Bristol Rovers fan's view: Thoughts are turning to next season as play-off hopes are over
A 100-1 outsider won the Grand National just 10 miles up the road from Tranmere's Prenton Park on Saturday and our odds must virtually be the same for promotion now our good away run has come to an end.
Rovers are still 13 points off that last play-off slot with only 18 points to play for. Our only target left is to try to finish in the top 10, but you just get that feeling we are going to end up in 14th position, where we seem to have been for a lot of the campaign.
While the league table may show we don't have a lot to play for, those players who are out of contract at the end of the season surely have a big incentive to turn in good performances.
Both Craig Disley and Jo Kuffour had a right to be disappointed at not being in the starting line-up yesterday but it was significant that they were called on once we were chasing the game.
Our run of six away games without defeat was bound to come to an end at some time and things may have been different if Disley had got a penalty at 1-0 instead of being booked for diving, while Darryl Duffy was unlucky to be judged off-side when he looked to be clean through.
It was disappointing to concede a goal from a set-piece again, this time a free-kick which may have taken a deflection, but once again as in a lot of games recently Rovers did not test the home goalkeeper very often.
But any chance we had of making the play-offs really ended with Tuesday's home defeat against a very lively Huddersfield side whose quality players Danny Cadamarteri and Anthony Pilkington were too hot for us to handle.
Now Paul Trollope and the board must now turn their thoughts to team building for next season. While my end-of-term report would say we have shown a slight improvement on last season, the truth is we are still a few players short of a side that can challenge for promotion.
It has been well documented in this column that I would like to see a left-sided wide player and a hard man in the middle.
Chairman Nick Higgs now has a difficult balancing act of trying to get the new stadium development up and running _ which I think is a priority if the club is to progress _ while trying to keep the fans happy by supplying cash to bring in players of the quality of Pilkington and Cadamarteri.
The Geordies have had plenty of Messiahs come and go over the years surely we can find one somewhere?
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