By Simon ‘Sprout` Phillips
Hello again, and welcome to another something for the weekend. To be honest I really don`t know if I am coming or going at the moment with everything I have going on this month, but I am just about with it to offer up some more thoughts on the pirate ship Bristol Rovers.
I didn`t think I was going to catch a game this month, but after checking the fixtures I realised we have Northampton on Tuesday night and now with the Watford cup game being rearranged I am set to see two whole games this August. Hopefully come September I will be back to some sort of normality and routine until the next obstacle stops me watching the Gas.
So we won! First game, three points and thank you very much. As I mentioned last week I was in a field armed with only my mobile phone and a packed lunch to see me through and it sounded as if I missed a good game going by reports via twitter and friends. From the information I have read about the game there were a couple of things of interest that I could gleam. One good the other not so.
Firstly was Joe Anyinsah and his apparent diving. Now I haven`t see any of the incidents so can`t say for myself whether I thought they were or not, but there were more than a few fellow Gasheads who weren`t all that impressed. I certainly don`t want to see any of our players diving or milking any challenges, and would be disappointed in any of our players that did so. There is a fine line between ‘making the most` of something (Which I am not entirely happy with) and quite frankly taking the?. Which a few of the tweets I received seemed to suggest.
The good thing was the number of shots and chances created. It very much sounded like a very good attacking performance, especially first half and it certainly gives optimism that we will be a threat for many a team. A stark contrast to the last couple of seasons where at times we could barely muster a shot (especially away from home) and wondering where a goal would come from.
From what I read I am very much looking forward to seeing my first competitive game of the season and am itching for it to get here. After the positive start I am sure it would have been nice to take on Watford on Wednesday but I can understand the decision to postpone it given the recent unrest about (and at least I get to see it now) and it also has given us a chance to see who we may face should/when we overcome Watford. Some will say that a potential tie against Orient is a little disappointing, but then it does also give us a decent chance to progress further should we win our first round match, and also gives Scott McGleish a chance to return to his old stomping ground.
Talking of returns we must focus our attention on Torquay this Saturday and it does often seem that when players or managers move to a club in the same division that they end up meeting pretty soon. We obviously have a few Torquay connections with Buckle, Bevan, Zebroski, Stanley and Carayol and others and I imagine there should be a good atmosphere at this game not least with it being the first home game of the season and hopefully a glorious sunny day. Again I will be gutted to miss it so will no doubt be sneaking sly glances at my phone and the internet and relying on you fellow Gasheads to keep me abreast of the action. No doubt my battery will be flattened as I hammer away at the BBC website and Twitter, and on that note you can follow me @Im_sprouticus and the club @Official_Brfc and of course are very own @Vital_Gas if you`re into all that malarkey and use the #gasfollowback if you want to keep up with your fellow rovers fans.
One last piece of news seems that we have apparently agreed a fee of £50k for Chris Lines to go to Sheffield Wednesday. I did say in a previous column that I though it was probably time for him to move on. Personally I am not too disappointed for reasons that are probably obvious but then there are people who think he could have done a good job here this season under the new manager. I happen to think it is a good move for himself as much as anything and I hope those of you who are a little disappointed aren`t in a few months time when Rovers are *touch wood* flying high in League Two
I hope those of you that can make the Torquay game will and create a great atmosphere, enjoy the game and cheer us on to three more points. Whatever anyone is up to this weekend have a good one and may the sun shine.
Up the Gas!
Simon ‘Sprout` Phillips
