Our 4-1 win over Shrewsbury equalled our club record for wins in a season, and we took the opportunity to set a new record when visiting Bristol days later.
Blues got the final run of games off to the perfect start by comprehensively beating the all-but-relegated Shrewsbury 4-1 at home on Saturday. However, a trip to Bristol to face “the Gas” proved a much tougher contest. Blues have struggled to impose ourselves away from home with the same level of dominance that we display almost every week at home, and Bristol Rovers are fighting for their lives as the team to catch for the bottom 4 of League One. As we know ourselves, a team fighting for its life can put in performances when needed to drag themselves over the line.
Chris Davies named an unchanged starting 11: Allsop, Laird, Klarer, Davies, Cochrane, Iwata, Leonard, Dowell, Willumsson, Anderson and Stansfield. Paik returned to the bench following his injury whilst on international duty, and Hansson was omitted from the matchday squad, presumably due to an injury.
First half
Blues got off to the best possible start. Within 2 minutes, Ben Davies played a long diagonal ball to pick out Ethan Laird on the right wing. Laird and Dowell combined to try and play Stansfield through, but despite the block from the Bristol defender, the ball fell kindly to Dowell and he crossed to the far side of the box where Keshi Anderson was waiting to pounce. The Blues winger took the ball inside his marker, and curled an effort towards the far post and beat the keeper to put Blues ahead.
We’d started the game fast and controlled the early proceedings, but once Bristol woke up, the game changed. We lost a bit of control, and gave away a couple of soft fouls. The Gas fired a warning shot when winger Shaqai Forde was played in behind and finished underneath Ryan Allsop, only for the offside flag to correctly deny the equaliser.
Blues failed to heed that warning, and Bristol had the ball in the back of the net again minutes later. The Gas looked dangerous from set pieces throughout the game, and it paid dividends for their leveller. The freekick was whipped with pace to the far post, Connor Taylor rose highest to nod back across goal and Gatlin O’Donkor nodded home from inside the six yard box. Both headers went without challenge, something Blues should be disappointed with, but equally it was a well worked set piece routine from a Bristol point of view.
For the rest of the half, Blues struggled to get back into the game and couldn’t have felt aggrieved if we’d gone into the half time break behind.
Our opponents had chances. A mess of a clearance from Cochrane allowed O’Donkor to get another close range header off, this time hitting the crossbar, and Allsop recovered quickly enough to deny the following attempt from the edge of the area by left back Clinton Mola. And again just before the break, Kofi Shaw played a clever short free kick in behind and picked out Sotiriou, but his effort was well saved by Allsop. These were both let offs, and Blues hadn’t managed to muster a response before the half time whistle went.
Half time: Bristol Rovers 1-1 Blues (Anderson)
A pep talk from Chris Davies tightened the side up for the second half. We didn’t hammer the Bristol door down per se, but certainly were more comfortable defensively and gave away fewer chances, especially following the introduction of Paik Seung-ho for Marc Leonard not long after the restart.
This lead to a far less open half, and come the full time whistle, there had only been 4 shots from both sides combined in the second period.
Keshi Anderson showed tenacity early on to recover possession following a break down in attack and fired a shot at the near post which forced a save out of Jed Ward.
Blues made a mess of possession in a dangerous area and O’Donkor ran through the heart of the Blues defence. Klarer bodied him inside the box, but he still managed to squeeze a pass to Sotiriou to play him one-on-one against Allsop. His first time shot went sailing over the crossbar – a huge chance for the hosts to take the lead.
We’ve said it a couple of times this season: the sign of a good side is winning when you’re not at your best, and Blues found a way once again. The introduction of Alfie May meant Stansfield shifted out to the left hand side, and a quick throw in late on from Cochrane played him into the box. His attempted cross was blocked by the hand of Connor Taylor, and the referee had no choice but to point to the spot late on.
With Dowell being substituted earlier on, the responsibility fell once more upon Jay Stansfield’s shoulders. Bristol tried all the tricks in the book to put him and decoy taker Alfie May off, but he coolly dispatched to his right hand side and sent the keeper the wrong way with a cheeky glance to his left in the run up.
Blues saw the remaining minutes out and took all 3 points, but there’s no doubt that we got away with one. It is the sign of a good team – but in fairness to Bristol Rovers, they can definitely feel that they should’ve taken something from the match.
The defeat leaves them in a perilous position, as Burton overcame Leyton Orient and pulled themselves within 3 points of the Gas with a game in hand.
Blues meanwhile broke our club record for wins in all competitions in a season, with 37. With 9 games still remaining, everybody at the club should be immensely proud of the work they’ve put in to reach that milestone. And more importantly, both Wrexham and Wycombe were held to a point apiece, meaning just 8 more points secures the title for Blues and there’s now a slight possibility the title could be wrapped up before our trip to Wembley, or indeed on that weekend itself without Blues playing a league game.
We now sit on 89 points with a possible 24 still to play for. We need to collect 15 more (5 more wins) to secure the League One points record, and 18 more (6 more wins) to secure the EFL points record.
The games don’t stop now until all is said and done, and on Saturday we’re back at home to welcome out of sorts Barnsley. Their season is effectively over, they’re too far behind the playoff places and yet are comfortably clear of the bottom 4. They’ve also failed to win since the 1st March, and so come in poor form. I’m confident we’ll make Marc Roberts’ first return visit to St. Andrews a miserable one for him – and it’d be even sweeter to beat former Villa player Conor Hourihane, who has taken temporary charge of the Reds.
Keep Right On.
Full time: Bristol Rovers 1-2 Blues (Anderson, Stansfield)