News

It started well enough, with a scrappy single goal victory over Hinckley, sweet revenge after the earlier 4-0 drubbing from the Leicestershire side. But things went steadily downhill after that.

Tuesday’s shock home defeat by Halesowen Harriers did little to improve Rovers’ already slim chances of winning the Bank’s League title.

Then came the news that a potentially money-spinning League Cup semi-final with Tamworth had gone out of the window after Tamworth had done all the hard work of battling back from 2-0 down to make a 2-2 draw at Oldbury on Tuesday.

The Staffordshire club then proceeded to blow it by losing 3-1 at home last night, meaning Rovers must travel to the Black Country tomorrow for the first semi-final leg, a daunting fixture considering Oldbury’s impressive record this season.

The final piece of gloomy news concerns winger Kevin Banton, who recently battled back after a lengthy injury lay-off.

The former Burton Albion player has now quit the club after a wages row with manager Frank Northwood, who announced Banton’s release today.

To lose such a player at this stage in the season isn’t exactly good news.

Northwood will no doubt have been considering this as he watched the Tamworth – Oldbury game last night and won’t have been very happy, especially as two recent moves to strengthen his squad have apparently come to naught.

More such effort will certainly follow, but I wonder if the Moat Ground supreme has considered the left back position in the light of Mark Bromley’s recent performances.

Bromley’s monster gaffe on Tuesday, which handed Halesowen victory on a plate, didn’t go down too well with the Gresley faithful but his contribution wasn’t exactly brilliant as gardeners in the vicinity of the Gresley stadium would undoubtedly concur.

And one very nasty off-the-ball foul, which escaped the attention of the referee, but didn’t go unnoticed by the crowd, rounded off a truly miserable performance.