Bristol Rovers are quickly back in action at home once again this evening as they host Bolton Wanderers, three days on from a morale-lifting victory over Huddersfield Town which boosted the Gas’ survival hopes.
Realistically, Rovers needed to get a result from at least one of these back-to-back home games to get themselves back on track after a run of three defeats and one draw in four games.
Now, although their effort to stay in League One is far from over, confidence amongst supporters has been reinstalled after outstanding endeavour and determination to hold onto the three points against the Terriers on Saturday.
The win allowed Inigo Calderon’s side to open up a six point gap between them and 21st place Burton Albion in the final relegation spot after tonight’s visitors Bolton did them a favour by beating the Brewers 2-1 at the Pirelli Stadium. In a way, Rovers returned the favour by beating Huddersfield to allow the Whites to climb into the play-off positions.
Under new manager Steven Schumacher, well known in these parts from his time at Plymouth Argyle, Bolton have become League One’s form team with five wins from their last six matches which has gotten their campaign back on track.
Bizarrely, this is the first meeting between the two sides of the season despite it being mid-March after the original date back in December saw the clash postponed due to red weather warnings as a result of Storm Darragh. Rovers and Bolton will clash again in just shy of four weeks at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Calderon once again has a number of injuries to deal with as the recent busy schedule takes its toll, meaning that there will certainly have to be some rotation while it may also be a case of fitting square pegs into round holes in some places.
Here is how we think the Gas might line up this evening…
Goalkeeper and defence
This is probably where it is the most straightforward to pick. Jed Ward produced his best goalkeeping display since returning to Bristol Rovers from his loan spell at Forest Green Rovers on Saturday afternoon. Although he didn’t have an abundance of saves to make, his handling, distribution and anticipation were all excellent.
Ahead of him, another major performer against Huddersfield was Connor Taylor, who produced his latest man mountain display, keeping out some very talented forward players and earning a second clean sheet in a row.
Meanwhile, James Wilson and Sil Swinkels also had strong performances against the Terriers with the newly incorporated back-three seemingly working with just one goal conceded since Inigo Calderon opted to switch to said formation when losing at home to Rotherham United earlier this month.
Swinkels in particular has demonstrated a threat from set pieces with two goals in just over a month since his arrival from Aston Villa on loan for the remainder of the season. Rovers have to use that to their advantage.
In terms of wing-backs, as pointed out on his social media, Jack Hunt completed his first three-game week in over a year with the right-back a real breath of fresh air since returning to the side. Admittedly, it will be a big ask on the 34-year-old to start a fourth game in the space of 11 days and so it would not be a surprise to see Joel Senior or Taylor Moore come in, just to give Hunt a rest.
On the opposite flank, Clinton Mola has certainly done enough in the past two matches to keep his place ahead of Lino Sousa after producing his best performance in months against Huddersfield. The left wing-back was outstanding, getting an assist and fully playing his part in securing the clean sheet as the 23-year-old returned to the high standards he set at the start of the campaign.
Midfield
This is where it will start to get tricky for Inigo Calderon. Based on the Rovers head coach’s post-match press conference on Saturday, it didn’t sound as though Grant Ward will be fit enough to be involved tonight after missing out over the weekend. Therefore, there is a decision for the Spaniard to make.
Taylor Moore came on into central midfield after just eight minutes following Promise Omochere’s injury and, in fairness, did very well considering it isn’t his natural position. However, as far as we understand, Jamie Lindsay remains available and, despite struggling under Calderon, will surely be in with a shout to start in Ward’s place.
Matt Butcher is a no-brainer to keep in the middle but who comes in alongside him is the main question. There will also be calls for Kofi Shaw to come in after the 18-year-old’s cameo from the bench on Saturday but Calderon declared that he, nor 17-year-old Ollie Dewsbury, are first team players yet and have to get to 10 appearances to be considered as such. As a natural option, our guess is that it will be Lindsay who comes in, although it would be harsh on Moore, with Kamil Conteh and Romaine Sawyers understood to still be injured.
Slightly further ahead, Isaac Hutchinson is the obvious choice to keep his place in the starting line up and play in what is probably his best position, just behind the strike force.
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Strikers
With Promise Omochere joining Chris Martin on the treatment table, Rovers once again find themselves pretty short in the striker department. Thankfully, Martin’s issue isn’t expected to keep him out for long but with Omochere there are genuine fears that his season could be over after suffering another hamstring problem on Saturday and subsequently leaving the Mem on crutches.
Ruel Sotiriou is another player who currently finds himself as one of the first names on the teamsheet following his goal against Huddersfield while Scott Sinclair had plenty of energy against Huddersfield, coming into the starting line up as Omochere and then Sotiriou’s strike partner.
Once again, Michael Reindorf didn’t make the matchday squad with 17-year-old Ollie Dewsbury fancied to sit on the bench and then come on instead. A start for the teenager is extremely unlikely but, with the current injury issues, if the academy graduate is once again fancied ahead of Reindorf, it will certainly suggest that Inigo Calderon hasn’t been pleased with the Cardiff City loanee for whatever reason.
Additionally, it is expected that Shaq Forde will return to the reckoning after serving a four-game suspension following his second red card of the season at Wycombe Wanderers. It would be a surprise to see the forward thrown back into the starting line up but he will certainly be an option for involvement.
Sinclair played the entire 90 minutes on Saturday while Sotiriou lasted 86. If either manage to play the full game here then they will have done extremely well.
Bristol Rovers XI: Jed Ward; Connor Taylor, James Wilson, Sil Swinkels; Jack Hunt, Matt Butcher, Jamie Lindsay, Clinton Mola; Isaac Hutchinson; Scott Sinclair, Ruel Sotiriou