The Opposition View

Following yesterday’s thrilling 3-2 win at Bristol Rovers, here are some views on the game from the Pirates boss Paul Trollope and a few of their fans.


Trollope was disappointed in his team’s performance, telling his club’s official website: “A lot of issues from today’s game need to be addressed and it’s not a performance we are proud of.”

“We huffed and puffed and looked like we could maybe nick a scruffy win at half time, thinking we had got ourselves back in it with a couple of good bits of skill from Chris Lines. But another blow just after half time, another penalty, meant we had to try and go again. We gave it a good shot, upped the tempo and finally started to play with some energy, then conceded a third goal, which knocked us again,” he said.

“We lacked an urgency to get to the ball at times. We lacked energy to make options to be able to pass the ball, and in those spells they got on top, played some decent stuff and created some chances against us,” said the Rovers boss.

With regard to the penalty decisions, Trollope said: “Penalties are going to be given but there needs to be consistency. The one Stuart Campbell gave away was no different to the block their player made late on in the game. But I don’t want to sit here and make excuses with regard to the decisions, because it was not a performance that we deserved to win a game from.”



The Rovers fans gave a lot of credit to Wycombe even though some felt the referee had an undue influence on the result.

The following extracts are taken from Bristol Rovers Alternative Forum, Bristol Rovers Fans Forum, BBC606, Football Forums and The Football Forum.


gasrex wrote:
‘We were always going to lose at home eventually and I don’t think we can moan too much about the result today, I didn’t get a good view of either of the Wycombe penalties, but from what I have heard they were both pretty stonewall.’



Bridgewater Gas wrote:
‘We were beaten by a better organised side. If it hadn’t been for Anderson and poor shots from their forwards, the score could have been a lot different.’



GasAttack wrote:
‘We could and maybe should have had at least one penalty in the second half and on another day could have had three. Although I have no complaints about his decision to award Wycombe two penalties it just makes it even more surprising that he failed to give us one when we had three decent shouts. That said, I think the better team won. They played some decent stuff and if they can reproduce that in every game I think they still have a chance.’



Oasisgas wrote:
‘The referee wasn’t the best but Wycombe outplayed us and deserved the three points. I would have loved to have Betsy on our right flank today and when their midfield got the ball they knew straight away what they wanted to do with it. Their simple one touch passes tore us apart. I lost count of the number of times the ball came from their defence to their midfield, one simple touch or lay off and they had us on the back foot. Also how much space did they have down either flank! If it wasn’t for Anderson we would have lost that 6-2 and I can’t recall Shearer having anything else to do apart from the two goals.’



elpappo wrote:
‘Frankly, one of the worst sides in the division, that has barely scored away from home, beat us easily and we should have lost by more apart from some astonishing saves by Anderson.’



Gassy wrote:
‘Jeez, I was fuming after watching that. Wycombe players go down easily don’t they?! If they’re on the attack and lose the ball, they’ll lie down and claim to be injured – all the bloody time. Bit of water sprayed on their leg and suddenly they can run again! In the 2nd half the ref made the worst decisions I have ever seen. We should have had at least three penalties and their bloke possibly should have been sent off for starting on Coles.’



WeAreTheGas wrote:
‘Although a lot of us abused Betsy every time he got the ball, I’d love him or a similar player on the wing for us. Quick, tricky, direct, beats men and gets crosses into the box.’



Just Vans Frome wrote:
‘Today Wycombe gave us a footballing lesson and took us down a peg or two.’



chris34 wrote:
‘The way it looked today I would say Wycombe were 9th and we were 2nd from bottom.’



eastvilleera wrote:
‘Our lack of a front man over 6ft tall made an average Wycombe defence look very good today.’



paperlantern wrote:
‘The biggest frustration for me was that we only had two shots on target all game and we scored both. Shearer is the worst keeper in the league and we didn’t even test him. I can’t even remember him coming out for a cross. Shocking.’



Filtongas wrote:
‘Wycombe controlled the game for long periods. They fought hard, won a lot of 50-50 challenges and passed the ball around with a lot of skill. They looked like a team that have gelled together well. Their defence was tight, centre backs big and dominating and they closed down Rovers’ players very efficiently.’



gasheadno.1 wrote:
‘The ginger Wycombe striker – the tall one. Anyone else think he looked fantastic today? Ok, we probably encouraged that, but he caused us problems all game. He’s big, strong and looked pretty fast. I was thinking at the game that he looks exactly the player we need.’



Brizblue wrote:
Ok Harrold ran about a lot but he missed two glorious chances to score with headers. Not what we’re after in my opinion.’



VintageGas wrote:
‘Wycombe bossed the game and looked threatening when going forward, an example of a team signing some decent players recently. But come on, the ref was a joke.’



chrissy boy wrote:
‘I don’t want to make excuses but if 2-3 decisions go against a team then the chance of winning is slim. We were poor today but a draw would of been a fair result. If the ref is going to give them two pens, then we should have had one.’



tbonegas wrote:
‘The ref didn’t win the match for Wycombe, they won the match fair and square by having some get up and go about them.’



Oasisgas wrote:
‘Yes the ref was poor but no way did we deserve to get anything out of the game. Wycombe were the team who were prepared to take the game by the scruff of the neck and if you just turned up and didn’t know which team was which you would have thought Wycombe were the home team in the top half and we were 2nd from bottom.’



JJ365 wrote:
‘Apart from possibly our last appeal, I honestly didn’t think any of the shouts were penalties. Clearly there was a lot of frustration in the air this afternoon and the referee took the brunt of that when the final whistle sounded, but if I’m being honest I didn’t think he was as bad as those around me made him out to be. The bottom line is we were very poor and the performance of the official shouldn`t mask that.’


Next game: Wycombe v Yeovil – February 6th – 3.00pm.