A free Saturday

Due to international call ups, our game against Fleetwood this weekend has been called off. We will not be entertaining our fisherman friends on Saturday and instead will have the weekend free from Rovers. Almost a third of the season has gone. I am writing this ahead of our visit to Stockport on Tuesday night. I don’t hold out much hope that we will get the victory we need and that we will be out of the EFL Trophy. After Tuesday it’s highly likely that all we have left to concentrate on is the League.

A free weekend gives us the chance to reflect. Our overall performances have not been great. Few of the games have been enjoyable, it’s more like an endurance test. The win against Walsall early in the season was good, and the victories over Accrington were enjoyable. Most of the time though it’s been stodgy fayre, like munching your way through a stale cheese sandwich without pickle, sauce or cheese. 

For the first few games there was a hint that we might be looking at the top of the table, but here we are in November and we are not leading the pack, not in the elite group behind the leader, but struggling to keep up at the back. It could all change but nobody seems convinced, instead we are looking over our shoulder hoping that the likes of Carlisle, Morecambe or Swindon don’t suddenly kick, overtake us and leave us worried about finishing in the last two. It seems that all the hard work on the training ground hasn’t really paid off. We look like we are struggling, if we could find a short cut to get to the finish we would, but the road ahead looks unforgiving.

There are some bright spots. Omari Patrick is achieving cult status. Sam Finley looks increasingly strong, Cam Norman the same (let’s hope the injury picked up on Saturday isn’t serious), Connor Wood is also steadily improving. Connor Jennings continues to be a source of wonderment, after a less than convincing start to the season. Yet despite these positives there are other players that haven’t yet stepped up to the plate. Our forwards are in poor form. We lack creativity in midfield and whilst most games have started promisingly, this hasn’t lasted much beyond the opening 10 minutes.

Which brings us to Nigel. At the start of our season Adkin’s was positive, excited, enthusiastic. Now, well, not so much. It seems that he is less confident, less assured, increasingly uncertain. Our injury problems haven’t helped. Nor has the background noise of the club being taken over. Nobody wants Nigel to fail, we all want our team to do well. Yet, a third of the season in he and we don’t know what our best starting XI is. It’s also not clear what our preferred formation is and it seems that Sam Taylor and Sol Solomon will continue to be fringe players. 

Still, it’s a marathon not a sprint. We beat Newport County on Saturday. It wasn’t a convincing performance but it was a win. If we manage to win our game in hand we would only be 4 points off the playoffs, 7 pts off the automatic promotion places. We still have 2/3rds of the season left. On the other hand a couple of defeats and we’re not looking over our shoulder, the tail-Enders will be alongside us. 

Let’s hope that we can use the free weekend to recharge our batteries, rekindle our enthusiasm and push on. There are still some cracking games to come. Keep the faith.