Full report by Gary Deards...
Bristol Rovers
Twas a luverley day in the South West until that fateful time when we a) saw that Mr Rejer was the referee and b) we scored first!!

The day started well - left Reading at 11.45 and arrived at junction 19 of the M4 at about 1pm. Turned onto the M32 and passed Junction 1 got caught in a traffic jam (I wondered why TVFM's traffic news was telling Reading supporters to use the M5 - I had already got stuck on the M32 before that useful piece of info came in!). At 2pm I finally got to Junction 2 (1.4 miles per hour!!) and the police had closed the sliproad! Underneath the Motorway was a demonstartion which was fenced in by about 50 police horses and 50 police vans! I couldn't see any Royals shirts and so contented myself that Oxford away last season wasn't reoccuring. Finally arrived at J3 and was allowed off - by this time the police had re-opened the motorway and so I was allowed back on the M32 back to J2! Arrived at ground at 2.30pm.

Parked car in official car park and was told that the wheelchair entrance was in the away end which ment walking/wheeling around the ground. Arrived at away end to be confronted by 10 steps! Stewards were very helpful but we had to walk back from where I had just come from! Car park bloke got a good telling off! Arrived in seat at 2.50! Kick off delayed to 3.15 because of demo.

On my travels, I asked what the demo was all about - apparently, it was a reclaim the streets road demonstration. The police and I thought it should be renamed "reclaim the soap" demonstration - who said they don't have a sense of humour!

Anyway, back to the game - the Royals started well and even managed to score through a Martin Williams header after good work by Jim Macintyre. After that things went from bad to worse. Mr Rejer suddenly remembered that Reading had made an official complaint about him a few years ago and decided to give Rovers a penalty for god knows what! Van de Kwaak saved and the away end went euphoric (Holland's No. 1 was heard!). However, for the rest of the first half it was constant Rovers pressure with our well known pacy defence going on an even slower go slow. de Kwaak made some excellent saves (and managed to catch a couple of crosses - still punched corners though). A long ball through the middle caught the Parky and Kromheer flat footed (where have I heard that before) and Hayles nipped in to lob the ball over the advancing out Kwaak.

A couple of minutes later, Rovers were through again and after a good save, Meaker did something he never did for us and followed up to score. Martin Booty continued his mare and for some inexplicable reason decided to shoulder the ball away from the next Rovers cross and Mr R gave another penalty. This time they scored in the same corner as the missed one. 3-1 down at half time and things could only improve!

Good news was that the crap Bowen was finally taken off, only to be replaced by Houghton! At least Houghton tried to pass the ball and for the first 10 minutes we looked like we might getback into the game. Rovers threatened with their pace on the counter and Parky/Kromheer continued to struggle. Booty made some decent tackles but his 10 minute mare had probably cost us the game. Asabla came on with 30 minutes to go and gave the team a bit of pace. Still we never looked like scoring (again!). Rovers scored again near the end but by this time, we had all given up.

Player summaries:

de Kwaak - made some decent saves and looked a bit better on crosses. Maybe to blame for 1st goal?

Legg - OK. Nothing special. Went missing a few times. Should have been covering Meaker for their second.

Booty - Nightmare 10 minute spell when Rovers scored all 3 goals. Picked up in second half.

Parky - 100% effort. Made some good last minute saving tackles. Undone by Rovers pace. Lucky not to be sent off for almost wrestling one of their players down.

Kromheer - Lacked pace (I though he was quite quick against Wrexham!), but did OK.

Brebner - ineffectual. Played right wing in second half - still do nothing.

Caskey - playing FAR, FAR to deep. We need him behind the strikers not infront of the defence. Distribution poor.

Gray - Rubbish. As he was at Wrexham. We need Lambert or a left winger ASAP. Hodges may be a better bet.

McIntyre - Tried hard but never looked like scoring. Where is Brayson?

Williams - Man of match. Scored our only goal. Ran his socks off. Looked threatening even when playing wide right.

Subs:

Houghton - OK. Can't have Him, Caskey and Brebner in the same team!

Asaba - OK. Showed some pace and had a few shots (unlike the others).

Reiley - Didn't get on.

Thoughts: