BRFC v The Chairboy Cheats...Matchday Thread

Joe Jacobson...?
I genuinely had no idea how far his career would go after Anthony Pilkington took the pi$$ out of him one Udder night...
Fair play to him.

Apart from that, they got rid of the bloke with t!ts who scored a fair few, which I secretly admired....but the rest have a special place in Hell (like Barnier said) as they're always there when we trip up, mostly having done the tripping themselves.

(Foran was still over the line to this day!?)

Anyhoos....onto the present:
A real opportunity to beat them at home tonight.
If we can keep our galvanised defence, discipline and work ethic, we can make it a difficult night for them.

I'll say Gas win.
2-1.
7800 attendance.

A measure of something appley and some fish and chinkers on the Road makes this a night to remember, as KOOL sang once.

COME ON YOU BLUES!

For them...
No Vokes Wheeler or Freeman....

COME ON, LET'S DO THIS!

0-1 after a promising start by Rovers. Ah well... plenty of time to go.

Decent game, it could be say 3 3.

All to play for!

Oh FFS.... not like we've been playing that badly. We just don't seem to be able to manage games like this.

I genuinely thought we might have got something from this game, very disappointing.

Wycombe's manager seems to have outthought ours.

Stats: BRFC 0 Wycombe 2 - 59% - 41% - Shots 13-11 - On Target 4-5 - Corners 6-3 - Referee: Rebecca Welch - Attendance: 8,533 (436 away)

Joey Barton made one change from Saturday's victory against Forest Green Rovers. James Connolly came into the starting XI with Luca Hoole dropping out through illness.

The first chance of the game fell to Rovers. An incisive pass from Aaron Collins put Josh Coburn in behind the Wycombe back line. Josh looked to square the ball across the box where it fell to Sinclair, who saw his first-time effort blocked by McCarthy.

A golden chance fell to Josh Coburn in the eighth minute. Another perfectly-timed ball from Collins played the striker in one-on-one with Max Stryjek in the Wycombe goal. Stryjek was quickly out to the Rovers no.40 and was able to snuff out the danger with a good save at the feet of Coburn.

The visitors took the lead just past the 16th minute. A loose touch from Lamare Bogarde on the edge of the box allowed Tjay De Barr to slide in former Rovers play Brandon Hanlan whose quickly taken finish beat Belshaw at his near post.


Collins had a sight at goal in the 25th minute. After bringing an airborne ball under his control, our no.10 hit a fierce effort that zipped narrowly wide of Stryjek's goal.

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Josh Coburn was unlucky not to level the scores after Lewis Gibson had picked out the Rovers frontman with an excellent ball. Josh took the ball into his stride and looked to place the ball into the bottom left corner but hit his effort off target.

De Barr received the first yellow card of the game in the 41st minute after a late tackle on Gibson as the defender looked to push up the pitch.

At the start of the second half, Joey Barton made two substitutes. Ryan Loft and Antony Evans replaced James Connolly and Scott Sinclair for the second 45.

Wycombe came close to doubling their lead five minutes after the restart. A Wycombe corner ball was looped towards goal where a sprawling Belshaw had to claw the ball off the line before Coburn was able to clear Rovers' lines.

Substitute Ryan Loft came close after combining with fellow substitute Antony Evans' cross but was unable to direct his headed effort on target.

The visitors had their second of the evening on the hour mark. Chem Campbell headed the ball into the net following Jason McCarthy's cross.

Joe Jacobson was the latest player to enter Referee Welch's notebook after pulling back Antony Evans as the midfielder looked to push Rovers up the pitch. Scowen was also shown a yellow card with ten minutes to go after fouling Ward.

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Glenn Whelan entered the action for Josh Coburn in the 82nd minute as the Gas desperately pushed for a lifeline.

Rovers pushed to get back in the game but it was not to be as Wycombe came away from the Mem with all three points.

Next up for Rovers is this weekend's home clash against Portsmouth on Saturday, 18th March (3pm KO).

