Hayles haunts Bristol Rovers again on cruel afternoon
HALLOWEEN lasted an extra 24 hours at Leicester as our bogey man Barry Hayles suddenly appeared off the bench to haunt us again.
Things had been looking good for the Gas as we went 1-0 up but former Rovers favourite Hayles, who scored two against us while on loan at Cheltenham recently, cast his wicked spell against us again by niggling away at our injury-hit defence.
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Jo Kuffour scores his wonder goal
How unlucky can we be to get three full-backs go off injured in one game, I cannot remember that ever happening before.
Our injury jinx position at the start of the season was centre-back, but to lose Aaron Lescott, Joe Jacobson and David Pipe at Leicester of all places was tough to take.
Things had been going so well at the impressive Walkers Stadium with Jo Kuffour blasting his shot into the top corner for a goal as good as any of Rickie Lambert's 15 this season.
Some fans have been worried that the goals have not been shared around and that we have been relying on Ricky to find the net, but it doesn't matter as long as someone is scoring and it was great to see Kuffour find the target. But I was surprised to see that Craig Disley, who has played a massive part in our good run lately, has not found the net yet this campaign.
Another who is due a goal is Stuart Campbell although he is now playing deep he is capable of getting on the score sheet from a dead ball situation.
The pattern of modern football these days seems to be to sit back and invite people on to you once you have taken the lead and we seemed to pay the price for that on Saturday.
Attack would have been the best form of defence with all the problems we had at the back as Byron Anthony and Craig Hinton performed heroically to try and stem the tide, but Leicester did step up their game and I feared the worst when Hayles appeared off the bench.
It was no disgrace to lose by the odd goal to one of the promotion favourites. It was just so disappointing that it all went pear-shaped in the last five minutes especially with such a magnificent following of nearly 2,500 Gasheads. Not many sides in our division will have that sort of support away from home this season.
Now we can turn our attentions to the FA Cup and maybe Kuffour can find his scoring boots again next week against his old club Bournemouth. It would be great to repeat the cup glory of last season with all the national coverage and TV money it brings, so where better to start than against our bogey side the Cherries.
Perhaps after Leicester the bogey man owes us one.
Comments
by Chris, Bristol
Sunday, November 02 2008, 6:37PM
“Great performance from Rovers. We looked threatening and resolute and would probably have won had the injuries have happened. Brilliant support from the majority of our following, and great participation in the 1 minute applause in memory of the former Leicester player.
However, there was a section of our support that was intent on causing trouble and they had their way shortly before the end of the first half. The half a dozen or so individuals near us that spent large periods of time watching and goading the opposition supporters (rather than watching the game) could not wait to rush up the steps to join in.
The racist chants by one of them, many aimed at Lloyd Dyer, were echoed not only by his friends but also by a significant number of the troublemakers that they joined at the back of the stand. They followed this at one point with the national anthem.
In fairness to the stewards that were informed, they had little time to do much as the trouble started very shortly after.
Not only is discrimination of all kinds unacceptable, the reputation of Bristol Rovers is in danger of being damaged by such individuals. If clubs state that racism will not be tolerated but then do not follow this through with action, it makes a mockery of the Kick Racism out of Football commitment.
Thankfully, these incidents are very rare nowadays and there is no doubt that massive strides have been made.
Up the Gas, and hopefully we can make round 2 on Saturday!”