Woolley off in Rovers defeat

One look at the Victoria Ground treatment room may be enough for the Rovers boss to say “I don’t believe it”.

But having preached the values of work ethic and commitment since returning to the club, the lack of fight shown by the players he had available for Saturday’s defeat would have made Brown more miserable than ‘One Foot In the Grave’ character Meldrew.

Rightly or wrongly, Brown is usually pretty quick in acting upon team malfunctions and last Tuesday’s limp performance at Atherstone was clearly enough to prompt him to shuffle his pack once more.

In came Chris Kiely - son of West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Dean Kiely - to replace Karl Lewis in goal, while Birmingham City loanees James Pugh and Pheon Jolly were handed starts in midfield and up front respectively.

The omission of Nathan Lamey in attack was glaring, particularly when he and fellow striker Troy Wood came the closest to turning around the Greens’ fortunes following their second-half introductions.

The absence of commanding centre-back Barry Woolley for recent fixtures was highlighted as a major blow by Brown, though it was an uncharacteristic error from the defender which added to Rovers’ woes.

In fairness to Woolley, his red card for bringing down Alex Stewart came 20 minutes after the visitors had taken the lead, but it is never easy chasing a game when a man down.

Nevertheless, even when they had their full quotation on the field, Rovers failed to head the warnings.

Minutes before Jermaine Roche opened the scoring, Jon Case crashed a free-kick off the bar as the visitors piled on early pressure.

Aaron Couch was a thorn in the side of the hosts all afternoon and their inability to stop him in his tracks led to the first goal.

Collecting just inside the Greens’ half, the winger got the better of Matt Gardiner before slipping a pass to Case just inside the box.

Case found space to turn and tee up Roche for a volley from close range to put Marlow ahead.

To make matters worse for the hosts, Woolley was given his marching orders for bringing down Stewart in the box on 38 minutes.

Although the mistake was punishable, the eventual decision seemed a tad dubious.

Woolley sent a wayward backpass beyond Kiely and as the defender raced back to try and prevent Stewart from scoring the simplest of tap-ins from six yards, the striker went tumbling over.

There appeared to be minor, if any contact, which made the incident even more bizarre given the fact the Marlow forward will never have an easier chance in his career.

Even so, the red card was produced and a penalty was awarded. But to the relief of the home team, Roche’s weak spot kick was hit straight at Kiely.

Having been the victims of ‘ten-man’ syndrome themselves at Atherstone, which saw their opponents raise their game despite a disadvantage in numbers, Rovers set about doing the same.

They showed brief signs of upping the gears after the break with Wood and Lamey offering them greater movement.

But despite Wood hitting the bar and Chris McHale having an effort cleared off the line following a goalmouth scramble, their improvement was insufficient.

The contest then became the Mr Patterson show, with the official needlessly lecturing or booking every player who committed a minor offence.

Finally, Stewart wrapped things up with 10 minutes left, driving a low shot across goal into the bottom corner.

ROVERS: Kiely 6, Gardiner 6, McHale 6, Woolley 4, Richards 6, Deakin 7, Lloyd 6, Pugh 5 (Jones 5, 56 mins), Jolly 6 (WOOD 7, 51 mins), Kelly 6 (Lamey 7, 51 mins), Banner 5. Unused subs: Beasley, Snape.

MARLOW: Drake, Elsegood, Gray, Lane, Avery, Cairns, Wadieh, Case, Stewart, Roche (Gyapong, 70 mins), Couch (Roberts, 83 mins). Unused subs: Rowley, Neptune, Stone.

Referee: Mr R.Patterson. Attendance: 218.

Click here for more picture action from Saturday's game.