Bristol Rovers

Since my last report we have drawn twice, won once, brought in two more players and said goodbye to another.

The game against Kidderminster Harriers ended all square even though I thought we might have taken all three points  after a very good start. However we conceded first and did very well to come from behind to gain a point.

On target for Kidderminster was, of course, Nathan Blissett who had an impressive game. He was a player we already knew quite a bit about as Marcus Stewart had watched him a few times in the last couple of months and Darrell had received a number of positive reports on him.

Last Thursday we had a bid to secure his services accepted by Kidderminster and signed Nathan, beating off interest from a number of league clubs for his signature.

Nathan feels that he will benefit from joining Rovers and we are delighted to have signed a player with the potential to progress his career and help us regain our place in the Football League.
He made a great start to his Rovers career, scoring on his debut at Chester last Saturday and I feel certain that he will go on to score many more goals for us.

Unfortunately we only returned from Chester with a point after being two goals ahead at one point in the game. However we extended our unbeaten away record to seven in the league.

We have also signed Bradley Goldberg, on loan from Dagenham & Redbridge, and he made his debut at Chester. Another young and hungry player, we hope he will have a similar impact to Lyle Della-Verde
who has done very well for us since his loan move from Fulham.

One player to leave us was Jamie White, whose contract was cancelled by mutual consent and we thank him for his time with us and hope he enjoys success at his new club, Sutton United.

The game against league leaders Barnet earlier this week was our last scheduled home game on a Tuesday night, so it was good to sign off with three points and an excellent performance.

The weather may have been terrible but the football we witnessed was sparkling and to win with such a late goal from Angelo Balanta, on his first senior appearance, sent everyone home happy.

The first half performance from the team was the best I have seen this season and it's so good to see the team spirit and work ethic prevalent in the squad.

I thought that Barnet paid us the ultimate compliment in the second half as they sat back and kept possession whenever possible, no doubt wanting to avoid a repeat of the first half when they were under constant pressure.

Before the game on Tuesday I was delighted to be able to present England 'C' caps to Lee Brown and Tom Parkes for their appearance against Estonia the previous week.

It's an honour for the players, and Bristol Rovers, to have had two players involved with the England set up and I'm told that both played very well against Estonia.

This afternoon we reach the halfway point in the season as it's our 23rd league fixture, which is quite amazing as we are not yet into December.

As a result of our win on Tuesday we moved back into a top five place in the Vanarama Conference and we will continue to back, and support, Darrell as he builds a squad capable of challenging at the top of the table.

It's now some two weeks since local councillors granted planning permission to increase delivery hours to the proposed Sainsbury's supermarket at the Memorial Stadium.

At the time I promised to keep you informed of any further developments and I regret the fact that I am still unable to bring you any further news.

Rest assured that when there is something we can report it will be announced on the club's website and in my programme notes.

Your support, which has been outstanding all season, will be appreciated again on Saturday.