Your input required - Poll & comments for Turning Points

Seven Possible Turning Points of our season so far


a) Leaving our Brains in the gutter - If our first eight days in the Conference Premier were traumatic (1 point from 3 games), our final away defeat (so far) was maybe the extra, if belated, lesson in humility we needed. Thankfully the season last eight months, not eight days, and seven points from our second trio of matches put a nice gloss on our new surroundings. But providence had one more jolt for us. A 2-0 defeat at Braintree Town was our final low point, and a few of our fans put us back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, whilst the press ignored the dedication of the 500+ others on the longest trip of the season thus far. Thankfully our fans have mainly received good press since, including a lovely thank you note from the Eastleigh chairman, national sympathy at some Gasheads being locked out by Woking, and the staggering statistic that gasheads have supplied an average of 31% of the crowds on their away trips.


b) Sticking like glue - After the Braintree match above, we were 15th, with eight points from seven matches, and there was a strong rumour that Darrell Clarke could be gone if the Tuesday night match against Wrexham didn’t go well. We won 1-0, the second of eight ‘Arsenal scores’ so far this season, and Darrell stayed. The great Velvet Underground drummer Mo Tucker was not much of a singer, but her brace of contributions included a delightfully childish ditty that went “I’m sticking with you, ‘cause I’m made out of glue”. Very apt.


c) LDV and Tricky Dawso - Let’s be honest, we’ve still never achieved a ‘proper / balanced’ squad of our own players as we’ve never had a creative midfielder and never had pace on the wings. I won’t include ‘goal scorers’ in this complaint because like it or not, we’ve always physically had numerous forwards at the club. Whether they have been the right people at the right time is a moot point of course, but that is a separate question to this ‘turning point’. I’m also not going to be pernickety enough to complain, for example, that we don’t have cover for Lee Brown at left-back, because many teams (especially those in non-league) are not going to have perfect cover for every position, and acquiring utility players who can fill in (as Tom Lockyer did for Brown’s three league absences so far) is just as much a skill of management than having that perfect centre forward who scores loads of goals and is never injured or suspended.

ANYWAY, to get to the point, the signing of attacking wingers on loan is offered as this third turning point. The first man in, Dave Martin from Luton Town, didn’t quite go to plan despite an impressive start, but Lyle Della-Verde from Fulham was a fan’s favourite until injured, and in 2015 Leicester City’s Adam Dawson has proved just as tricky and attack minded. These wingers have offered us something different and certainly have become the creative outlet we don’t possess in our own squad. Crucially Dawson arrived at time when Daniel Leadbitter is been used as a more attacking right back, so we now have a very creative and pacy right side, coupled with a more steady and prosaic left hand side.


d) Take the honey and run - At the time it felt like only a pyrrhic victory, as we were still 8 points behind Barnet (albeit with a game in hand) and didn’t actually reduce the gap below five points until mid-February, but that last-gasp winner versus Barnet on a wet Tuesday evening in late November 2014 was exactly the physical and psychological win we needed to keep us within a fighting distance of the Bees.


e) The tale of two centre backs - A team will rarely concede only 0.73 goals a game, and earn 18 clean sheets out of 37 games, without a good centre back pairing, and although this hasn’t been a single decisive moment as such, a negative turning point was potentially averted because we’ve boasted not just one top class partnership, but two. At this late stage of the season it is easy to forget that Tom Parkes, one of only two ever presents in the league this season and an early candidate for Player of the Season, was actually partnered by Neal Trotman for 16 out of the first 19 games, until Trots was injured at AFC Telford United and replaced by Mark McChrystal. Macca has been Parkes’ ever improving partner for all of the 19 league games since, and amazingly they have picked up only seven yellow cards, and no reds, between all three of them.

More precise turning points could be two specific draws that central defenders helped earn for us. A point at Wrexham in early December was disappointing in some respects, but having Macca in goal for 50 minutes (after Mildy was injured) and still keeping a clean sheet should never be sniffed at. We may not have had a sub keeper, but surely in Neal Trotman we had one of the best central defenders ever to sit on a Conference bench, and between them the three central defensive mustakeers helped earn what may prove to be a crucial point.