Rovers: Belshaw, Connolly (45'), Gordon, Quansah, Sinclair (45'), Ward, Marquis, Collins (c), Gibson, Bogarde, Coburn (82')

Subs: Balcombe, Loft (45'), Evans (45'), Macdonald, McCormick, Whelan(82')

Wycombe Wanderers: Stryjek, Grimmer, Jacobson (c), Forino, Wing, McCleary, Hanlan, McCarthy, Campbell, Scowen, De Barr (59')

Subs: Cartwright, Young, Willis (59'), Wakely, Pattenden, Matshazi, Ward

I had to go out last night and prior to the match was gutted to miss it.
Glad I did now.
Looks like the players have settled for mid table mediocrity.
What happened to fortress Mem?

Joey Barton makes shock Bristol Rovers transfer claim amid strong criticism of Mem pitch..

Joey Barton claims the playing surface at the Mem is becoming such an issue he’s told Bristol Rovers owner Wael Al-Qadi and CEO Tom Gorringe he may have to adapt his summer transfer plans and coaching style due to its perceived inconsistency.

For the second home game in a row Barton was critical of the pitch in BS7 claiming Lamare Bogarde’s error, as he mis-controlled a pass in midfield to allow Brandon Hanlan to score the opener in a 2-0 win for Wycombe Wanderers, was the result of a bobble rather than a momentary technical mistake by the Dutch teenager.

Having declared after the 0-0 draw against Barnsley last week that it wasn’t up to standard and suited the Tykes' more direct approach, it continues to irritate Barton as he brought it up twice in his post-match press conference when discussing Rovers’ poor home form in 2023.

The Gas haven’t won at the Mem since Cheltenham Town on New Year’s Day, losing four games and drawing two in all competitions, and while the manager admits there are other factors behind that run, it could have much greater consequences for his squad moving forward.

“I’ve spoken to Tom and the owner about the pitch saying, ‘look if that pitch doesn’t get fixed, I’m going to have to recruit completely differently to what I want to do’,” Barton said. “To the point where I’m like, it almost might be better bringing in another coach in; somebody who doesn’t need grass who just wants to go back to front relatively quickly.

“Because if the pitch doesn’t get resolved, as you’ve seen tonight, we’ve played a squad pass in there, it’s hit a bobble and it’s put the opposition through one-on-one. I know that does happen from time to time but I want to build a team that controls the ball.

“Last year, in League Two, we had a better pitch than we have in League One. They tell me there’s problems with the drainage, stuff’s collapsed… I don’t know but we’ve got an owner who spends a lot of money on the facilities, we’ve got lots of grounds people but yet our training pitches are better than our matchday pitches and that is not acceptable.

“To the point where I might have to change how I recruit in the summer and the style of football we play because of the surface that we’re going to play on, there’s no point us playing 23 games. I’m building a team to control the ball. We play 23 on a surface we control that is not conducive to the way we want to play.”

Barton emphasised that his views around the pitch were not the primary reason Rovers were beaten by a Wycombe side he didn’t appear overly impressed by, citing his side’s profligacy in front of goal and their “soft” underbelly in the face of the Chairboys’ physicality.

But the fact it continues to be a bone of contention for the manager indicates a growing issue in which there may not be a quick fix, with just five home games remaining in the 2022/23 campaign before the annual maintenance work after the conclusion of the season.

Rovers’ ground staff were declared the best in League One by the EFL for the 2018/19 campaign after successfully addressing a long period where the Mem surface was lambasted for its unevenness and propensity to cut up, particularly by former manager Darrell Clarke.

That debate unfortunately looks to be returning as Barton’s frustrations have been amplified by the fact direct sides such as Barnsley and now Wycombe have benefitted from playing at the Mem, where the opposite should be true.

“You’ll get all the people saying, ‘oh, what’s his excuse this time? It’s not the ref, it’s the pitch’ but you’re asking me a question and I’m giving you an answer: is the pitch the reason we got beat tonight? No, absolutely not. Is it a mitigating circumstance to the first goal and goals change games, yeah, you have to look at that bobble and think it is,” Barton added.

“You’ve watched Lamare play in recent weeks, he very rarely gives it away. If you watch the ball, it hits a bobble, hits his other foot and then puts Hanlan in for the first goal.

“We need to get to the bottom of it because if we want to get promoted out of this division, my teams usually have the ball, build through. I can coach a different way, I played a different way so it’s no problem for me. But I don’t want to do it because I believe I can do it a different way.

"It’s a lot easier to strip this back and go route one but it means I’ll have to recruit completely differently in terms of personnel and we’ll be in the market for Wycombe-type players who can handle the physicality.”


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