THE RESULT
THEY say things always look better in the morning and, while the overriding reaction from the players afterwards was one of disappointment, by the time they got up for training, their outlook should have improved.
Yes, had they managed to achieve back-to-back wins for the first time this season the gap to the play-off places would have been cut to five points.
But the draw still moved Rovers closer to the top six and further away from the bottom three, and they were facing a good and in-form Sheffield Wednesday side. It may not have felt it at the time of Lucas Joao’s late strike, but this was not a bad result.
THE PERFORMANCE
MY press-box colleague and I were surprised, when we popped downstairs for our half-time brew, that some were not as enthused as we were with what we had seen in the first half.
We thought Rovers were full value for their lead. Yes, they may not have created a barrowload of chances, but their organisation and work-rate off the ball was impressive.
Pressing high up the pitch, they were positive from the off, never letting their opponents settle.
But Rovers could not keep up the tempo after the break and, while it looked like they had weathered the storm, it was hard to begrudge the Owls their equaliser. So things to work on, but certainly things to be buoyed by, too.
THE CROWD
TAKING travelling supporters out of the equation, Rovers went into Saturday’s clash having averaged 12,352 home fans per Championship match this season.
The fact that there were 11,980 on record to have attended Paul Lambert’s first home game in charge of the club shows, then, that for all the optimism his arrival has generated, there is still work to do off the field to attract fans back.
That said there were mitigating factors, one possibly being the Category A prices, and one almost certainly being the atrocious weather.
Credit, then, to the Roverites who braved the conditions and who, up against 3,407 Owls supporters, created a fantastic atmosphere, especially in the second half when the chant of ‘Paul Lambert’s blue and white army’ was incessant as the rain had been in the first.
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