SINCE Russell Milton took the reins at Whaddon Road,
everything has been positive.
The atmosphere has been better around the club, and the
results, from the low base of the disastrous Paul Buckle era, have also seen an
undoubted upturn, with one defeat in six games.
However, one crucial thing has not improved. The league
table. It still makes worrying reading with the Robins below the dotted line of
doom.
In isolation, draws at Newport and Portsmouth are good
results. In a ‘normal’ season you would come away from those games thinking
‘fair enough, we’ll take that’ and move on.
This is not a ‘normal’ season however, and closer analysis
reveals the continuation of a worrying Achilles heel which had set in long
before Milton took charge - the inability to hold on to a lead and grind
out a priceless win or two.
Since the start of 2015, the Robins have led against
Morecambe, Luton, Accrington, Mansfield, Newport and Portsmouth. All six games
were drawn. That’s 12 points gone.
It’s not a new phenomenon. In Mark Yates’ two play-off
seasons, chucking away leads cost us an automatic place in League One. Now it
could be even more costly.
On May 2, these will be the games we will look back on
ruefully and think ‘if only’.
Even two or three of these draws turning into wins would
have seen some valuable breathing space open up.
Now, the next two home games with Exeter and Plymouth plus
that Good Friday cruncher at fellow battlers York loom large as games where at
least two wins are needed.
No-one else is going to get us out of trouble. We have seen
that starkly in recent weeks.
After the Newport game last Friday, the results of fellow
strugglers 24 hours later could not have fallen better as Tranmere lost while
York and Carlisle battled out a 0-0 draw.
Then on Tuesday night after the Pompey point, news of
unlikely away wins for Carlisle, Tranmere and – most worryingly of all –
Hartlepool took the gloss off things and returned the Robins below that fateful
line.
A few weeks ago, the Pools needed snookers. Now they are
back within touching distance, so from it being one team from four to go down
with them, it is a five-team free-for-all with two to head off on that Vanarama
tour.
Performances have been better in recent weeks - that is not
in doubt. Now we need to see the maximum dividend for that improvement,
starting tomorrow.
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