Rovers travelled to Colquhoun Park to play Allander in the league. Iain MacGregor set the tone of the match with a booking on 2 minutes with a crunching tackle which saw the Allander playmaker put 3ft up in the air, had this been later in the match the ref might have shown a red! Unfortunately the Rovers did not start the game well and a lack of organization at a set piece was to be the start of a horrible 45 minutes. Allander swung a cross into the back post which was not cleared by the Rovers and the knockdown fell to an Allander player in the box who slotted past McDowall on 3 minutes.
On 5 minutes the game took a turn for the worst for the Rovers when the Allander keeper kicked the ball the length of the park travelling over the Rovers defense, unfortunately McDowall was caught in two minds and the bounce of the ball lobbed the stranded keeper to make it 2-0 to Allander.
MacGregors early tackle seemed to motived allander more than the Rovers as they showed none of the fight and desire to dominate the ball that has been present in the past few games. The Colquhoun park was very short and very narrow and had a poor surface, the attacking midfield of Rovers had no space to work the ball as Allander shut down the spaces in front of the defense very well and any arial attacks either ran through to the keeper or were cleared by a dominant defense. Watson, Coia and Santi stuggled to keep attacking width in the game and this gave the Allander defence an easy first half.
On 25 minutes McDowall’s day went from bad to worse as a long ball into the defense was missed by Conway, the Allander striker hit a well struck cross from inside the box on the touchline which Bounced off McDowall into the Rovers net, 3-0 Allander. Rovers heads, and work rate dropped after the 3rd goal and on 38 minutes an Allander midfield worked the ball well up the inside left channel, the space was not shut down quick enough and from 28 yards the winger struck a shot at goal, the ball took a slight deflection and it flew into the top right hand corner, MacDowall had no chance, 4-0.
To cap the worst 45 minutes of the season so far Allander capitalized on a short kick out from the back winning the ball in midfield, Allander carried the ball forward and played a ball in behind the Rovers back 4, the striker made a good angled run in behind the rovers defense as LB Donaghy was sitting behind Conway and played the Allander striker on as he ran through to slot home to make it 5-0.
Changes were made at half time with Santi being replaced with MacIntyre and Watson being replaced by Graham, Veitch moved to ARM and Rovers moved to a 4-3-3 to try and put more pressure on the Allander Back 4. Early in the second half McDowall played a long ball out to Veitch at RM, he switched an early ball to the back post where Graham ran iN for a tap in, 5-1. Rovers second goal came shortly after as Donaghy took a quick throw to Coia, he played a quick 1-2 and donaghy got in behind the fullback, he drove the ball across the box as MaGregor attacked the front post and knocked the ball past the Allander keeper, 5-2.
Coia who was assigned a Man marking job on the Allander midfield playmaker at half time picked up a booking for a professional foul on 71 minutes! Unfortunately the Rovers could not climb the mountain and on 75 minutes another long ball from the Allander keeper was not delt with, Donaghy let the ball bounce over him and the Allander winger got in behind the LB, he played a ball across the back 4 to an on running striker who took his goal well, 6-2. Rovers kept chipping away and created a couple of decent changes, Kevin Donaghy, Stuart Mauchan and Martin Clancy all made an appearance in the second half but could not get Rovers back into the game. Graham picked up a cheap booking on 82 minutes as he kicked the ball away after a refereeing decision did not go his way. The game finished 6-2 as to many rovers players had an off day today, a lesson to learn that attitude is everything and there is no easy fixtures in the league.
