Shocking home defeat to Cheltenham also piles more injury woes...

On Saturday evening I was one angry, disappointed and frustrated Rovers supporter.

I'd witnessed a completely lacklustre and diabolical defensive display from 4 players I expected more from, so I was certainly disappointed. Byron Anthony, captain for the day, lacked the authority required in the role, despite his vocal bashing of some of his teammates performances throughout. I certainly expected a better performance from him, although in fairness, he was surrounded by inexperienced players. Having said that, I also expected a more solid performance from Cian Bolger. He's really impressed over the past few weeks, so it was incredibly frustrating to see him play as shakily as he did against a relatively weak Cheltenham strike force. Lee Brown's performance was a surprise to most in the ground too, as we have all become accustomed to consistently good play from the young left back, however, he was drawn in to playing as badly as the players around him. In saying that, it's worth making clear he was still much better than most out on the pitch, including players from the opposition. Michael Smith, who replaced the quality, but injured Danny Woodards, put in an incredibly weak performance at right back, gifting Kaid Mohamed of 'Nam the freedom of the city down their left. Combine all of them together and you can see why we conceded 3 goals and what makes me angry is that they aren't a good team, not by any stretch. They are a poor side who we capitulated against defensively and we can't expect to win at home if we are going to be so bad at the back.

The players and management, rightly or wrongly, were booed off the pitch by some of the supporters, which will certainly have made it known that performances like that cannot be tolerated. The players clearly dread playing at The Mem. Most are playing for the biggest club they've played for in their career and are under the most pressure they've ever felt whilst being a pro footballer. I understand it's going to take time to get used to it and by booing, the fans AREN'T helping - but I can feel the frustration that they are venting and after the disgraceful season we were treated to last time out, it's maybe justified. But we can't mix the past wasters with the current crop and we need to give them time to get it right, which I'm sure they will do in time. In order to do it though, reinforcements are required.

At least one centre half, one central midfielder (creative, goalscorer) and potentially a right back if Woodards' injury is serious, is needed to come in if we have hopes of pushing at the top end of this league. Some of the sides we've played have been poor, really poor, and if we had a mixture of consistency, luck on both the injury and officiating front, plus a few loan stars and we'd run away with this league. A number of teams will say the same, but we do have the quality in some areas and have had a horrific run of injuries to key players which hasn't helped us.

Bucks it's down to you now. Please bring in the strong centre half we need to tighten our leaky defence. Oh, and a creative midfielder is a MUST, particularly if you are going to insist on dropping Matty Harrold to the bench.

I fear a hiding at Oxford. I couldn't stomach it again, not after least season. But I have my ticket and I have faith (somewhat madly), and if we play like we have done at times this season, we can win it.