Second was pre season league cup match around 2012/13.....Smithy hit a screamer we were right behind for a 1-0 up v Championship (as we were 4th division then) opponents, but they won. Again.
The Real McGhee McCoy?
We’d just had the ‘real McHoy’, and I turned up wondering whether, after our funny run of results at the end of last season, we’d see the first version of the Mark McGhee’s own Bristol Rovers, or just another pre-season runaround.
Their stadium is pretty impressive and, after they’d played My Way, the Gasheads sparked up with the first ‘real Irene’ of the season and it sounded mighty impressive under the roof. For a brief second, it reminded me of the Tote, and it was good to be back at a football match again.
We had an early shot, which gave some hope, but it was all a bit slow to start. Clarkson looked to me like he hadn’t started pre-season training yet and was committed to marking space, Anyinsah looked in one of his vague moods, but to be honest the Tractor
Boys didn’t look much different. It was quite interesting though, in a slowish way, with Rovers looking organised and Ipswich looking very comfortable on the ball but not able to move it very quickly.
They put in a looping cross which beat our newbie Sam Walker but was fortunately headed away from behind the goalie by an alert defender.
The couple of blokes behind me who I found to be droll good company:
Bloke one: that is Jason Scotland isn’t it?
Bloke two: yes, and he is Scottish as it goes
Bloke one: well, I should hope so, with a name like that
Bloke two: Mike England was Welsh
Bloke one: hmmmm.....
Jason Scotland is quite famous, though I’m not sure what he usually looks like. Today, he looked to me like he’d been on the deep-fried Mars Bar diet, a bit like Clarkson. Their playmaker, Michael Chopra, is also quite famous and looked to me to be the most assured player on the pitch.
Smith was playing well at right back, making some impressive tackles and also moving the ball forward with a little bit of silkiness. He took the ball to about 30 yards of their goal and, without too much on, decided to have a pop. It looked to me and many around me like it was going over the bar, but it in the end it dipped wonderfully and the Gas were 1-0 up.
Things got very jolly for a while, with rounds of Championship Having a Laugh and loud cries of ‘Shoot!’ every time Smith took a throw-in, and it all added to a very nice start to the season. We’d been 1-0 up for about 10 minutes when one of the blokes behind me said ‘so who do you want at Wembley then?’
Smith continued his blinding 20 minutes or so, but Ipswich were forcing themselves back into the game when a spot-on strike from Scotland found the net from just outside the box. A bit of a party-pooper, but we went in all square at half-time with neither side having too much to complain about really.
The Rovers defence had held up pretty well. The centre back partnership, about which we were supposed to be so worried after the injury to the new Scottish bloke and the departure of Rogvi the Faroe Islands international, was looking very solid between Paterson and Virgo.
The midfield was set up defensively, with Gill as usual acting like one of those computer game players who is not allowed to pass forwards, and not too much threat up front unless Harrold could make his own goals, but we didn’t look too bad against semi-famous opposition playing at home.
Second half they pressed more and more and eventually got a pen. The new boy in goal, the one that’s meant to be prone to howlers and also is an Ipswich fan, dived to his left and palmed it round the post. Huzzah! Maybe we could take them to penalties?
It didn’t last though as they scored from the corner which followed. It will be interesting to see on the telly if our defence was asleep or still celebrating the save.
They tried some ole football, but it didn’t really work. We tried to press forward, but that didn’t really work either. Wayne B was working hard and effectively, Harrold was working hard with mixed results, and Anyinsah didn’t seem to be making much impact at all. Strangely, I thought Clarkson got much closer to the pace of the game the longer it went on.
The midfield had also gone missing. Bloke one asked what Norburn brought to the game, and bloke two said ‘this is Bristol Rovers mate, we’ve got to have an Ollie in the team’. It was the best thing he could think of.
We seemed to have only one tactic to move the ball forward – the big hoof. It never looked like it would be enough, and I couldn’t help wondering if it might have been better with any of Carayol, Richards or the German on the pitch.
Another Ollie came on, Clarke, maybe for Anyinsah, and then Clucas came on for someone, maybe Matt Gill. Bloke one asked exactly what his name was, ‘Clucas?’. Bloke two replied ‘yes , that’s right, a bit like ‘Clueless’. He was being harsh though, Clucas was no worse than whoever he had replaced.
As we pushed forwards, we were bound to be a bit exposed at the back, and they were tearing holes down our right side. They had a good shot parried by another good save from Walker, but he could only re-direct it back onto the head of an Ipswich player who was also the shortest man on the pitch.
Overall, I think 3-1 was about right. It was an interesting game, and a proper game of football and not a runaround. We looked difficult to beat, but not much of a threat. Maybe we’ll do better against League Two midfields, though on the basis of last season I’m not completely convinced. If this was the real McGhee McCoy, we’ll be OK but I don’t think we’ll be looking at medals this season.