Gaffer’s Gabber

Well, after being unbeaten away from Bloomfield Road since New Year’s Day at Chesterfield, the ‘Pool lost 1-0 in a disappointing defeat to Rotherham United – struggling at the foot of the table after a points deduction at the start of the season.

Mr. Grayson was too fuming to comment on the game, so his assistant, Tony Parkes, gave his thoughts on the game.

‘It’s very disappointing. We started slowly and we struggled to get our passing game together. We gave it a go in the second half and we did get a bit better but it was a little too late.’

‘We defended quite well but it was further up the field that we didn’t quite function. But credit to Rotherham – they didn’t allow us to do what we wanted to do.’

Late on in the game, Andy Morrell missed a sitter, while Scott Vernon blazed a volley over the bar and Ian Evatt hit the post with a header in stoppage time. With a little bit of luck, chances such as these will make the difference between making the playoffs and slipping away in the last few games – which everything crossed won’t happen!

‘Now it’s back to square one but we are still confident and tomorrow we will dust ourselves down ready to play Crewe.’

‘We’ve had three away games in succession and we’ve got six points out of nine. Of course we’d have settled for that.’

Bearing in mind the away league form – and Rotherham’s fight for survival from relegation – the result is not the end of the world. 6 points from 2 away games – and of course victories against Yeovil and Scunthorpe and a draw to Nottm. Forest – all away from home – it is a fantastic feat from the players and this latest result is just a blip on the radar in my opinion.

‘This really was a must-win game for Rotherham and you could see their determination. Perhaps it took us too long to get going. This is a setback but we are still confident.’

‘This was a game in hand, so we haven’t lost any ground. It’s still in our own hands and we have two home games to look forward to.’

While no ground was lost, 4th position was up for grabs from Yeovil and it would have seen a safer position when fending off the likes of Swansea for 6th place. However it wasn’t to be and now the gap is still just one point – only difference being we are level on the amount of games played.

David Fox was absent from the team that lost on tuesday night, as was Ben Burgess – both sidelined through injury. Kaspars Gorkss was absent due to an international call-up for Latvia.

‘David Fox took a knock at Bradford and couldn’t play. At least it gave one or two other players a chance and we should have more players available for Saturday. Ben Burgess has a knee injury and he’s another who could be back for the weekend.’