The APL Prediction League & Preview –
Bristol Rovers (A)Was a 4-4 draw with Oldham good, bad or indifferent ?
I’m sure you could come up with a strong argument whichever mode of thought you walked away from Stadium MK with yesterday.
Oldham are a team in the ascendency, recent results against Pompey, Blackburn, Posh and Bradford are testament to that, and as an attacking threat about as good as anything we have seen. You could also argue that our back 3/4/5 collectively put in about the worst display possible, they cut us in pieces for the first which I can excuse, but the other three were a comedy of errors. EEL and Wootton struggled to cope with the aerial threat of the Oldham front row, and I haven’t a clue who was marking who for the 4th goal as nobody was even close to the guy.
I will say that at least we showed some passion, backed by a for once vociferous MK crowd, and although Wootton had a bad day in the office, he showed it meant something when subbed kicking water bottles everywhere.
I can’t put my finger on it, but Brittain looked poor after weeks of looking more than comfortable, I’m happy to put that down to experience, but I wonder if playing three at the back really suits his style, for me he largely ran around not entirely sure what he was supposed to be doing.
One thing became very apparent was the lack lustre Agard, he looks woefully out of form, his first touch is awful, and any layoffs generally made their way to Oldham defenders or gave our players an invitation to attend the hospital. In contrast the introduction of Harry B, Rab and Seager seemed to galvanise us. Harry ran their right back ragged, as did Rab on the other wing, and of course it was the fox in the box Seager that rattled the bar to give Upson the chance to stab it home.
So, from that I would venture those three should be starting in front of Agard, who looks in need of a confidence boost, a Checkatrade runout for him in a week a two could be what he needs.
Before we get on with next week’s game, I have to say I was stunned to see people walking out when the injury time board went up, a game filled with that amount of drama, and still with the possibility of an injury time winner, and people were walking out, WTF are they even attending for, I just don’t get it, if we were winning by a good margin or getting trounced I can to a degree understand it, but that was just ridiculous, and comes a close second with people walking out in the final few minutes of the 0-0 Checkatrade game with Stevenage......hello penalties !
Right then ................how time flies, it hardly seems possible, that the last time we played these in October last year we were managerless with Richie Barker at the helm, just a few weeks down the line after Robbo was shown the door.
At the time albeit still not halfway through the season we were staring relegation in the face in 21st position, some say sticking with Robbo would have meant relegation, but in honesty nobody knows what would have happened, but I can’t argue it was just about time for him to go, he was making poor decisions, we had become stale, teams had worked us out.
So here we are 12 months later, what’s changed, well the team for starters, as its virtually unrecognisable, but I would venture not much else. OK we are a bigger unit, younger, but little else really, the style of play is largely mind numbing boring trash, so I can only hope the display of passion yesterday was a step in the right direction.
I can’t honestly recall us looking in total control or good value for any points we have earnt so far, we certainly haven’t been convincing winners at any time, again excluding the AFC game.
You could say, a win is a win, ok I can’t argue with that, but it would be nice to walk away from a game feeling I’d been entertained like yesterday, rather than walking away thinking, these people get paid for this.
Moving along then, let’s look at the Gas.
THE STORY SO FARRovers currently sit in 16th in League 1 with a playing record of
PLAYED 15, WON 6, DRAWN 0, LOST 9, GF 23 & GA 29 with 18 POINTS gained.
Their playing record, in chronological order is as follows.
Charlton 1 Bristol Rovers 0
Bristol Rovers 4 Cambridge Utd 1 (EFL Cup)
Bristol Rovers 1 Peterborough 4
Bury 2 Bristol Rovers 3
Fulham 0 Bristol Rovers 1 (EFL Cup)
Bristol Rovers 3 Fleetwood 1
Wycombe 1 Bristol Rovers 5 (EFL Trophy)
Bradford 3 Bristol Rovers 1
Bristol Rovers 2 Walsall 1
Bristol Rovers 2 Oldham 3
Wigan 3 Bristol Rovers 0
Wolves 1 Bristol Rovers 0 (EFL Cup)
Bristol Rovers 3 Blackpool 1
Portsmouth 3 Bristol Rovers 0
Bristol Rovers 2 Plymouth 1
Northampton 0 Bristol Rovers 6
Bristol Rovers 0 Oxford 1
Shrewsbury 4 Bristol Rovers 0
Rochdale 1 Bristol Rovers 0
THE MANAGERDarrell James Clarke born in Mansfield aged 38 years.
With a youth career at Mansfield he went on to make 159 appearances for his hometown club scoring 24 times as a midfield/winger.
After 6 years at the club he moved to Hartlepool where he played 127 games scoring 19 goals. Loans then followed at Stockport, Port Vale and Rochdale before finishing his career at Salisbury City (138 games, 12 goals), in the final three years also becoming player/coach.
In total, he played 438 games scoring 56 goals.
This is his second appointment after his role as player/coach at Salisbury City, he has been in charge at Rovers since March 2014, previously being the Assistant Manager.
His stats to date including Salisbury are
GAMES 340, WON 170, DRAWN 74, LOST 96, that’s a WIN RATIO of 50 %.THE STADIUMIf you generally ignore everything I say, please take one piece of advice, wrap up warm, this is possibly the coldest ground anywhere in the country.
So, it’s the 12,011 capacity (3,000 seated) Memorial Stadium (
Sat Nav BS7 0BF).
