Double Despair

In just 3 days over the New Year weekend Bristol Rovers crumbled humiliatingly and embarrassingly to both Crewe Alexandra and Barnet, registering a grand total of 0 points from two winnable games. The fact the home game against Crewe saw us crash to a 5-2 defeat is nothing short of unforgivable. A truly farcical result against a poor League Two team. Gasheads' misery was compounded by today's non-performance against struggling Barnet, where we were on the wrong end of a 2-0 scoreline. 'Boo' doesn't even come close to how fans are feeling now, let me tell you.

You surely can't play at home to a club who are just above you in the league and set up in a 4-5-1. It's a defensive, negative formation that signals your intent to sit back and absorb pressure. Buckle felt it was a good tactic. We concede 5 goals.

You surely can't play away to a club BELOW you in the league table and set up in a 4-5-1. Buckle felt it was a good tactic. We conceded twice.

Now, surely even Buckle should learn from his mistakes? We've gone defensive before and it simply does not work. Our defence is shambolic at the very best and no matter how 'solid' they may look for 70 minutes, it's guaranteed that we will concede two goals minimum. Why defend, concede and not attack when you can take the game to your opponents from the off and attempt to score goals? No logic there at all. Yes the guy needs to keep his job and he'll think that by trying to keep clean sheets we won't lose matches but intelligent people will work out that we are incapable of defending solidly for 90+ minutes, so scoring goals is our only hope of acquiring any points.

Before the Christmas fixtures I, along with many other fans, felt that the 4 games against Plymouth, Crewe, Barnet and Hereford are very winnable and that nothing less than 12 points would be good enough (you may think that's too ambitious Buckle, but we need to be beating the poor teams in this division, even if we're just as bad ourselves). So far after three matches, we have amassed ZERO. At any point after the last 3 results Buckle would justifiably have been sacked (when the whole season is taken in to account), so to so far still see the delinquent in the hot-seat is bewildering.

The board know the fans frustrations - most of the board feel the same, but Higgs is the man who counts and it seems he doesn't want to sack his man. Swallow your pride Higgsy, admit to making a mistake in hiring Buckle and help the club in avoiding relegation to the abyss by appointing someone with experience and talent. Please...

The hardy Gasheads who occupied a position on the chilly terrace or stand at Underhill this afternoon were left in little doubt as to how we'd be playing yet again today.