Problems persist for Bristol Rovers despite an encouraging late fightback in Peterborough defeat
As a scoreline, a 3-2 defeat away at Peterborough United is in some ways a respectable one but the result on paper doesn’t go close to telling the whole story on what was a strange afternoon.
To be blunt, the performance hasn’t left me with a long list of positives, but for an exciting spell at the end of the match we saw a refreshingly forward-thinking and aggressive side. Momentum is a funny thing and although we were nowhere near matching Peterborough across the 90 minutes, there were plenty of chances to equal up the game late on. It’s just a shame we couldn’t compete with such intensity throughout.
It wasn’t enough to get us over the line and a draw would have felt like a robbery on the balance of play, but the late flurry of chances created by Luke McCormick, Shaq Forde, Luke Thomas and Gatlin O'Donkor were a slither of encouragement. Fresh legs and a couple of well-taken goals seemed to inspire real confidence, but the first half and a large portion of the second were defined by the same problems - more avoidable errors and some really ineffective direct play.
READ MORE: Peterborough boss admits his side were clinging on after Bristol Rovers fightback in victory
READ MORE: Bristol Rovers verdict: Kofi Shaw's 'fantastic day', bench impact and a shifted narrative
After seven or eight games of a new season, you can usually see partnerships developing and one of my gripes is that we don’t seem to have established those relationships on the pitch yet. Part of our inability to put cohesive attacking moves together could well be that we haven’t settled on a recognised team yet, be it because of individual form, a lack of match fitness or not wanting to introduce new signings into the mix straight away. I’m sure we would all agree though that multiple changes were needed following the Wigan fiasco, and there was definitely an interesting look to the side that lined up against Peterborough.
Jamie Lindsay starting the game was welcome news following some decent cameos and the full debut of Kofi Shaw was a bit of a surprise in the circumstances. There's nothing better than a homegrown player tearing it up in the blue and white and although Shaw does deserve minutes, away at Peterborough is some place to make your first start in professional league football.
It would be untrue to say the occasion got to the 17-year-old. He was one of many in the first half who struggled for time on the ball and though he didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength as his teammates, some promising progressive passing made him stand out. None of our forward players had a chance to influence the game for large portions and Posh seemed to know exactly how to nullify them when we did construct a rare attacking move during the first 45.
The way the team was set up to play was frustrating yet again and predictable too. We have a very particular way of playing against teams with attacking intent and Peterborough were able to execute their game plan against us fairly easily. With a tendency for our long passes to bypass the midfield, the men in the middle weren’t able to influence the game even if they wanted to, meaning that we didn’t see the best of Lindsay or Kamil Conteh on the ball with our forwards feeding off scraps.
Repeatedly hitting the ball up to Promise Omochere and gambling that he can make it stick is not a viable way of playing against teams that relish winning the ball back and building quickly.
Worthy of a mention, Lino Sousa comes away from the match with some credit. The Aston Villa loanee was constantly up and down the flank and showed a fearless attitude even at 3-0. Some of our best chances came about from Sousa delivering accurate crosses and for me, he needs to be starting again next week without a doubt.
Peterborough of course gave us a lot more time and space at 3-0 down with the game all but won, but that doesn't take away from some of the much-improved attacking play in the final 20 either. We were winning the ball high up the pitch and had a good tempo to our passing with McCormick the pick of the bunch for me – another who I would like to see from the start against Wycombe.
The last 30 minutes of the match displayed exactly what I want to see from this Rovers side every week, but Matt Taylor has one hell of a job on his hands to getus firing like that on a regular basis.
READ MORE: Peterborough United 3-2 Bristol Rovers recap: Substitutes almost complete sensational comeback
READ MORE: Bristol Rovers player ratings vs Peterborough United: Substitutes almost change game in loss