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BRISTOL ROVERS BLOG: G is for Gas - They Don’t Like it Up ‘Em!Posted: March 26, 2015
By Martin Bull
Before Friday's match Chris Barker, Aldershot's Caretaker Manager and journeyman defender spoke about his stereotypically lazy game plan of slowing Bristol Rovers down in the first 20-30 minutes so that "hopefully the crowd will turn on them".
Maybe I'm being too harsh on an inexperienced manager seemingly faced with a lack of tactical options when visiting the team second in the league, and who boast average home crowds more than double the nearest competitor, but it strikes me that many professionals who you expect will do their own research are often actually just trotting out tired clichés that they have presumably heard from others, and have certainly not bothered to test any evidence behind such an erroneous belief.
The best method to swat away this bunkum is simply to keep on winning, and makes me recall Dad's Army's eccentric Lance-Corporal Jones and his catchphrases 'Don't Panic!' and, in reference to his old school love of bayonet warfare, 'They don't like it up 'em!'.
I'm not suggesting that Gasheads are perfect and never get stressed, but to say that our fans are harming our chances on the field seems to defy logic when we have the best home record in the league, and a 16-match unbeaten away record, which is easily the longest run in the top five leagues.
Whilst there certainly is nervousness amongst the Rovers faithful, it has mainly been kept in check, often by excellent mid-game tactical changes, late goals, and the use of benches that often seem to have more attacking and creative quality upon them than the starting XI actually possess.
It seems particularly perverse that whilst analytical pundits such as those who feature on Radio 5's 'Non-League Football Show' are applauding us for our humility this season, many lesser commentators are just perpetuating myths that have been circling for far too long. Whilst we have swiftly learnt the hard lessons Luton Town took five seasons to ascertain, it seems as if it is now our opponents who have failed to keep up with the times.
This season has rarely been an easy ride for Gasheads yet we are second in the league. It has been a pretty miserable experience being a Pirate over the previous four seasons, and also most of the last 15 years, so there has undoubtedly been considerable pressure and a lot of tension in the air since that fateful relegation last May.
We may have seen some decent away results and certainly a very impressive unbeaten run but not many games have really been exciting. There haven't been any comfortable, non-stressful league games on the road, except maybe Nuneaton Town (our sole two goal away win). Long and thin open terraces haven't helped and at times it has been hard for even the most positive fans to create a high-class atmosphere.
At home it would also have been nice to have had a few more games where people could relax and enjoy it a little bit more. The only relatively 'easy' victories I can remember were Macclesfield Town (4-0), Lincoln City (2-0) and Nuneaton Town (3-1), and even then we were momentarily rocked by The Boro coming back to 2-1 and putting us under pressure for a while.
It was a similar story against the Shots on Friday. Brett Williams is considered to be one of the best strikers in the Conference and although his only chance came via the type of defensive lapse that has become all too prevalent in the last three games, his goal unsettled us after a stunning start and reinstated depression back into the minds of the loyal 7,000+. But heads did not drop and a brace of exciting goals within a few minutes of each other led to the first relaxed, nay dull, final half an hour of football for a long time.
Our two experienced signings, Jermaine Easter and Chris Lines, both really caught the eye. Whilst we now have more creativity and skill going forward than at any other point this season, we paradoxically have seen the defence creaking like never before.
I suspect there will still be twists and turns in the tile race yet, but I am a lot more confident (even for the play-offs) with Easter and Linesy in the team, as performers who could potentially 'unlock' a stubborn defence, especially on a day when not everything is going for us.
Although Stuart Sinclair and Lee Mansell were undoubtedly missed as the midfield steel under the lights, suspensions or injuries are circumstances that most teams will have to deal with at this time of the season. For example, there is a chance we could be dealing with a severely depleted Southport team in three weeks time as their discipline is horrendous, with top scorer Richard Brodie, and central defender pairing Luke Foster and Luke George, currently sharing a staggering 36 yellow cards between them and all facing bans if further misdemeanours are committed. And with Barnet only taking six points in the seven games when John Akinde has been booked (and he himself only scoring twice), there is a prospect that a possible ban could weigh on his mind soon.
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Martin Bull became a Gashead in 1989 and immediately fell in love with Twerton Park, standing near G pillar. In 2006 he wrote, photographed and published the first independent book about the artist Banksy. Having been exiled for much of his past, away games have always been special for him; so much so that he has just finished a new book about them -
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