Ultimately how you view Rovers trip to face the League Two leaders depends on whether you’re an optimist, a pessimist, or an ornithologist.
For the former the good news is that for the bulk of this fixture Rovers matched their superiors; they contained them at the back, and in the first half in particular were arguably more threatening than Richie Wellens’ side.
For the pessimist the reality is that for all that encouraging play and territory, Rovers never looked like threatening the scoreboard, failing to register a single shot on target in the whole ninety minutes.
And for the latter group there was the spectacle of a large chatter of green parakeets swooping around the playing surface for much of the match, with some of the noisy green sods even taking up residency in the rafters above the away end.
In conclusion? This game was suitably ambiguous to give fuel to whatever viewpoint you currently have on Rovers’ current direction. It either shows that we’ve no plan or progress, or that we have the capability to match those above us in the table; it shows that Jonathan Mitchell is rubbish, or that it takes something special to beat him. And it shows that as fans we’re really hard to please, whilst also showing that all we need to be entertained is a quirk of nature.
by Glen Wilson
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