Player Ratings: Rochdale vs Bristol Rovers (RESULTS)

Belshaw 6

Hoole 6
Taylor 5
Connolly 6
Grant 4.5

Coutts 4.5

H. Anderson 6.5
Finley 6.5
Evans 6.5
E. Anderson 6.5

Collins 7.5

Subs: Thomas 7
Loft 5.5
Nicholson 5

Ref 6.5
Rochdale 6

Belshaw 7.5 dependable, reliable.

Hoole 7 best of defence but he can't be everywhere, eso on their 2nd no marking.
Taylor 4 poor. Couldn't keep pace with the 1st where fella had a lot to do, 3rd he gifted possession back when could have do better.
Connolly 5 marginally better than Taylor, but how did he miss target from where he was at 0-0?
Grant:3 poorest, at fault with 2nd and not at the races.

Coutts 8 up until sending off, I thought candidate m o m with his fantastic spreading of balls, simple passes and no nonsense football. But his over reaction might have cost us the match or even worse, 3rd place.

H. Anderson 7.5 done everything asked of a right winger, inside forward, left back, right wing back....? Competent display without shining bright and put in a shift.
Finley 7.5 some fantastic passes and delightful finish for our first.... I'm not sure whether it was him trying jump in the crowd celebrating our 4th as some of the crowd were trying to jump out?
Evans 5 some awful passes, an atrocious attempt at volley when alone at 0-0, where the ball is in the cask and feathers garden, yet stats say 2 assists!??
E. Anderson 8 Geordie maradonna gave it everything in 2nd half, celebrated spontaneously like every GasHead, he's our adopted legend!

Collins 8.5 m o m by default....all he does of value is score goals!(?)

Subs: Thomas 8.5 the catalyst to our creativity and pitchside I actually thought he scored 3rd goal.....some brilliant passing of players and drawing out stubborn defence. I wish he would have it in his locker to shoot more as he sets himself up in brilliant positions to do so, but an intrinsic link to our attacks from defence and handy counter attacker with pace.
Loft 7 looked to add strength in attack and the 2 up front tactic worked (it was probably 5 up front by then!)
Nicholson n o l e.

Ref 6 he added time, fair play as they were taking p!ss so it came back to bite them, but many fouls weren't given.
Rochdale 8 might appear excessive, but they were as hard opponents as anyone else we've seen recently. Their position belies their performance yesterday and they should be proud they played some entertaining football in middle, defended stoutly and finished well. I thought they should have been 3-0 up before we scored with missing a sitter and could have easily been 4 as we were weak on left hand side which they tried to exploit. I liked their number 7. Nice club, nice fans, always have a great day out there and good luck to them for next season, only minor tweaking and they could be very formidable next year.... keep an eye out for them.

What a day?!
These are what away days are all about!?

First of all, absolute credit to the police and stewarding from what I saw. They had a job to do but weren't over responsive or heavy handed on sheer delight and exuberance. Or didn't appear to be. I thought they dealt with everything sensibly without provoking reaction.

Second of all, well done to all players and management team for securing us a chance of promotion. Everyone should be able to take credit for that, from where we were this time last year.

Most Gas appreciate that.
It's so difficult to stop a slump, let alone turn it around to something successful.

I thought we played poorly yesterday. Evans main culprit for just making so many unforced errors and guilty of breaking up our own play. Credit to them, they came out and fronted up. We couldn't get decent pace going forward of movement in first half.... second we were just willing a shot, but it appeared players wanted to walk the ball in the net! Which, funnily enough they did a couple of times.

Really pleased for Aaron....his work ethic and engine has rewarded him and thoroughly deserves his match ball.

Really pleased for Luke Thomas....I would pay money to watch him, he still needs more coaching but what a useful player he can be.

When you can win with not playing brilliantly, that makes you a good team. We still have a lot to do and rely on results around us, but I'm confident if we win every match we play this season, we'll be promoted! 🤔😉

But hey with Taylor at the back and Collins in attack, we've got exactly what we need...