Away supporters are mostly housed in an open terrace on one side of the East (Dribuild) Stand. This area is open to the elements so you will get wet if it rains. The open terrace makes it difficult for away fans to generate some noise, generally this is about as inhospitable as it gets for an away fan, and when you are losing its bloody miserable here, there is some seating available though.
There is a bar behind the clubhouse terrace at the ground that allows in away supporters.
Also the Queen Vic pub on the Gloucester Road, which is around a five-minute walk from the ground, usually has a comfortable mix of home and away fans, although it does get busy.
Please note that alcohol is not made available to away fans inside the stadium.
There is parking available at the ground but there is also a fair amount of street parking available, mainly near the Wellington pub.
The nearest railway station is Filton Abbey Wood, which is approximately 1.5 miles or 20-25 minutes’ walk away from the ground'. More likely though you will end up at Bristol Parkway which is about two miles away from the ground and is too far to walk from, so you are probably best to jump in a taxi (cost about £10) or buses 73/73A/73B run from the railway station past the Memorial Stadium.
FORMER MANAGERSFormed in 1883 they never appointed a full-time manager until 1889 and then appointed Alfred Homer who managed the team for 21 years, they have subsequently had 32 managers, not including caretakers.
Other managers include Bill Dodgin Snr, Bobby Campbell, Terry Cooper, Bobby Gould, Gerry Francis, Malcolm Allison, Russell Osman, Ian Holloway, Ian Atkins, Paul Trollope, Paul Buckle and Mark McGhee.
FORMER PLAYERSA few famous names like Ray Graydon, Ian Hamilton, Bobby Jones, Rickie Lambert, Gary Mabbutt, Nigel Martyn and Tony Pullis.
MATCHDAY MASCOTA frightening almost creepy looking pirate called Captain Gas.
FAMOUS FANSDisgraced MP Jeffrey Archer imprisoned for perjury, and Rod Hull of Emu fame, and part time TV aerial repair man.
SHOOTERS BOOTSBilly Bodin, who has scored 9 goals in all competitions this season.
OH NO, NOT YOU AGAINChris Lines who played 18 games for us but failed to score, and has played nearly 300 games for Rovers in three spells.
CURRENT MATCH ODDSBristol Rovers
21/20 (Tote Sport) Draw
23/10 (Bill Hill) MK Dons
5/2 (Bet 365)
LAST TIME AROUNDSaturday 19th October 2016 – Bristol Rovers 0 MK Dons 0
League Positions at Time– Rovers 8th Dons 21st
Team – Martin, Hendry, Lewington, Reeves (GB Williams), Walsh, Baldock, Carruthers, Colclough (GC Williams), Upson, Agard, Bowditch (Powell).
Unused Subs – Nicholls, Downing, Tilney, Tshimanga
Referee – Nigel Miller (3 yellows)
Attendance – 9,031 (291 Dons fans)
Stats – Possession 50/50, Shots – Rovers 10 Dons 11, On Target – Rovers 3 Dons 3
HEAD 2 HEAD2016/17 – Bristol Rovers 0 MK Dons 0
2016/17 - MK Dons 3 Bristol Rovers 3 (Bowditch, GB Williams, Reeves)
2010/11 – Bristol Rovers 1 MK Dons 2 (O’Hanlon, Powell)
2010/11 – MK Dons 2 Bristol Rovers 0 (Powell, Leven)
2009/10 – Bristol Rovers 1 MK Dons 0
2009/10 – MK Dons 2 Bristol Rovers 1 (Leven, Puncheon)
2008/09 – MK Dons 2 Bristol Rovers 1 (Gerba, Chadwick)
2008/09 – Bristol Rovers 1 MK Dons 2 (Wilbraham, Own Goal) Llera sent off.
2006/07 – Bristol Rovers 1 MK Dons 1 (McGovern)
2006/07 – MK Dons 2 Bristol Rovers 0 (Dyer, Platt)
YOU’VE GOT NO HISTORYThe club was founded in 1883 as Black Arabs F.C., and were also known as Eastville Rovers and Bristol Eastville Rovers before finally changing its name to Bristol Rovers in 1899.
The club's official nickname is The Pirates, reflecting the maritime history of Bristol.
The local nickname of the club is The Gas, from the gasworks next to their former home Eastville Stadium, which started as a derogatory term used by fans of their main rival Bristol City, but was affectionately adopted by the team.
According to a survey conducted in December 2003, Cardiff City and Swindon Town are considered their second and third biggest rivals.
Rovers were admitted to the Football League in 1920 and have played there ever since, apart from spending the 2014–15 season in the Conference Premier.
They previously came close to losing their league status in 1939, when they were re-elected after finishing bottom of Division Three (South), and in 2002 when the team finished one league position away from relegation to the Football Conference.
Their highest finishing positions were in 1956 and 1959, on both occasions ending the season in 6th place in Division Two, then the second tier of English football.
Rovers were Football League Trophy finalists in 1990 and 2007.
PREDICTIONThat’s it once again, make sure you make your prediction before the 1 hour before kickoff deadline, all the usual rules apply, own goals cannot be predicted, and please make sure you check your prediction, we’ve had a few weird ones lately like, 0-0 and Sow to score first, also no edits after the deadline.
See you on the terraces!
WellDonEXAMPLEBristol Rovers 1 MK Dons 2
MKDFGS – Ebanks-Landell
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