Talk about a team matching their managers persona. Bristol
Rovers, already in big relegation trouble tried to bully Lincoln City but came to grief as the Imps, profligate in front of goal, managed to get one to stick
and resolutely fought off Rover’s spirited resistance.
He’s a strange enigma, Joey Barton, capable of great
eloquence and thought. You do wonder what sort of career he could have had if
he’d stick to the football and cut out the belligerence. After the game it was
hard to argue with his reasoning, apart from a bit of complaining about the
sending off, for the audience at home presumably, his assessment of the game
was spot on, Rovers keep on making the same errors and, instead of trying to
harness their admirable enthusiasm for the fight simply concentrated on the,
well, the fight. I don’t think personally the sending off made a ha’porth of
difference, you have to give them credit as Bristol piled on the pressure but
were no match for the Imps who were superior in every department.
The Imps, once again were a patched up outfit, manager
Michael Appleton mixing and matching to get every ounce of value out of the
squad. A substitution here, forced on him otherwise it would have been ten
against ten, a substitution there, to try to keep the show on the road. Why do
we love football, goes the trailer on the telly. This was why.
Actually, I anything but loved this, particularly with
twenty minutes to go. You do wonder if those people who just watch on the TV
might have a point. They’ve never seen “their” club in the flesh but it’s we
this and us that. They’re not wetting themselves at the prospect of Bristol
Rovers equalising are they?
Bristol Rovers are going down. You have to admire their
fighting spirit but it’s all wrong. They need a schemer, a strategist, they
need ooh, lets think, Michael Appleton but they haven’t got him. They’ve got
Joey Barton. Still, at least we won’t have to play them next season, whatever
happens.
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