Player Ratings: Bristol Rovers vs Eastleigh

Mildenhall 5 blooper followed by some decent saves

leadbitter 5 one dangerous run but not much else
McChrystal 6 overrun at times with our gung ho formation 2nd half
Parkes 6 same as Macca
Brown 5 didn't get forward enough but ok defensively

Dawson 4 played too central and hardly got a kick,disappointing.
Mansell 4 outnumbered in midfield and never got a foothold in the game
Lockyer 4 same as manse 1st half and always back-pedalling as part of a back 3 in 2nd half
Monkhouse 4 ineffective and too many over hit passes
Taylor 6 well taken goal but the up and under 2nd half tactics were never gonna suit him
Harrison 5 Couple of good flashes but never able to use his pace

Subs: Blissett 5 One header that hit the bar(offside anyway) but not a lot else

Balanta 6.5. Some nice touches in a short cameo
Clarke not on long enough to mark

DC 4. Credit for trying something different 2nd half but it never looked likely to work against a strong Eastleigh back line.in hind sight,bringing Balanta on at half time might have been a better move as we looked like we were in panic mode with all the hit and hope stuff.Bad day at the office after a fantastic run of results though.
Ref 4 Annoying little sh**,should have given Midson a second yellow for his dive in the first half but bottled it
Eastleigh. 8 dangerous in attack and resolute in defence,pressurised us when we were in possession from minute1 to minute 95,fair play to them and definetly had a big say in making us look poor today.

Mildenhall 5

Leadbitter 7
McChrystal 6
Parkes 6
Brown 6

Dawson 5
Mansell 4
Lockyer 5
Monkhouse 4

Taylor 3
Harrison 6

Subs: Blissett 4
Balanta 7
Clarke

DC 5
Ref 2
Eastleigh 8

don't recall them pummelling us down his side of the pitch. Always quicker than their winger. Should have taken Taylor off as he was non existent in the first half.

Mildenhall 5 terrible mistake but did ok after
Leadbitter 6 defended ok and tried to get forward,missed his pace second half
Parkes 5 not at his best
McChrystal 5 see above
Brown 5 didn't get forward enough and didn't link up with Monky much
Dawson 4 well marshalled
Mansell 4 poor
Lockyer 5 tried hard but is no midfielder
Monkhouse 5 average at best
Taylor 4 scored that's about it
Harrison 5 not bad first half

Subs Blissett 3 he is awful at the moment
Balanta 6 looked like a footballer
Clarke not on long enough

DC 4 when is he going to get the players fired up for the start of the match,takes us twenty mins to get going.
Keep having to change the team tactics and formation at half time was bound to go wrong eventually

Ref 4 awful

Eastliegh 8 deserved winners,but what a horrible team of whingers and divers

Mildenhall 3 A schoolboy error for the goal, commanded his area poorly at corners. Did make a couple of good saves.

Leadbitter 5 Not sure why he went off.
McChrystal 4 Didn't win much in the air. poor passing.
Parkes 5 Did try to get the ball moving, passing ok.
Brown 5 Did ok - not helped by Monkhouse who was as mobile as a Scarecrow

Dawson 5 felt sorry for him got virtually no service. Did put a few good crosses in first half - monkey messed up one of them.
Mansell 5 Did ok, but received the ball deep and never drove the team on
Lockyer 4 Treats the ball like a bomb about to go off
Monkhouse 2 Dreadful passing and predictable with it , hardly moved around the pitch

Taylor 4 excellent finish, one great chest pass - denied good service but also missed a sitter first half
Harrison 4 did better first half when given little good balls , fell away badly second half

Subs: Blissett 2 - did nothing. looked lost
Balanta 6 My man of the match even though he didn't get long. some lovely skills and tried to keep the ball on the deck
Clarke On too short

DC 1 - We became an ugly long ball team like earlier in the season. Didn't instruct team any differently second half.
Ref 5
Eastleigh 7 Played better football than us, they knew each other's game. Should have won by 2 or 3.

I thought we were an utter shambles today. Slow start, players playing like strangers. Predictable , long ball play. Disorganised - 2 and SOMETIMES 3 players going for the SAME ball, A TOTAL lack of quality !! We didn't just overhit passes they were often 20 Yards ahead of the players. I felt sorry a bit for Harrison and Taylor as the midfield was bypassed again in a home game on a lovely pitch.
We need a BIG BIG performance against Halifax - if we get one then we will get the points. DC has got to SHOUT in their ear holes - PASS and MOVE - we have the quality to beat teams this way, BUT we need Balanta on from the start, EASTER fit and playing and DAWSON given the ball to feet or to run onto. Puddy to replace Mildenhall in goal - his clanger is indefensible.

Mildenhall 4 started the game poorly, flapping and with ball repellent gloves, made a couple of decent saves but the horse had bolted by the time he'd shut the gate.

