Fan Blog: Homesick Blues

My oh my. Another turbulent week for us Gas heads. A few weeks ago we wondered why we lost at home to Newport after gifting them 3 goals. We successfully tried the same trick at Crawley on Saturday and despite having most of the game we could not claw back a 2 goal deficit.

Stevenage rolled into town, not having won an away game all season. Having signed Paris Cowan Hall on loan, our expectations were raised. But a quick Stevenage goal from a corner, more about that later, and we were on the back foot again. The ball seemed to take forever to roll in and the Rovers defence seemed in slow motion as Lee Nicholls allowed the ball to roll into the corner of the net.

Matty Taylor had probably his best game ever for the Gas. He scored an equalizer with an almighty shot and spread the ball around with pace and vision. However his colleagues Bodin and Easter had an indifferent game. I have seen some promising touches from Bodin over the last few games,and I am please he has signed a new contract. Perhaps Easter is low on confidence. Advancing, rather than make a direct attack on goal he chose to find James Clarke on the right wing. Just before he was subbed he was in a promising position and chose to shoot rather than pass to a colleague who would have had a tap-in.

Stevenage having got their noses ahead, it never looked like we would get a second equalizer. They passed the ball around much easier than we did, and our huffing and puffing did little to disguise our lack of quality. Paris Cowan Hall was quite closely marked,but he did thread the ball through for Taylor’s equalizer.

We Gas Heads are a pretty forgiving bunch and even now we are still comfortably mid table. It was interesting to hear the Chairmans Report and recent interviews by Darrell Clarke. Between them though I think they need to answer the following:

Lee Nicholls. A good enough keeper at this level, but he does not seem decisive and I wonder just what Steve Mildenhall has to do to get a game?
Nathan Blissett. Why is he persona non-grata? Stevenage had an awkward looking number 10, Batt who held the ball up well and brought others into play. Even for 15 minutes a game he must be worth a punt.
Jamie Lucas. We heard a few weeks ago he was to get a chance, but he is not even on the squad. Stuart Sinclair is inspirational and wins balls and headers that he has no right to. But like Chris Lines most of his passes went sideways or back as the lack of forward movement presented few targets.

On Saturday Darrell Clarke showed he is willing to change things drastically when things are not going well. Subbing team captain Mark McChrystal may have sent a message to the squad, but I feel it is a retrograde step. As we were overrun in midfield I could not see why changes were not made today before half time. Surely Ollie Clarke or Lee Mansell would add some bite and allow Chris Lines to adopt a more prominent position up the pitch.

International matches and injuries may have disrupted the team dynamic, but I doubt even Darrell Clarke knows his best team. Ellis Harrison. Is he our first choice centre forward, a winger or an impact player to worry the life out of tiring teams in the second half? We definitely improved as an attacking force when he came on.

Most fans are crying out for an orthodox centre forward. What pointy is there playing high balls up the front when we only have the diminutive Easter Taylor and Sinclair available. The signing of Paris Cowan Hall seems a luxury when we have Gosling and Montano Castillo on the books. However neither seem able to take on players like Adam Dawson did when we had him on loan last season. DC does suggest he is looking for a striker, but seems to think there is a lack of quality at the price we are prepared to pay. The only option then is to look at what we can get from the lower leagues.

We have a lot to thank Darrell Clarke for, but he now has to earn his corn and make some difficult decisions if our season is not to fall apart. We have had some very good highs and played some good football. However we have also had some very embarrassing results such as Chesham.

Just a final parting shot for the Officials today. Stevenage scored their first from a corner given when linesman Colin Lymer decided Lee Nicholls had carried the ball over the line. Myself and 500 0 Gas-heads begged to differ. I cannot see that was a corner and noticeably the Referee chose to overrule his assistant on a number of occasions. I do not blame Lymer for the loss. That was down to us, but it does not help.

A local derby on Saturday away to Exeter followed by another Tuesday game, the postponed Wycombe game. Lets hope for improvement sooner rather than later. Come on you Gas.