Trollope depressed as Rovers fail to live up to early-season promise
By By Matthew Banfield
Paul Trollope was disappointed that his side failed to live up their early-season promise after Bristol Rovers fell to their first away loss in the league at struggling Wycombe Wanderers.
Two spectacular goals and a spirited display cancelled out Rovers’ opening strike, leaving Trollope to rue the team’s inconsistent game.
“We spoke about the good things we did last week and tried to replicate them, in terms of the passing and movement,” he told the club’s official website.
“But the competitive edge was an important factor of it and while we produced bits of it in flashes we didn’t do it consistently enough to warrant getting anything from the game.
After a lively start Rovers fashioned the first chance of the game when Jeff Hughes picked up on a clearance from Stuart Campbell’s corner and lashed a shot towards goal, only to see it blocked by a packed home defence.
At the other end goalkeeper Rhys Evans making his second league debut for Rovers, nine years after his first, dived to his left to keep out a shot from Ian Westlake.
From a corner in the 36th minute, Danny Coles headed a Stuart Campbell corner on to Chris Lines, and he rifled the ball past former Rovers keeper Scott Shearer from close range.
The lead lasted less than ten minutes, though, as Wycombe equalised when Matt Phillips cut in from the left and rifled an unstoppable shot past Evans.
The goal lifted the home side and after creating a number of chances, the home side scored what proved to be the deciding goal.
With ten minutes remaining, substitute Jon-Paul Pittman turned on the edge of the box and hit a stunning shot past Evans into the roof of the net.
Rovers tried desperately to get back level terms but the closest they came was in time added on when Jo Kuffour’s looping shot cleared the bar.
The Rovers boss admitted the quality of the strikes that beat his team, but was still upset the chances were allowed to be created. He added that he was still looking at options before the transfer deadline day on Tuesday.
“They were disappointing goals from our point of view, though I’m sure that the reports will say that they were two great strikes,” he said.
“We hope to do some business before the transfer deadline but it’s never easy. I totally appreciate the need to add to the squad as we are thin on the ground and have a number of young players on the bench who may progress to be good players in the future but maybe it’s a bit soon to be asking too much of them.”
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