The most bizarre statistic about this strange football season so far (to me) is that with about a quarter of our League One games already played we are unbeaten away from home. Perhaps there is more pressure when playing at Bescot - higher expectations, who knows? Anyway, we travel to the Memorial Ground at Horfield, Bristol, to take on a Darrell Clarke side apparently struggling to find the net with any consistency (sound familiar?) and down in 18th place in the table. There are also reported ground problems, with two newly erected stands currently being refused the necessary safety certificates - urgent discussions are taking place to see if a solution can be found before our game on Saturday. Current League One form for the Gasheads:-
1 Sep Shrewsbury Town (A) Drew 1-1
8 Sep Plymouth Argyle (H) Drew 0-0
15 Sep Luton Town (A) Lost 1-0
22 Sep Coventry City (H) Won 3-1(Rovers were 3-0 up after 23 minutes!!!)
29 Sep Bradford City (A) Drew 0-0
2 Oct Rochdale (A) Drew 0-0
Scoring goals (or lack thereof) must also be uppermost in Dean Keates’ mind - our most recent 6 games have only produced 4 Walsall goals, and we are currently hanging on to the coat-tails of the play-off zone rather than sitting comfortably within it. Andy Cook seems to have gone off the boil, and he may well be better utilised as an impact substitute rather than starting and then visibly tiring as the game progresses. Isaiah Osbourne may also benefit from a stay of less than 90 minutes, (with or without a smack in the face). Kieron Morris and Liam Kinsella will naturally be pushing for a starting place, and Josh Gordon is capable of providing pace up front.
Our relatively poor form of late makes any prediction a bit dodgy, but I’m quietly confident of bringing three points back to God’s Own Country from this one - even if it’s 0-1 (Morgan Ferrier scoring).
Buzzing for this. One of my more anticipated away days of the season with decent pubs near the ground and usually a decent turn out.
The fact that this is a negative shows how good our season has been compared to preseason expectations, or even last year when we played them at roughly the same time.
I think we will get a win. I’d take a draw but Rovers look average this year. Although I really hope he reverts back to a similar shape to the one we had against Barnsley.
I am unable to attend and in the spirit of pessimism and doom surrounding the current Brexit thread I predict a terrible loss at the hands of the very fair minded, well run and enviable Bristol Rovers team.
I think again it would just be like this team to bag 3 points on the road . We might not be in the best of form … but you can’t knock the effort and team spirit dean has installed in the lads . They will be up for this game . I’m going for a battling 2-1 win UTS
They’re alleged to be very strong and stable, with 350 million supporters and close ties to the German automotive industry. The future certainly looks very er, interesting for them, despite ongoing critique from their near neighbours.
Anyone know if you get match on I follow?
Playing around with it but only seems to offer text commentary. I thought it was mid weeks but weren’t Barnsley and Oxford on?
Just got back from Manchestor after watching Jeff Lynn’s E.L.O boy what a show it was AMAZING, I predict a win for the saddlers, we are much better suited to the counter attack football we play in our away fixtures.
Usually only midweek games are available in the UK. Barnsley was on during an ‘international break’ weekend. Oxford was only available overseas. You can, of course, pretend to be overseas by using VPN. @chunkster will be able to tell you how this works - or not!
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