly does not look like the type of player to push up the wing and support an attack) so maybe we need to keep him as a back up centre half for when Liddle or Collins are absent. Lets get Austin in at left back.

The new signings again did 'ok'. They dont look like they will pull up trees but they look good enough to do the job. haslam was improved over saturday and delivered some decent crosses into the box during the first half. This was one of the positives of the game in that we did get some decent balls into the box for once.

I come away from last nights game feeling worse than I did against Charlton. Charlton, I felt were a good side. Bristol Rovers were probably an average league one team but a good yardstick for us. We struggled defensively against both sides and we still look like conceding goals despite the acquisition of a decent keeper.I think the 2 clean sheets in the first two games may have given us false hope that the defense is suddenly 'tight'. It isnt. I think last night showed how we miss a holding midfielder to help cover the defense. So many times Rovers could get the ball around the edge of the D and we failed to tackle. Another concern is the lack of pace in our team, we looked very slow and against players like duffy, hector sam etc we will be run ragged.

I think without any more signings we will be in for a relegation battle. If we can get the next Dean Emerson then it would help us edge towards midtable.

So, to paraphrase, you're saying that Foley should've got more than five minutes?

Hartley's distribution was awful? I must have been watching another game because I thought it was the highlight of his performance. He hit feet 90% of the time and barely wasted the ball, unlike others I could name.

Concurring. But maybe he is seen as an easy target as he is deemed by some to be playing out of position?

I dont see the point in bringing any sub on for such a short period. If Ct does not have enough confidence in Foley to give him some decent time on the pitch then why play him at all / and why sign him.

I thought his distribution was poor (altho improved over the Charlton game). Hopefully with time he will improve although if Austin is fit then it would make more sense to play him at left back.

i will agree with most of that apart from what you say about the defence. There is no way on earth you can compare our defence with last years.

DOH



Maybe I have been harsh on him. I was so annoyed and wound up at the game that I was probably picking faults.

Im still really peed off. That referee

The defence has definitely improved; last season we were shipping in three goals every home game. At least we've got it down to two now.

I think the first half performance was VERY comparable. They could easily have had 5 had it not been for flinders. We really struggle against strikers who play the ball on the deck, we did last season and it looks the same this season. Collins played quite ok last night but again was at fault for a goal. The problem is that we have so little pace at the back that we dont have that 'Chris westwood' player to sweep up after a mistake. Mistakes will get punished.

Tin soldiers.

"I think all we need to do in games is to try and score 1 goal to try and kill off games - with the amount of firepower that we have, we certainly should be capable of doing that."

Sorry, I did actually mean to say score 2 goals. That was a typo.

Your commenting on games that you were not at again!!

My comments were about the season as a whole at the moment, and not about the match.

we did score 1 goal we need to score at least 2 goals if we want to kill games off

Do talk sence you will only confuse him

sence?

Cant argue with that. We certainly don't look like scoring boatloads but I think with not replacing porter that was expected.

Sorry, I actually meant to say "we need to score at least 2 goals to try and kill of matches".

Chip, I went to Bristol Rovers in May and the performance there compared with MK Dons and Coventry away just THREE MONTHS later after struggling all year was a vast improvement.

If we can defend like that every week, surely we have the potential to do very well indeed.

Got to agree. If you actually take into account the fact that our keeper has improved yet we still look dodgy at the back you would hope that it is just the unfamiliarity of playing together which has largely contributed to our poor defending.

I have heard people saying that we just need to cut out the mistakes at the back and we will be fine. BUT, we made these silly mistakes last season and got punished then too.

I think the lack of a covering midfielder is going to hurt us greatly and needs addressing. The defenders man-for man should be 'ok'.

Depends on how long they need to get used to playing. Is it when we are bottom of the league and all confidence is shot
They are professional footballers playing in positions they have played in before, for christs sake, thats their job to defend.
What do they do in training everyday

Some people failed to notice we hit the post twice and their keeper pulled off an exceptional save in the first half.... at this stage in such a rebuilt team I'm pleased with the overall performance but unhappy about the results .... a bit like Mr Ferguson.