There’s been many a time I’ve left the Mem after seeing Bristol Rovers draw thinking it was almost as bad as a defeat, but on Tuesday evening the point gained against a very good Stockport County side felt like a win.
It was by no means a great performance by Inigo Calderon’s team, but it was a game I feel sure would have been lost prior to his appointment at the tail end of 2024. There were times in Tuesday’s game when it looked as though we wouldn’t get back on level terms, especially after Stockport went ahead.
However, whereas for much of the season there seems to have been an acceptance that once we concede we lose, there now appears to be determination, resolve and effort to get back on level terms.
Calderon, at least, has a plan B, and probably a plan C as well, something his predecessor didn’t appear to have in his locker. On Tuesday, when his side were up against it, he made a quadruple substitution and changed from a back-four to a back-three and whilst I don’t think we have the natural wing-backs to make that system work consistently well, it paid off on this occasion.
It’s fair to say that Calderon’s side is a work in progress, but the green shoots of improvement are showing, and recent performances and results suggest that better times lie ahead for Gasheads.
For much of this season we have been looking over our shoulder, dreading being dragged into the bottom four, but on Tuesday night we didn’t look like a relegation side and, to me at least, it felt that we should be looking upwards and will soon be heading for mid table obscurity!
It’s always good to look at the positives from any performance, rather than focus on the negatives, and Tuesday was no exception; disappointing as it was to see goalkeeper Josh Griffiths recalled from his loan by West Bromwich Albion, his move triggered the return of Jed Ward from his loan at Forest Green Rovers and he put in an excellent performance against Stockport, making a couple of crucial saves and exuding a confidence that probably wasn’t in his game last season.
In front of him James Wilson and Connor Taylor were solid and, in spite of the goals we’ve conceded, have proved to be a sound defensive partnership. In the middle of the park. Matt Butcher, my personal man of the match on Tuesday, appears to have been an astute signing though I do feel we miss the steely presence of Kamil Conteh in that midfield.
And then there are the two new lads, Michael Reindorf and Sils Swinkels, who both made cameo appearances on Tuesday and who, along with Butcher, were involved in that last gasp equaliser that gained us a point. Reindorf won the free-kick, Butcher took it and Swinkels headed home to make it a debut that he, certainly, won’t forget in a hurry.
Of course, there’s a great deal of room for improvement; we still aren’t creating too many goalscoring opportunities and we don’t use the experience and guile of Chris Martin or give him any sort of service. He’s a goal poacher and now in the latter stages of a distinguished career he needs players around him who will do his running for him and perhaps Reindorf will prove to be an effective foil for him.
Stockport, like many other sides we’ve seen at The Mem this season, had pace in their side and broke quickly from defence to attack. I don’t think we get the ball forwards quickly enough thus allowing the opposition time to repel our attacking threats. We do need more pace in the side and I’m sure that will be uppermost in the thoughts of the recruitment team over the summer period.
Just a few final comments on the new loanees; Reindorf and Swinkels were the 1,023rd and 1,024th players to appear in a league match for Rovers and as Butcher was the 1,022nd, there was a certain symmetry about that late goal!
A total of 18 players have now made their Rovers league bow this season and Swinkels is also the first Dutch born player to score for Rovers since Sergio Ommel back in 2001/02; the last of his 10 goals for the club arriving in a 2-1 home win against Kidderminster Harriers on April 1, 2002.
While Stockport are upwardly mobile, our next opponents, Burton Albion, arrive at the Mem in the midst of a battle to preserve their League One status. They are currently down in 23rd place, with 26 points from their 30 games, six points fewer than Rovers.
Manager Gary Bowyer brought in six new players in the January transfer window; Owen Dodgson, JJ McKierman, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, Fabio Tavares, James Jones and Kryan Lofthouse. He also shipped out a number of players, including former Rovers favourite Billy Bodin, who joined Reading on loan for the remainder of the season.
There’s still a Gas connection at Burton though, in the shape of skipper and central defender Ryan Sweeney who, in two loan spells with Rovers from Stoke City, made 39 league appearances, scoring four goals.
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With eight players now out on loan, the Burton side we face on Saturday will be totally different to the one we took on at The Pirelli Stadium last October when goals from Shaq Forde, Clinton Mola and Grant Ward saw us win 3-1 in front of a crowd of 2,832.
Their current league position suggests that this will not be such an open game as our last three home fixtures have been, against Barnsley, Peterborough and Stockport. Those sides arrived at the Mem looking for three points and, consequently, we witnessed games with attacking intent.
I suspect that Burton will arrive looking to defend in depth and attempt to hit us on the break and if that’s the case then it could be that we have to be patient as Rovers look for a way in which to unlock their back line.
This will be the 17th league game between the sides and the eighth at The Mem, where Burton have won on two occasions.
Thirteen years ago, in April 2012, when The Brewers made their first appearance at the Mem Rovers, thanks in no small part to an Eliot Richards hat trick, ran out 7-1 winners and whilst it would be nice to think that scoreline could be repeated, I’m pretty sure that most of us will be happy just to take all three points on this occasion!