It's fair to say Trolls has been in trouble this season. Before the Oldham game Rovers had conceded sixteen goals in five matches, most recently conceding four at home against Southampton in what was an appalling team performance and with Oldham lying in fourth coming into the match things could have been a bit hairy. Thank goodness for small mercies though. The first choice front pairing of Warren Feeney and Kirk Millar were away with Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland U21 teams respectively while the Latics had also been knocked out of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy by League 2 Shrewsbury earlier in the week, Rovers meanwhile were sat at home following a bye in the first round.
Rovers away form last season had been terrible, winning six and losing a massive fifteen on the road, while this seasons away results have been similarly poor, if not worse. So going into the game a match up of facts, line ups and omens left the game clearly in the balance. It was Rovers who took the lead, Will Hoskins sprinting past his defender and nonchalantly lobbing the ball over the head of Dean Brill. After that the Rovers tempo slowed and Oldham began a fightback, striker Oumare Tounkare wasting two fantastic heading oppurtunities during the match but it was just before half time that Oldham struck their way back into the match.
Byron Anthony gave away a free kick for a foul on Dean Kelly and Oldham used it to their advantage, taking a move off of the training ground as Dale Stephens squared the ball to Chris Taylor who had too much space, punishing Rovers by placing the ball in the bottom corner of league debutant Mike Green's goal. The second half started slowly but one of the Gas talking points was the first appearance of loanee John Akinde in a Rovers shirt. The big man gave his team a new dimension to their play and showed both strength and pace in abundance. The next big chance however fell to goalscorer Will Hoskins, though as he stretched for the ball he was unable to keep it down and prodded it into the underside of the crossbar.
One problem that Rovers will face against Brentford next week comes as a result of Danny Coles picking up two yellow cards, also taking him to five in total for the season. Paul Trollope has just three full time central defenders in his squad and will almost certainly be relying on Byron Anthony and James Tunnicliffe in the next match.
Oldham player-manager Paul Dickov, who later moaned about Rovers time wasting, brought himself into the action with four minutes of normal time left, though he in fact ended up playing for a twelve minute spell as the referee added on an additional eight minutes to the game and it was the home side who nearly took advantage of this, the ball bouncing off the top of the bar from a deep free kick.
1-1 will do for Rovers, it was a long trip against a team in decent form and especially after the trouncing the Gas received last weekend. despite not claiming victory manager Paul Trollope was pleased with the display, telling bristolrovers.co.uk:
"We came here with the intention of winning the game, no question about that, and I think you could see that by the way we started the game. What I was looking for, though, was a hunger and drive about the group, and the ability to defend with a discipline and an intensity, which we saw."
Paul Dickov was however dissapointed with Rovers time wasting, though happy enough with his sides work overall: speaking to BBC Radio Manchester he said
"Every time the ball went out of play, it was taking them minutes to get it back into play.
"I'm not making excuses, I never make excuses. I thought we were sloppy in the first twenty minutes with our defending but once we sorted that out going forward today I thought we were excellent.
"It's probably one of the best games we've played today, we kept the ball moving, we had a tempo about us, we created chances."
Another plus for Rovers was the performance of keeper Mike Green, making only his second ever Rovers appearance. After conceding six against lowly Oxford United his confidence could have easily been shot away but he put in a competent performace, making an especially tidy save from a free kick in the first half and Paul Trollope was satisfied with his performance:
"It would have been great for him to keep a clean sheet but we came unstuck just before half time by a good free kick. It was clever play and we had issues within the defensive structure but it was a good finish.
"It was a pleasing debut for Mike Green in spite of the fact that he suffered a little bit of cramp in the second half and he can be proud of his performance and he's shown that he's capable at this level."
Rovers next face Brentford at home, a side who have had a tough start to the season and, at the time of writing, sit bottom of the League 1 table. Can Paul Trollope give himself some more time at the helm? We shall have to wait and see.
No comments:
Post a Comment