MY THOUGHTS.....

The close season seemed to fly by. After last season's horrific events, the new season dawned surrounded in uncertainty. Fans waited anxiously for the 1st of August to arrive. There was a takeover in place. But would it go through? That question was certainly on my mind, and I'm sure a lot of other Rovers fans also. Ian Snodin had been made manager to commence on the takeover date. All off a sudden the first pre-season match had been played at Worksop. A 2-2 draw which involved mainly the players from the relagation squad.

Snodin took charge and the takeover went through. Finally we had new owners in a club which was in need of re-investment to say the least. Snodin had just over 2 weeks to assemble a side to take on Dover at the Crabble. Snodin signed a number of new players and at Dover only Lee Warren had a start in the new look Rovers.

I happened to be in France on holiday with my family whilst most of the pre-season activity took place, but me and my dad made the family catch an early ferry home to make the match. We did. I saw a completely new look Rovers side and I was not un-impressed with some of the players on show. We went away with defeat and I was not too downhearted as I felt there was plenty there to work on.

The following week was one which saw Neville Southall make his debut for the Rovers. The first of a number former internationals to join the Rovers. We lost again against Southport and I felt that we were unlucky to get no points from the game. I missed the Kidderminster game and just typical of my luck, we won. 1 win in the first 3 games and I miss the win, but see the defeats.

We this up with a point at Barrow, and We then lost to Kingstonian before being robbed against Kettering.

The Forest Green match was quite amazing. We lost to a bad side despite the fact that we should have won the game by the break. We continued to lose at Hayes, which had excellent food I should add. This was the debut of former Scottish international, Steve Nicol to follow up the one of John Sheridan at Kingstonian. It is great to have these players at Belle Vue so long as we also have younger players in the squad. We must plan for the future as well. Everyone wants to beat us because of our status. But these players are certainly a tad different from some who have recently pulled on a Rovers shirt. (By recently I mean last season!)

I won't comment on the returning Southport game, but I will on the Diamonds one. It was just quite amazing when Hume, defender/striker crashed home an equaliser against table topping Rushden. It was no less than we deserved and the atmosphere when it went in was amazing. We followed up with a nice win at Morcambe, (is there such a thing as a bad win!?!) and then to date threw away a 2 goal lead at Yeovil, which was disappointing, but hey, at least were not losing!

Also, Mark Hume has scored 3 goals when given the chance, is he a striker in disguise? Maybe Snodin has known he has striking skills all along and is now using him as a secret weapon!

THINGS MUST IMPROVE

I feel that I have quite a bit to say after seeing us lose to a Farnborough side who were not exactly world beaters. Ian Snodin has my 100% support as he tries to return the good times to Belle Vue. I think that currently, the team is stronger with Woods in goal rather than Southall. Nev is a great sportsman, but he is quite simpley not fit. I saw on several occasions today his lack od fitness is actually really affecting the running of the team. In the second half, he was far too slow to reach a perfectly reasonable backpass, and it resulted in himself having to make a tackle when the ball should have been at the other end of the pitch. Our defence still looks shakey at times and we do not look capable of keeping a team out for 90 minutes. We have lost a two goal lead on more than one occasion this season and it has to stop. (Fitness?) Farnboro', two goals up in the first half. What do they do? They quite rightly just relax, and absorb all that is thrown at them. They are beaten finally in the last minute when the game is really over. A defence can be coached and organised to keep out teams. This is what we have to do. In the middle of the park we are not terrible by any means, but we are inefficient in getting the ball up the pitch. When the ball reaches the front then nothing much works. The need for a striker that is going to rough about and distort opposition defences is now about as obvious as it can get. (Adie Mike springs to mind) Also, when Goodwin does not play, then we have no driving from the centre of the pitch, so there is a gulf from the midfield to the attack. Sheridan is full of skill and know how. But the problems are that at present the team is not gelling together and there are lots of units in the team, rather than one big functioning unit.

So we lose again. This time to Woking and we have now lost to two teams in the bottom area of the table in two Saturday's running. The fact that we are now starting to contract players who were not on a contract before is a good sign that we are planning. I thought that Mcintyre had returned to Tranmere but he then played against Woking. I hope that he is signed as he would be a great player to have, and the the fact that he is young would mean that he would be an excellent player for the future too. Woods has now signed for a year which is a good thing as I felt that he deserved to be offered a contract by the club. We have now slumped to the bottom of the table and we now must really work to get up. Snodin will hopefully get the correct combination soon.

Well, we got the win which was essential at Belle Vue against a Flixton side who defended quite well. The relief was great when Kirkwood headed home a goal to give us the break through. Hume's goal was also nice to give us a nice firm win. The win was needed to apart from the obvious reason of going through, to give the fans something to cheers about, and to give the players some confidence. The players stuck at the job and the players were also obviously also delighted with the win. We must now go on and start to win league games. Duerdon has signed form Halifax for us up front and maybe the win will kick start the season.

Another league defeat and were still bottom of the pile. Another player sent off. We have had so many players sent off now and the season is still not that old. Hume, originally a centre back, now playing up front, scores again but we still concede goals. In this league, when teams have visited Belle Vue they often have from the start set out not to concede goals. We can not seem to do this as well as some other teams, as we seem to concede home and away. Perhaps the time is right for Danny George to have a chance to prove himself. This must now get better. We have had the bad start and now it is time to start getting up by working at it. The only way is up.

So we are through to the first round of the FA cup. We have had to win through two matches against Flixton and Guiseley to get to this stage. We now face a trip to division 3 side Southend. They play at Roots Hall, with a capacity of around 12,000. This is a trip back into a football league ground. We shall be back into a football league ground for a match which would be nice to win to progress further. The main thing is that we have got this far in the tournament. It would not seem much to be in the FA cup first round in years before because we started there! But now we have had to win through to get there. The win against Guiseley was very important again. It should now be built on.

Brilliant! What a great result against Southend. We deserved to win the game and we did. Great support and superb on the pitch too. I'll say no more.

Since our win at Southend, we have gained a vital 3 points against Barrow and then lost to Frickley at home. We then lost 1-0 at Hereford and we followed this up with a 0-0 draw at home against Rushden in the FA Cup, which was our reward for our win at Southend. We have now got to concentrate on gaining more league points and moving up the league table. We also beat Southport at home in the cup, in which we played some of our other sqaud players.

A superb gate against Rushden in the FA Cup second round, and we earned a replay in which we were then defeated 4-2 away at their ground. We made a good effort against Rushden. In the replay, also, the players did well after going a goal and a player down all in the first 6 minutes. We also won a match after the replay, against Dover, which was superb considering that we went 3-0 down after around half an hour. The spirit shown will hopefully take us clear of the danger zone as the season continues to progress. We then lost 1-0 to Leek. We must make sure particulaly that we do not lose our home games, and must make home advantage tell more frequently.