Leadbitter 6 competent first half and provided some of the better right sided forward play during his short stay. Second time I have seen DC take off our best player at half time in the interests of shaking it up (Lockyer at AFCW last season was the other), did not work then either, but I guess he had to try something!
Brown 4 not at the races today, both he and Monkhouse spent the game over hitting or misdirecting their passes.
Macca 5 the defensive unit was jittery today, no doubt spooked by the early howler, we gave up far too many chances and never looked in command of the opposition.
Parkes 5 joined in the defensive malaise of giving the ball back to them to "have another go since you missed that last one"

Mansell 3 played more like he was part of a back six, could not get anything going forward and was generally overrun. Only good thing was he avoided a booking
Lockyer 5 occupied two positions in one game so deserves 2 for midfield and 3 for defence, but apart from some decent long throws TL contributed very little in the forward areas and went missing several times in the second half when Eastleigh were carving us open at will and creating chance after chance after chance

Dawson 2 shocker. Anyone could have been subbed but he "won"
Monkhouse 2 boots on the wrong feet, always picked out exactly the wrong pass. Second half move to centre midfield neither improved our creativity nor shored us up defensively as Eastleigh sliced straight through like a knife through butter.

Taylor 3 well taken goal when the pressure was off at 2-0 down, missed other chances when the pressure of only being one down made the chance more vital. Back to his early season malaise of spending too much time on the floor inspecting the grass....did not get referees sympathy then and still doesn't now. Caught offside numerous times and most of those weren't even tight decisions.
Harrison 5 felt sorry for him, his big day starting up front and the rest of the team goes AWOL. He had the sort of frustrating day as he normally gives us!

Subs Blissett 2 seemed to be occupying the same yard of the pitch Ellis was in most of the time - they got in each other's way a lot.... Except when Bliss was miles offside or roughing up a defender.
Balanta 6 by the time he came on the ball had surrendered. It had had enough being punted hopefully and aimlessly and decided to be tamed by someone who could control it and treat it like a friend. Too little, too late but it was nice to see someone in blue and white knows what to do with the bl**dy thing!
Clarke glad he's back fit but not on long enough to make much impression

DC 4 pretty sure the plan was not to let Eastleigh own the first 20 minutes, surrender a soft goal and then chase the game like headless chickens on performance restricting drugs but for once everything he tried did not work.
Ref 2 as poor as we were.
(B)Eastleigh 8 took the game by the scruff of the neck and never released their grip, better in all departments and should have been the first team to stick more than 2 goals past us this season. Amazing we still had a chance to rescue a point from the game they were so profligate in front of goal.

Crowd 7 tried encouragement, exasperation, cajoling, imploring and several other techniques to get a performance out of the team, to no avail.

Mildenhall  5 terrible blunder gifted them the lead.Made some good saves afterwards to be fair.


Leadbitter 7  Far and away our best player,but he get's withdrawn ?
McChrystal 4 Looked very uneasy at times and clearly struggled for pace.
Parkes 5 Struggled to get his normal game going.
Brown 4 Will not attack his opposing full back,dreadful crossing as usual.


Dawson 4 Starved of service by the long ball style.
Mansell 3 Awful.
Lockyer 5 Tried hard in midfield but has no creative edge whatsoever.
Monkhouse 2  Do not understand the love in DC has for him.


Taylor 3 Well taken goal,but missed a total sitter.
Harrison 4 Much better coming off the bench.


Subs: Blissett 2 Looked like Bambi on ice.
Balanta 6.5 At least he can control the ball and play a simple pass. Needs to start next week.
Clarke 2 Just hasn't got it.


DC 3 Bad day at the office.
Ref 2 Terrible.
Eastleigh 7 Hard working Long ball team.

DC needs to be on the phone at 9am Monday morning and looking to add cover for Sinclair,who we are missing badly. We need a creative ball carrying midfielder ASAP. My only worry is he does nothing and see's olly clarke's return from injury as the solution.If he does,then god help us.

Mildenhall - 2 enough said

Leadbitter - 4 Ok nothing special
McChrystal - 3 Poor
Parkes - 3 Ditto
Brown - 2 Same as above but with even worse distribution

Dawson - 2 Non existent
Mansell - 2 No midfield
Lockyer - 2 No midfield
Monkhouse - 2 Awful

Taylor - 3 Good goal but offside too much
Harrison - 5 Best player for us. Ran into channels well but he cant play on his own

Subs: Blissett - 1 Awful
Balanta - 5 Best player on the pitch when he came on
Clarke - 4 Not on long enough really

DC - 5 Can't criticise the starting lineup and had a poor bench. Clarke was never gonna be the answer, could've taken off any number of players today. Not sure why Blissett came on at half time though.
Ref - 3 Should've sent off their player for diving. Good to see he booked a few for time wasting but in the first half its infuriating when he points at his watch to suggest he's adding the time on yet only gives 2 minutes added time? Makes no sense. No shocking decisions though other than the one he bottled. Didn't let much go either.
Eastleigh - 9 Can't really fault them. Horrible scrappy professional time wasters, everything you need to be away from home to top of the league in the conference so fair play to them. I'd have Pell or Stanley back in our midfield right now.

Mildenhall 3. would have been 5 without the howler

Leadbitter 5 Sacrificed at half time, unlucky it could have been anybody.Decent enough game
McCrystal 4 Bad day at the office for the skipper,not much went right.
Parkes 4 Same as Mac
Brown 4 Defended o.k. Crossing was woeful.He wasted some decent chances to put the ball into danger zone

Lockyer 4 Didn't do much wrong or right.In fact he didn't do much
Mansell 4 Same as Lockyer.
Dawson 4 Poor performance, strangely subdued, mostly by our inability to pass the ball to him
Monkhouse 4 Flitted in and out of the game, mostly out of the game


Harrison 5 Buzzed around, that's all
Taylor 1 That's for the goal,it would have been 3,but he once again missed easy chances and clearly doesn't know the offside rule.A complete waste of space