By Nathan Bees
There’s no hiding it, Tuesday evening’s draw at Stevenage was really frustrating.Defensively we looked strong and kept a much-needed clean sheet after shipping a few sloppy goals recently, but going forward we lacked any sort of fluidity to breach a team with almost every man behind the ball.
It made for a frustrating watch from the stand where 1300+ Gasheads were congregated behind the goal, and hearing the scores from elsewhere filter through only made our result feel even more disappointing. We had dropped out of the top three again and automatic promotion was no longer in our hands.
Our quest for promotion is by no means over, though.
We dropped points at Stevenage, Oxford United have dropped points against Luton Town and Newport County, Accrington Stanley have done likewise against Morecambe, so there is no reason why they won’t do the same again over the final three games of the season.
It is not ideal to be relying on other teams to drop points, but it is still absolutely game on because anything can happen. All we can do is focus on the remaining matches we have left and hope we end up where we want to be. If we don’t, we just have to go again in the play-offs where we have the necessary experience to give it a damn good go of getting out of this division at Wembley.
One thing is for sure, we can play a huge part in supporting the players as they set about beating Exeter City, York City and Dagenham & Redbridge over the next fortnight. At the time of writing there are only a few hundred tickets left for tomorrow’s clash against the Grecians, meaning we are set to record our highest home attendance of the campaign right when it matters most.
We have virtually sold all of our allocation for York next weekend and the Daggers game has been sold out for a long while, which shows that everyone wants to get behind Darrell Clarke and the lads. If we are in good voice, support the team and make life as difficult for Exeter as possible, there is every chance we can make a difference.
Paul Tisdale’s side will come to The Mem wanting to keep their play-off dreams alive and unlike most teams who arrive here, they will be keen to attack. That will hopefully play to our advantage as it should leave more space in behind for our attacking players to exploit.
As nerve-wracking as tomorrow will undoubtedly be I am quietly confident. I have complete faith in this team and if they play anywhere near their best, we will end up where we want to be.
Always believe!
Come on Rovers, come on you blues!