Defeat to Rovers leaves Gould under pressure

By Peegs
October 5 2003

The growing unrest towards Bobby Gould grew amongst Town supporters as the Robins fell to a defeat against an ordinary Bristol Rovers side at the Memorial Stadium.

It is now 3 matches without a goal (I thought we were the entertainers Bobby?) however Gould can make an excuse that we were arguably without are 4 best players as Mike Duff, Richard Forsyth, Martin Devaney and Grant McCann were all sidelined with injuries, rumour had it that Grant McCann suffered a broken leg in training however X-Rays have shown that just heavy brusing was suffered.

It was a first half that without really threatening the Rovers goal too much Cheltenham dominated infront of the 799 travelling supporters from Cheltenham.

Now the Robins have not played for a week so why Bob Taylor was dropped to the bench I do not know. The striking pair were Spencer and Odejayi however the ex Forest Green man had a shocker.

Graham Fyfe returned to the starting line up and showed a few nice touches, one such touch led to an opportunity for himself 20 yards out however he dragged his shot well wide.

Lee Hodges - Rovers best player on the day - riggled past a few lack lustre Cheltenham challenges with 20 minutes on the clock however the ex Scunthorpe man hit his shot high and wide of ex Rovers keeper Shane Higgs goal.

Cheltenham were playing a direct game and on many occasions got goal side of the Rovers centre halves but Odejayi and Spencer were shot shy and many chances were either blocked or no shot offered at all.

Having not offered much all half Rovers took the lead with 2 minutes of the first half remaining. Ex Oxford man Dave Savage played a ball down the right hand side, with right back Danny Boxall marginally on side he was way clear of Jamie Victory and he planted a pin point cross onto the head of Paul Tait 6 yards otu and he left Shane Higgs no chance with a bullet header.

It was a bitter blow as although threatening little the Robins had dominated the first half possesion wise yet found themselves a goal down.

H/T 0-1

The second half was slightly more eventful than the first for the Robins. They came close to equalising - and maybe should have - 5 minutes into the second half when a through ball by Spencer was met by the on running Mark Yates, he found himself one on one with the 'keeper however his shot lacked any kind of power or conviction and Miller in the Rovers goal managed to make a comfortable save. You have to feel that with the return of John Finnigan to fitness Yatesie will find himself on the bench however the Ghoul - as he is now known - will most likely stick with one of his favourites in the team and leave out one of the players of last season.

Just short of the hour Odejayi was finally brought off the pitch to a ripple of applause - this was more not to dent his confidence than anything as his display was shocking and not worthy of 800 fans giving up their Saturday to watch - to be replaced by Bob Taylor. However the ex Baggies man made little impact in the game.

Tempers started to fly in the second half and Amankwaah was hit in the face by Hodges and was down for sometime, the thug known as Paul Tait decided to abuse the injured man whilst on the floor, one word for you mate...... tosser.

Gould had seemingly lost the plot in the second half and decided to replace the tiring Graham Fyfe with the non left sided player Dave Bird when a fellow left sided player Ben Cleverley was left sitting on the bench.

With Town fans frustrated a section of the crowd turned on Gould - having made little attmept at making any kind of vocal support for the team during the game I thought this was disgusting. The barrage of abuse towards Gould was due to the Zonal marking policy he uses at corners where we have little license to break with no players left forward.

Craig Dobson made his debut for the Robins inplace of Bertrand Cozic and made a few nice runs. A moment that enraged myself 9 minutes from time was when Gould instructed Higgs to take his time after gathering the ball in his box. Bobby if you hadn't noticed we were losing the game and needed to break on the counter attack, a policy of taking your tiem just allows the Rovers players to get back in their positions.

Like the first 45 minutes Rovers had created little in the way of attacking threat, however nearing the end they nearly took a 2-0 lead when a cross from the right by ex Cheltenham trialist Junior Agogowas sliced agonisingly over his own bar by Shane Duff.

The Robins came close to equalsing late on and were probably worth atleast if not more a point. Darren Jones pumped a high ball forward, Spencer managed a flick on which came to Dave Bird however he screwed his shot wide.

Just as in the first half Rovwers scored a late goal however the ref in my view as kind in the awarding of the penalty. Lewis Haldine ran onto a through ball and Shane Higgs came rushing out, Haldine laucnhed himself into the air in the style of Joathan Edwards in the long jump and the ref pointed to the spot. Wayne Carlisle stepped up and despatched the penalty, sending Higgs the wrong way and sending Cheltenham home with no points.

Well there you have it, the entertainers have now not scored in 3 games, not won in 4 and with Scunthorpe away on Tuesday get ready to make that no wins in 5, the Ghoul is under pressure, time for players like Odejayi and taylor to perform.

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F/T 0-2

BRISTOL ROVERS: Miller, Boxall, Barrett, Edwards, Anderson, Carlisle, Savage, Hyde (Quinn 83), Hodges (Street 74), Tait, Agogo (Haldane 85).

CHELTENHAM TOWN: Higgs, Amankwaah, Jones, S.Duff, Victory, Cozic (Dobson 80), Yates, Howells, Fyfe (Bird 75), Odejayi (Taylor 57), Spencer.

Attendance 8013