Player Ratings Barnet v Rovers

Puddy 5 Wasn't trusted by the defence as a back-pass option. Booted everything long to the left touchline, though that may have been a DC tactic. Did alright for the most part but should have done better for the second goal.

Lockyer 4.5 We know he's not a RB and he proved it last night. Couldn't link up play going forward but tackled well and marked Akinde well at corners. Neither goal came from his side of defence.
Trotman 4 Matched up Akinde physically as well as possible but hasn't had time to build up an understanding with McChrystal.
McChrystal 3 Outpaced by Akinde for first goal having been given a warning 2 minutes before. Won balls in the air, but any build up play we get going ends when it gets to McChrystal.
Brown 4.5 I felt he could have dealt with the Barnet winger better, he let a couple of crosses come in from that side. Ran the left channel on his own but lacks the extra pace to get to the byline.

Monkhouse 2.5 Desperately needs an extra yard of pace, he can tackle well when the play doesn't bypass him. Needed to get the ball under control more. I'd forgotten he was even playing in the second half.
Gosling 3.5 One or two nice touches promised more but was crowded out by Barnet.
Sinclair 4.5 Worked hard but he's as much as Clarke tells him to come to the touchline, he's still not a winger. Lacks some creativity from deep but did well when we got the ball nearer to the Barnet goal.
Mansell 4 Scrapped hard but to little effect. Kept going throughout the game and tried to raise the tempo in the last ten minutes.

Taylor 7 Fed off very little but looked like a handful to the Barnet defence. Always follows in a shot which I like. Looked really effective playing in the hole behind White and Brunt in a 4-3-1-2. When this happened he was able to direct the game more and we looked best in this spell.
Edit: on reflection I may have been a bit generous with Taylor's score given how poorly the rest played.
White 5 Given very little as well, but came deeper looking for it less often than Taylor.

Parkes 7 Slotted right into the defence. Brought the ball out of defence well and popped up on the left wing for the overlap with Brown at one point.
Leadbitter 5.5 Showed good pace to track back with Akinde at one point. Little else to do although could have been more cavalier going forward.
Brunt 5 Gave the Barnet players more of a problem which enabled us to win more second balls. Had a weird obsession with hooking the ball from chest height out to Brown on the wing. Seriously, he must have tried this 5 times and it came of once. Strange.

Darrell Clarke 4 The solidity that we had with the 3-5-2 was lost especially without Parkes. The worst thing though, was the lack of width that we had. Gosling played inside Monkhouse to start with and Mansell was furthest left on some occasions. Despite this we were still overpowered in midfield as Barnet scrapped for everything. Injuries forced his hand and Brunt was an obvious sub.

Barnet 9 If Grimsby are the yardstick then Barnet were a lot better than them. Martin Allen has put together an imposing team with guts in midfield but enough creativity on the wings. Akinde is a battering ram and the rest of the team feed off that. They sat back for the last ten, and although we created some half chances, they never looked like they would cave in and concede two.

I think the 3-5-2 brings the best out of him. His pace isn't as exposed as much and he always has the option of a simple pass to Lockyer or Parkes instead of resorting to long ball.