‘Broadbent and Menayese have earned the right to play’

It’s hard to find positives in a poor run of form. And, on paper, the rut we’re in is nothing short of abysmal. Seven defeats in the last eight games in all competitions doesn’t raise too much cheer.

However, a wee bit of context is needed. Two of those games were in the Checkatrade Trophy. Now, I’m not saying players don’t try or don’t care – these are first team games, after all – but in the grand scheme of things, performances in this competition aren’t really indicative of anything. They’re glorified reserve fixtures.

I may be clutching at straws here. As furious as we all were after Notts County, having meekly surrendered the chance of an FA Cup run, that game actually hasn’t cost us any points.

Then, came the narrow defeat at Scunthorpe last weekend. Many, your correspondent included, were predicting a hammering similar to those handed out at Wigan and Shrewsbury away earlier in the year. A 4-0 defeat, or worse, seemed to be on the cards.

How wrong we were. Yes, it was another loss on the road.  But to only go down by a single goal, albeit a sucker-punch deep into added time, seems like an improvement, even if we get the same number of points for a narrow, unlucky defeat as we do for some of the absolute gubbings handed out to Rovers away from BS7 this season.

Granted, the gameplan was less ‘park the bus’ and more ‘build a bus station in front of the goal’. But you can’t blame the manager for that; against sides equivalent to Scunthorpe we’ve been torn to shreds. Until that improves, playing for a point away from home is sensible.

With Tom Lockyer and Ruan Sweeney away representing their countries again, and Jonny Burn still not ready for first team action, Tom Broadbent and Rollin Menayese filled in, and put in a good, hard shift. As discussed on this page before, both are new to first team pro football, but they’ve now partnered one another in two games and only seen one goal get past them.

Lockyer deserves praise for finally breaking into Wales’ first team this week. After what seems like an eternity of being an unused sub, our captain got his first cap on Tuesday. It’s also a great moment for Rovers’ academy to have produced a club captain and a full international. Sweeney may get there someday, too – any progression from his current spot in Ireland’s Under 21 side is dependent on whether he breaks into Stoke’s team or leaves Staffordshire in search of first team football when his loan with us is over.

But if I were DC, and by heck am I glad I’m not, I’d show a bit of faith in the two new boys. Broadbent and Menayese have earned the right to play. Our pair of internationals, for all their potential,  have played in a good load of these away shoeings. Of course, we’ve defended badly as a team, but for once the whole unit defended well last week, so why change?

AFC Wimbledon come to Horfield this weekend. Having come up to the third tier with us in 2016, the Dons had the kind of season I thought we’d get last year. Easily clear of relegation, but unlikely to pull up any trees. If we finished lower mid table, like they did, no-one would really have minded, and all of this belly aching about how we’re not in the top six this season wouldn’t be happening. The prize for overachievement is for people to demand constant overachievement, it seems.

Anyway, back to Wimbledon – right now they’d snap your right arm off for a nice, quiet year like last season. Currently sitting fourth bottom (a place we are nowhere near despite the recent slump), they’re chronically short on goals and don’t look as good as sides we’ve already put away at the Mem this term.

That’s not to say they can’t spring a surprise, having gone to Ewood Park and stunned our next opponents, Blackburn Rovers. But, if we perform like we did last time at home in the league, we should be fine. (I’ll not mention who we beat in case any Wimbledon fans are reading this).

The saving grace of this poor, poor run has been that a lot of it has been either in the cups or away from home. Lose to a struggling side at the Mem this weekend, and the winter may be a long one.