Bristol Rovers Fan’s View
Welling & Wrexham Nov/Dec 2014
Our regular writer Wayne Collins gives us his view from last week’s action. Rovers have since gone on to play Welling Utd again this time away drawing 0-0.
Another home win for Rovers!
On Saturday 29th November Rovers beat Welling 2-0 with goals coming from recent signing Nathan Blissett and Matt Taylor. That’s now 2 in 3 for front man Blissett, and another impressive effort by Taylor.
Rovers, who had already beaten top of the league Barnet in the week, managed to continue their great home form with the only loss at home being that against Forest Green Rovers. We’re nearly half way through the season and we’ve only lost 4 games!
Rovers manager Darell Clarke changed his winning side and gave new signing Alex Wall a start. Wall, who signed for Rovers on Thursday from Luton, is a striker and will hopefully bring what we need to the attack.
Rovers huffed and puffed for the first 45 minutes but couldn’t find the break through and the game was 0-0 at half time.
The second half saw Clarke make a double change with Angelo Balanta and Della Verde coming on. Thankfully this seemed to bring Rovers to life. Rovers took the lead through Blissett after a good ball from Andy Monkhouse. The second goal came from Matty Taylor at the penalty spot. He’s been playing great over the last few weeks and long may this continue! Rovers created a few more chances and the game ended 2-0.
Then on Tuesday 2nd December Rovers traveled to North Wales to play Wrexham, following on from their first meeting of the season where Rovers won 1-0.
This game ended 0-0 – and what a great point!
Goalie Steve Mildenhall went off injured and with no goalkeeper on the bench Rovers captain Mark McChrystal took the gloves! Just before half time Wrexham had a player sent off for a bad tackle against Matt Taylor and the first half ended 0-0. During the second half Rovers came close to scoring when a free kick from Alex Wall smashed the cross bar. Rovers just couldn’t find that bit of spark in front of goal and the game ended 0-0.
Special mention goes to Mark McChrystal for keeping a clean sheet and pulling off a few good saves! In the circumstances it’s a great point. If we had a recognised goal keeper in goal then I would have expected a win against ten men, but after loosing Mildenhall it was important to keep the defence strong to support McChrystal and I think we managed to do that.
We’ve only lost one in the last 17 league games – let’s be a bit more positive!
Also a little mention to former Rovers striker David Clarkson who has scored 8 goals in 8 games for his new side Dundee. He’s been tipped to be recalled to the Scotland international side. Well done David!