Bristol Rovers fell to defeat in Cumbria with an off-colour attacking display. The Gas couldn’t take their chances, Carlisle did and Barton’s players will be rueing a missed opportunity.
It was a strange week without a midweek fixture to look forward to. Waiting a whole week for a game, especially when you’ve just won away at your promotion rivals, was tedious at best. The players though will have enjoyed a well-earned rest after going Saturday, Tuesday for countless weeks.
The week got better on Thursday though as news of James Belshaw’s thoroughly-deserved new contract emerged. Coming in to challenge an international goalkeeper and making the shirt your own shows just how good his performances have been. His shot-stopping has been second to none and he adds another level to Rovers with his sweeping.
He has endeared himself to Rovers fans with passionate and energetic displays. Listening to him speak when the news was announced, it’s clear that he gets what it means to be a Gashead and he is forming a special connection with the fans. He’s the best keeper in the league in my eyes, without a doubt.
Rovers fans travelled in their numbers once more, taking 637 to the North West. For a round trip of 544 miles taking over nine hours, that is seriously impressive. Rovers will be backed in even greater numbers at their remaining away games, with over 800 sold for Rochdale and Tranmere and more than 1,000 sold for Port Vale.
Carlisle are a team in fine form and one not to be underestimated. They’ve turned things around since the appointment of Paul Simpson and have out-performed expectations. Rovers would have backed themselves to beat them though, given their own strong form and quality within the squad.
It wasn’t our day in the end. Frustratingly, we didn’t click in the attacking third. There was always one missing piece – the final ball was off, the shot was astray or a great save denied us a goal. Belshaw did all he could at the other end, but Carlisle took their chance and stole all three points.
Rovers had plenty of chances despite not playing well. Sam Finley could have done better when put through on goal, Connolly was unlucky not to score and Elliot Anderson’s ball across the goal could have been turned in. Although we lost, Rovers will take positives from creating opportunities. On another day, they could have had several goals.
Carlisle found a way to play against us. They were hardly a fluid attacking team but played to their strengths. Whilst Rovers had control of big chunks of the game, the Cumbrians found joy stationing men between our defence and midfield. They looked to get the ball to that man when winning possession and used that to advance up the pitch quickly.
We really missed Antony Evans on Saturday. His creativity in the middle of the park could well have been the difference for us. His delivery was what we missed the most though. Rovers had a whopping 11 corners and could have made the most of that with better delivery. That’s not to say Coutts did a bad job, but rather Evans just has that extra quality that the Scotsman doesn’t.
Sam Nicholson has come in for some criticism for his performance. He produced very few moments of quality during the game and lost his battles on the right-hand side. He hasn’t hit top form this season and could easily have had several more goals. His running must be scary to defend against but his end product hasn’t always been there.
Despite not performing at 100 per cent, he has still managed 5 goals and 4 assists. He will no doubt be frustrated by those totals and will hopefully add to those before the season is over. We know he is capable of performing at a higher level and he’ll be banging the goals in soon.
Luca Hoole was a candidate for man of the match until the goal. He had a big part to play in frustrating Carlisle’s attack, best highlighted by him darting ahead of an attacker to clear the danger for Rovers. But he was beaten too easily by Omari Patrick, and will be frustrated by that. He is having a great second half of the season though and that shouldn’t change how his campaign is viewed.
The loss is not fatal to our hopes this season. A defeat means we lose ground on the automatic spots, but we still sit sixth. We play several teams near us in the table and those games are effectively six-pointers. There are no easy games at this stage of the season and there will be many twists and turns in the weeks ahead.
Since the turn of the year, Rovers have shown their character by bouncing back after defeats. We beat Hartlepool after losing to Peterborough, held an in-form Mansfield following defeat at Oldham and followed up the Newport loss with victory against Crawley. It is how you respond to adversity that makes a great team. Rovers have responded before and we will respond again.
We return to the Mem on Saturday in a huge tie against Bradford. A big crowd and a home game is our best opportunity to bounce back and get back on track towards promotion. Gasheads have a huge role to play in that and if we’re in fine voice like we usually are then we’ll give ourselves the best chance of success.
This is a different Rovers side to the one that drew 2-2 at Valley Parade back in October. Alfie Kilgour was in the XI, James Connolly was still a Cardiff City player and Brett Pitman was still with the Gas. Rovers have evolved since then. Aaron Collins is scoring goals, Coutts is playing well consistently and Elliot Anderson brings that bit of magic. Rovers are simply a better team these days.
It won’t be easy though. Mark Hughes has managed wins against Hartlepool and leaders Forest Green of late and also held Newport County to a draw. But The Bantams have been beaten by many of those in the promotion race, with losses to Port Vale, Swindon, Mansfield and Exeter in the last 6 weeks. That’s a good sign for Rovers, but we’ll still need to be at our best to beat them.
It’s easy to get deflated after defeat, particularly when you’ve gotten used to winning regularly. But this is no time to feel sad about the loss. For we have managed the seemingly unachievable in putting ourselves in the play-off places. Rovers were relegation contenders in the first half of the season and are now contending at the other end of the table.
We need to give everything we have between now and May 7 as fans and the team will feed off that. The noise we make and the support we give can create that positivity that players respond to. These are the crunch games that we want to be involved in and this is the kind of pressure that the players will relish. Beat Bradford, and Gasheads will start to dream big.
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