Bristol Rovers

Today it has been announced that Bristol Rovers goalkeeper, Steve Phillips, has joined Shrewsbury Town on loan for an initial one month deal.

Phillips has found himself surplus to requirements at the Memorial stadium this year, and third in the pecking order behind on loan Newcastle keeper Frazer Forster and Rhys Evans, who is on a one month temporary contract.

Phillips has been  ever present for the Rovers since he arrived in 2006.  It is no coincidence that his arrival from Bristol City saw an upturn in Rovers' fortunes. 

With Steve Phillips in goal, Rovers managed to get to the final of the JPT at the millennium stadium and the final of the league two playoffs at Wembley stadium. 

Whilst Rovers were edged out by Doncaster Rovers at Cardiff, their fortunes were considerably different at Wembley, where the beat Shrewsbury Town to gain promotion to league one. 

Phillips took a major gamble joining Rovers from City and was always aware of the hostility that might come his way due to his past, although through hard work and determination, he won over the fans and was hailed as a hero.

At the back end of the 2008/09 season Phillips seemed to be going off the boil.  His performances were not up to his usual standard, and slowly the mouthy minority got on his back.  Towards the end of the season, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be on his way. 

Rumours started linking Phillips with a reunion with his former City manager, Danny Wilson at Swindon Town, but nothing came of it.  Being told that he was free to leave the club on a free transfer, he departed Rovers to embark on a trip to Turkey to agree to a contract.  When he got there, a deal could not be agreed upon, and he returned to Rovers a couple of days later. 

Today, 26 August 2009, Steve Phillips has joined Shrewsbury Town on an initial one month deal, which may be extended.  By going to Shrewsbury, Phillips will be linking up with another former Rovers player who was released this year in Craig Disley.

Well, what a day of FA Cup football!

Bristol Rovers and Huddersfield Town, the lowest ranked teams left in the FA Cup were looking for a big payday.

Bristol Rovers, facing an abject managerless Southampton side were looking to qualify for the quarter finals for the first time in 50 years.

Huddersfield Town, were hoping to produce the shock of the round by getting a result at high-flying billionaires Chelsea.

Elsewhere, the other potential shock saw out of form Championship side Barnsley visit historic Anfield to face giants Liverpool.

The early kick off witnessed a proper cup tie at the Memorial Stadium, Bristol. A frosty, muddy pitch was never going to allow for attractive flowing football so we were treated instead to the hustle and bustle of two decidedly unattractive teams. Southampton are in a state of quandry so an upset was always on the cards with a draw being the likely outcome. That was of course until Rickie Lambert's deflected free-kick sealed the victory for Rovers with just a few minutes remaining. They are now the lowest ranked League left in the competition and will be hoping to face one of the Premiership big-guns left in the competition, it could be Chelsea who overcame Huddersfield Town 3-1 with relative ease and a superb performance from Frank Lampard. It won't be, however, Liverpool, who crashed out in the final seconds of their with Barnsley.

Forgive me if I trail off-topic for a second, but I have never agreed with big clubs playing reserve sides or resting their bigger players for Cup games. It's mostly evident in the Carling Cup and as Arsenal found out to their chagrin, it can backfire horrendously. For one, it shows a distinct lack of respect to your opponents, the same opponents who do the same job yet get paid considerably less. Liverpool came unstuck today and I for one am glad. They may have been resting players like Steve Gerrard and Fernando Torres for the lucrative Champions League game with Inter Milan later this week, but Barnsley deserve their victory for the arrogance demonstrated by Liverpool - not to mention the heroics of their on-loan goalkeeper, Luke Steele. It's not the first time they've struggled in the cup either this season. A third round tie against cash-strapped Luton Town, went to a replay. They were 1-2 down against the minnows of Havant & Waterlooville in the last round and today they've been beat. The lessons here are this... there's too many average players on clubs books, there's too much money in the game with greedy foreign-based owners who have nothing but even more money on their minds, and UEFA are at fault for making too big a deal out of the Champions League when only a quarter of the teams who qualify are actually Champions!!!

But that debate is for another day so for now I will sign off by saying this, the FA Cup is the greatest club competition in the world and has been since 1872. Days like this will be talked about for years to come, the day the little club, stood up to the rich and said "Your money means nothing if you haven't got the desire". Barnsley and Bristol Rovers will enjoy their success today and we'll look forward to the quarter final draw later this week. As for Liverpool, my bet is we'll see a very different side against Inter Milan.