Sorry, Bill. Nothing I can do about it. I use adblock plus to prevent the pop ups and it works fine and is free to download. Here is the article anyway...
HATS OFF TO THE 100 PERCENTERS
If ever there were doubts about Bristol Rovers' ability to compete with more experienced and bigger-spending rivals on their return to the Football League then the last two games will have gone a long way towards dispelling them.
Two away games, two late goals and six points on the board is a better return than manager Darrell Clarke and his troops could have possibly hoped for from their first three tricky games.
But more than those impressive results, it has been the manner of the performances which will have convinced even the most sceptical Gasheads their team can hold their own in the rough and tumble of League Two.
I didn't see the Yeovil game, but from watching the highlights and hearing the verdict of many travelling fans, Rovers dominated the game.
I was proud, though, to be among another impressive Gas following in an 8,000-plus crowd at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday night who roared their support from the first minute to the 94th as Rovers defied the odds to outplay a Luton side many pundits had tipped for promotion.
To be fair, Gasheads had plenty to cheer about because this, to my mind, was Rovers best result since DC took the reins 18 months ago.
I should imagine the performance is right up there too – considering the level and standard of opposition – because Rovers dominated for long periods and barely gave an attack boasting the much-vaunted Craig Mackail-Smith a look in.
The only thing which could possibly come back to punish Rovers on future occasions is the failure to convert good scoring opportunities into goals.
This was the problem that tripped them up two seasons ago, but certainly among the players there is a belief that once Jermaine Easter is fully fit again and provided Ellis Harrison keeps getting into scoring positions, it should be rectified sooner rather than later.
If that's the case then someone in the not-too-distant future could be on the end of a hammering.
Even despite the profligacy in front of goal, however, the one thing this Rovers team has is a spirit and willingness to keep going for 90 minutes – something which is a pre-requisite of all successful teams.
Many of us were settling for a valuable, hard-won point when two of the unsung heroes of the side combined to break the deadlock.
Both Matty Taylor and Stuart Sinclair have something to prove, having been rejected in their younger days as not good enough for League standard.
Perhaps that's why they appear to have an insatiable attitude for the game at the moment. Taylor's little flick over the last line of the Luton defence was exquisite, Sinclair's desire to get on the end of it incredible considering he had spent 94 minutes tracking up and down the pitch.
Add to that the coolest of finishes and Rovers fans were in ecstasy as they waited behind to salute their team, the Hatters fans streaming out of the ground knowing they had been pipped by a whisker but outplayed by a mile.
The players celebrated long and hard on the pitch, too, and why not? Nights like this don't come very often – whether at the start of the season or the end.
I've got a feeling, though, that this Rovers team will be providing a few more jubilant scenes like it over the coming months.
Nick Rippington is a sports journalist working on national newspapers in London but his spiritual home is the Mem. He has been an ardent fan of Bristol Rovers for 46 years, seeing them through the highs of promotion under Don Megson, Gerry Francis and Paul Trollope as well as many painfully remembered lows. Nick has just written his first novel, a suspense thriller called Crossing The Whitewash, which is available in paperback or as an Ebook from Amazon at
amzn.to/1gMUjSD ...Catch up with nick at @nickripp on twitter.