Similarly if Rovers get into the play-offs by a point, or even win the league by that little digit, we might wish to send a Methuselah of Champagne to Torquay United’s foolish centre back Angus MacDonald. The Gulls (or should that be the Turkeys?) were the best team I’ve seen at the Mem this season, until we grabbed a barely deserved late New Years’ Day point courtesy of a few moments of madness; two yellows within 11 minutes for MacDonut and a gifted penalty.


f) Being dumped out of the FA Trophy by Bath City - Pretty self explanatory, although I may write something later.


g) No fireworks since Guy Fawkes’ Night - Another minor turning point may well have been the away game at FC Telford United on 1st November, which saw our fifth, and final, red card of the season so far, as well as the return of Tom Lockyer after a one match ban for five yellow cards. That plethora of cards in the first 19 games could have left casual observers wondering if our players had a serious discipline problem. It didn’t seem so, as none of them were for awful challenges, but it was most probably costing us points, as we only garnered four points from the four games where we had players dismissed. Up to that Bucks game we were earning 1.77 points per game. Since that game we have plundered 2.21 points per league game and have never tasted defeat. Co-incidence?

I have voted for Centre backs, however would also say the comeback against Gateshead at Home.

I too think it was the last hour v Gatehead. I think we all thought them the best team in the Division in the first half hour but DC changed tactics, we stormed forwards and won - Live on BT Sport.

^this^

tippy tappy bag of dirty b'stards at their place as well

Eastleigh away for me.

Thanks for all the votes and feedback so far

Thanks again to everyone who voted / participated.

Here are the results. over 250 votes from 111 people on the 2 forums.

I have quite severely edited / re-written some of the text, to make it palatable for the blogo'sphere.



-----------------------

How did they refloat a marooned pirate boat?

Last week I asked Gasheads on the two main Rovers internet forums to vote which of the following seven factors have been most important in our turnaround this season. Some are clear events or turning points, whilst other are more timeless factors. After over 250 votes, here are the results from the pirateland jury.

I also asked for comments and extra suggestions. The most recurring offering was the televised 3-2 come back win against Gateshead just before Christmas, so I’ve added this at the close as a ‘wild card’. To be clear, I wasn’t arrogantly suggesting we have won the league. I was just trying to look back over 40 hard games and see when things started going right for us (for once), and why.

1) Sticking like glue (31% of votes) - After the Braintree Town loss in early September we were left 15th in the table, with eight points from seven matches, and there was a strong rumour that Darrell Clarke could be gone if the following Tuesday night match against Wrexham didn’t go well. We won 1-0, the second of eight ‘Arsenal scores’ so far this season, and Darrell stayed. The great Velvet Underground drummer Mo Tucker was not much of a singer, but her brace of contributions included a delightfully childish ditty that went “I’m sticking with you, ‘cause I’m made out of glue”. Very apt.

2) The tale of two centre backs (26%) - A team will rarely concede only 0.76 goals a game, and earn 18 clean sheets out of 38 games, without a good centre back pairing, and although this hasn’t been a single decisive moment as such, a negative turning point was potentially averted because we’ve boasted not just one top class partnership, but two. At this late stage of the season it is easy to forget that Tom Parkes, one of only two ever presents in the league this season, was actually partnered by Neal Trotman for 16 out of the first 19 games, until Trots was injured at AFC Telford United and replaced by Mark McChrystal. Macca has been Parkes’ ever improving partner for all of the 20 league games since, and amazingly they have picked up only seven yellow cards, and no reds, between all three of them.

3) Take the honey and run (14%) - At the time it felt like only a pyrrhic victory, as we were still 8 points behind the Bees (albeit with a game in hand) and didn’t actually reduce the gap below five points until mid-February, but that last-gasp winner versus Barnet on a wet Tuesday evening in late November was exactly the physical and psychological win we needed to keep us within a fighting distance of the honeydrippers.

Swiss Under 21 goalkeeper Raphael Spiegel was rather bizarrely picked up by the Barnet team coach at Reading Services on the way down the M4 to the match. The West Ham United loanee was thrust into this crucial game and should be very disappointed at the way Matty Taylor’s opening goal went past him at his near post and how the last gasp winner from Angelo Balanta got past the 6‘ 6“ debutant. A Barnet fan recently told me that Agent Spiegel was never seen again at Barnet. As the poet Charles Baudelaire wrote, ‘The finest trick of the Devil is to persuade the world that Raphael Spiegel exists’.

