It’s really tempting to write ‘very’ 249 times and ‘bad’ once. But that could all too easily be a template for many a Rovers performance, in what has been a rather underwhelming campaign.
I’ve rarely walked out of a stadium feeling anything close to whelmed this season and we’ll need to show significant improvement on today’s abject display if that’s going to change.
Sometimes it takes the concession of a goal to motivate our players into digging in and putting on a good show. Tom Anderson wasted no time in testing that theory today when he turned a Mansfield cross past Jonathan Mitchell with barely 30 seconds on the clock. It’s safe to say this early setback didn’t galvanise the team. A half-hearted appeal for handball fell on deaf ears as Mansfield doubled their lead midway through the first half and it was pretty much game over.
Danny Schofield rang the changes at half time and Rovers got back into the game thanks to an excellent through ball from Ro-Shaun Williams which Kyle Hurst collected then turned his man and scored with a neat finish. Caolan Lavery on for his debut was busy and showed promise but the highlights end there. George Miller missed two sitters and Mansfield caught us twice on the break to cement a well-deserved win against a fairly clueless Doncaster side.
Chants of ‘You’ve no ambition, so sell the club’ rang out and it’s becoming hard to find any reason to disagree.
by Mike Follows
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