‘Title-winning form – and still only running at 80%’

Following the scores on my phone at the weekend felt a bit strange. After my customary tweet sent as the team is named, seething about yet another game where we hadn’t just played 4-4-2, I fully expected to go through the usual motions that I do on most away days. Get the little notification saying we’ve gone a goal down, or maybe two, then follow Twitter frantically as the boys pour forward for yet another comeback.

Wasn’t to be. Because Darrell Clarke is an infinitely better football manager, coach and tactician than me, you, or even the East Terrace genius who bashes the dugout every so often – his non-two-banks-of-four setup and the players he picked won the day.

While the formation won’t please the traditionalists amongst us, the two goals surely will – both came from that most English of places, the high corner into a packed box. Firstly, a neat flick-on found the path of Charlie Colkett (though his skill in bringing the ball down with one foot and instantly shooting with the other was very un-English), and his fellow Chelsea-loaned Jake Clarke-Salter did what the typical English centre-back does best – a thumping header at the near post to seal the win.

It wasn’t all about the Stamford Bridge kids though – sounds like Stuart Sinclair covered every blade of grass multiple times over and Hiram Boateng looked again to be the missing piece in the centre midfield puzzle that we didn’t have in our early defeats this season, adding a delightful Brazilian-style pirouette on the ball to set up a chance.

Also, Kelle Roos made some good saves. I’m especially pleased for the Dutchman. Being a keeper isn’t easy at the best of times but his howler for the first goal conceded at Milton Keynes led to some unwarranted requests for him to be dropped. I’m as big a Steve Mildenhall fan as the next guy but dropping players for one mistake is a sure-fire way to wreck their confidence and we can all be pleased that the management know that.

Similarly, I’m hoping that Matty Taylor receives no stick whatsoever for missing a good chance in the second half – folk have to remember that most of the forwards in our league don’t have the requisite flair needed to create said chance, by humiliating an Oldham defender by running around the back of him, then skinning the goalkeeper. Plus, he scored a hat-trick on Wednesday, so leave it out, yeah?

Time for a stat now. Since our 4-1 tanking at home to Newport this time last year, we’ve played 46 league games – the equivalent of a full league season.

Our record for those 46 games is as follows: won 26, drawn 10, lost 10. That is, effectively, title-winning form. Darrell says the team is currently fulfilling 80 per cent of its potential. I can’t wait to see us hit 100 per cent then, since 80 per cent has us boasting the record mentioned above, safely nestled in the play-offs with a game in hand over most of the division.

Not that we should get carried away – trophies and promotions aren’t handed out at Halloween – but I’m getting nosebleeds here. We’ve not mounted a serious challenge for promotion to the second tier since the days of Cureton and Roberts. And babies born to Gasheads during Rovers’ Devon Loch finish to that campaign now all have National Insurance numbers it was so long ago. 

Peterborough and Fleetwood visit BS7 in the next few days. Neither side are a million miles below us in terms of points on the board, but we’re in such good form and so strong at home that I can’t predict anything other than two wins. The only sides to take three points off us all season are all above us, so it seems to take a top side on a good day to leave us empty-handed, especially at the Mem, where we’ve now only lost two league games in the last year.