4) LDV and Tricky Dawso (10%) - Let’s be honest, we’ve still never achieved a balanced squad of our own players as we’ve never had a creative midfielder or pace on the wings. The signing of attacking wingers on loan was therefore offered as a crucial factor in turning around the good ship Torrey Canyon. The first man in, Dave Martin from Luton Town, didn’t quite go to plan despite an impressive start, but Fulham’s Lyle Della-Verde and Leicester City’s Adam Dawson have offered us something different and certainly have become the creative outlet we don’t possess in our own squad. Crucially Dawson arrived at time when Daniel Leadbitter is been used as a more attacking right back, so we currently have a very creative and pacy right side, coupled with a more steady and prosaic left hand side.

5) No fireworks since Guy Fawkes’ Night (8%) - Another minor turning point was at the away game at FC Telford United on 1st November, which saw our fifth, and final, red card of the season so far, as well as the return of Tom Lockyer after a one match ban for five yellow cards. That plethora of cards in the first 19 games could have left casual observers wondering if our players had a serious discipline problem. It didn’t seem so, as none of them were for awful challenges, but it was most probably costing us points, as we only garnered four points from the four games where we had players dismissed. Up to that game at the New Bucks Head we were earning 1.77 points per game. Since that game we have plundered 2.21 points per league game and hadn‘t lost until this weekend. Co-incidence?

6) A Roman salute (7%) - Whilst most people were Christmas shopping in mid December, 3,500 hardy souls were watching our old friends from Bath City deservedly beat us in the First Round of a cup that I frankly thought could be bolstering our sparse trophy cabinet; a possible consolation prize when missing out on promotion. This F.A. Trophy result, and performance, sent some Rovers fans into a melodramatic meltdown, just like Eastleigh has now, but the defeat was not really a big shock, against a team only one division lower and with us fielding a team that was not only weakened and rusty, but just as importantly had not regularly played together. Avoiding a potentially long and winding journey on muddy winter pitches was most probably a godsend. In retrospect the old axiom that the only good time to go out of such a competition is either at the First Round or the Wembley final seems painfully true.

7) Leaving our Brains in the gutter (4%) - If our first eight days in the Conference Premier were traumatic (a single point from three games), our final away defeat (so far) was maybe the extra, if belated, lesson in humility we needed. Thankfully the season lasts eight months, not eight days, and seven points from our second trio of matches started to put a nice gloss on our new surroundings. But providence had one more jolt for us. A 2-0 defeat at Braintree Town was our final low point, and a few of our fans put us back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, whilst the press ignored the dedication of the 500+ others on the longest trip of the season thus far. Thankfully our fans have mainly received good press since and have supplied an average of 31% of the total crowd on our away trips.

Wild Card = Knock down? What knock down? - Like a fighter who just doesn’t know when he’s beat, Rovers proved against Gateshead that not only could they reply to the criticism they faced after losing to Bath City the week before, but were now a team who knew they had the craft and the guts to potentially win any game of football. The motto seemed to be; ‘If you take the lead twice, we’ll just score three!’ Rovers notched up a trio of absolutely wonderful goals and yet again Darrell Clarke made a brave early change when things weren't panning out the way he had expecting them to. It was like the famous Liverpool - Newcastle match in 1996, when the team from the opposite bank of the Tyne were ahead twice but Liverpool still came back to win 4-3.

Umm....that first game was a big turning point for us coming off the Bath match but Gateshead are 9th in the Conference with an outside shot of the playoffs at best.  That would suggest they're a fair way off being the best side in the Conference.  We have an objective way to measure this after all! I'd suggest that for 30 minutes against us Gateshead passed the ball around very well and that seems to have convinced a lot of people they are a good side.  Since then we spent 145 minutes basically completely shutting them down and highlighting their complete lack of a plan B.  Just because they look flashy when John Oster is given space to bang cross field passes over the heads of the fullbacks doesn't make them a good team.  I thought they were OK - but far too easily bullied off the ball and a bit one paced and lacking in options which their position in the table would probably say is about right.  Evidence suggests they are an above average Conference side but not by all that much.