Gas v Northampton MDT - The Start of a New Season

Just got back..

Where else would you get to see nice sunny eve, with a crescent moon, aeroplanes coming in to land at Bristol airport, balloons rising and in chorus for the same direction, and a Gas win clean sheet and a debutant scorer?

So we start at at an unusually bouncy mem.
A brilliant idea to unroll the flag ...but can we please have it going around 3/4 of the ground?!

First 30 mins we played like complete strangers.
Last 15 marginally better...we actually tried shooting on sight, Promise decent effort, one more from Grant (I think) both outside box.
Improving.
But we were still behind the possession stats at 43% at one point.
Within the first half Northampton created a few chances, one notable was a counter attack where their no5 was hauled to the ground before he got into our box, then their attack continued, fizzled out, no consequence to bear for us - the referee had an indifferent game for me.
(At the time, I agreed with Northampton on the corner that should never have been given - to me it looked like a goal kick but can't 100% be sure).

Second half we played more like a cohesive team.
As in the first half, it was refreshing to see a left sided flank player trying to go past his opponent on the outside (!?), the old fashioned way by creating space and pace : this led to no end of trouble for Northampton, but for me the final pass cross shot left a lot to be desired.

Much has already been said about mid and attack players, some of which are makeshift on position and won't play every match in those positions, so I won't dwell too much.

Scotty captain is a graceful move, one which I support as to me he's already a Gas legend. Up front all out striker, I'm not so sure.

Promise, I really liked his contribution, it was a physical contest - like Northampton matches usually are, and his rawness was exposed at times. Plenty to work with there. I like his work effort and engine.

Mid I will give a swing by because Conteh and Grant put in a shift, and for me Hutch was inconsistent but showed sparks of what he can do but too many times gave away possession too easily.

I thought the Keeper was lackluster to come out to claim a few desperate crosses, but over all had a good game of stopping shots and ball keeping.

But then we move on to best i m o:
Quite impressed with defence in Mola, he done all the tidying up and breaking down with no fuss....Wilson, steady.....but up there with the eventual m o m, Taylor Moore. TM was my m o m until the 90+ as his right sided defending and general "unit" was masterful - even culminating in a last ditch sliding tackle after we had scored which was expertly timed preventing opponent going through on goal - he fist pumped himself for such a sublime intervention - we desperately needed that last season.
The defence gets my m o m as they performed heroics with blocking shots and crosses.
We seem to have upgraded our defence from last season!
This is the foundation of a successful campaign, and everyone's m o m Bilongo scoring the winning goal on debut appitamises the effort and passion we've not seen for a while on and off pitch to get the Mem rocking like we remembered.

After the Barton embers have finally been extinguished by some of his Scouse players departing, and the twilight of CEO and his nepotistic favourite departing, we turn our heads to a different era, a new way of playing and conducting yourself on the pitch....an MT era.... could he possibly be the one that helps unite the fanbase and disconnect between club and humble supporter?

Only time will tell..

Yeah this is a good summary and some great points here.

Most of the comments are fair but in all honesty such comments as "but i can see he is rubbish" are cheap and totally unfair. To those who think they can judge a player on one game dont kid yourself especially against a team like Northampton where a midfielder is going to spend most of the game watching the ball fly from end to end.I thought the keeper was a very calming influence and airs confidence and ability apart from one lucky moment early on.
We won more in the air than i have seen in years from a Rovers side and seem to have unearthed some gems in defence and what i found impressive was the substitutes in defence seem to have a lot of ability too.

With a completely new team,two players missing and a likely additional striker as well I will hold back from any criticism of individuals which is unfair after one game where we have won and kept a clean sheet.

I think the fixture list has been a bit unfair on us but you have to play every team twice over the season so you have to play the tough teams sometime and as has been said this is a very strong division this year where even the teams coming up are strong and not likely to be in the bottom four.

Great atmosphere as well but would be brilliant if we can hit capacity sooner rather than later as the Mem can certainly rock.

My only moan after watching the highlights back just now.
Why didn’t we sell the southstand block behind the goal before the others. Looked so empty when to the west was pretty full!

Did they go on sale late when Northampton decided they did not want any more tickets?

Totally agree, £500k for Anthony Evans was ridiculous. Unfortunately the Ward Hutchinson combo did not work yesterday, looking forward to going over the bridge on Tuesday to see a few more new faces having a run out. Wilson was outstanding. Every cloud.

Carl Saunders was a Defender initially' look what happened to him 😉

When the going gets tough the tough get going.

Clinton Mola, really excited by this guy. Won everything in the air and looked to move the ball forward when he had the chance. Can't believe Reading let him go?

Blank slate for Wilson, he was different class. Such an exciting back 3 with Taylor and Forbes making up 5 to chose from.

What a breath of fresh air Promise is, such a different kind of threat to what we've had in recent years, will only get better as he gets fitter.

Couldnt fault the effort of any of those players on the pitch and the gasheads responded. Going to be a tough season but we've got a group we can get behind every week.