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Reaction to the 4-0 defeat to Shrewsbury Town
By Nathan Jackson August 11 2007
To start the season with a defeat isn't ideal, to start a season by losing 4-0 atnd subsequently sitting bottom after the first weekend is certainly not the best way to start a "promotion push". I've taken just over 2 hours before writting this report to try and accurately put across my feelings about today's performances and this is what I have come with....enjoy.

There are certain moments in life that leave you completely and utterly speechless though either joy or otherwise. For me there have been a few good examples, holding my neices and nephew for the first time after their births, my girlfriend saying yes when I asked her if she'd marry me, or even when I found her in bed with one of my supposed "best friends," but today leaves me completely puzzled as to what has happened this afternoon.

I'm never usually fussed about the result on the first day, granted it's nice to get a win but overall you've still got 45 games to rectify it, afterall Bristol Rovers lost 4-1 on the opening day last year. However, as much as I'm disappointed about the result it's the performance that bothers me even more.

None of the players seem to have pride in the shirt today, half of them barely looked as if they didn't even want to be there. They weren't chasing anything down, not looking where they were passing it and some players didn't even look that bothered when we conceded. It's been like this for so long though and ever since they 4-1 defeat to Hereford we haven't looked even close to being the same.

Now the main gripe with our fans these days is the defence, oh it seems like such a long time ago that I was the only person bitching about how rubbish our defence was and you know what changed it? Nat Brown. The first goal today was all a perfect example of what Nat does. Ball is crossed it slowly, he wildly swings at it and misses it completely and it ends up in the net. He didn't even make an attempt to control it and then clear it, he just swung his foot at it in an attempt to make his trillionth hoof of the afternoon.

As for Phil Watt, I'm not going to blame him for any of the goals because you can't expect players to play brilliantly on their first game. For example, the first time I saw Lee Frecklington I wasn't impressed, but look at what he's become. I never judge players after just one game but I would definitely prefer to see Moses or Beevers in there, and I don't mean that as a bad thing towards Watt, but at this point we need someone with experience.

Out of the new boys I thought Dodds did well without ever setting the world alight. Torpey wasn't bad but didn't really do anything and Gary Croft was alright, but was beaten way too easily down the right.

You know what, they always say cup games are a distraction from the League and boy do we need one at the minute.

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