Defeat stirs familiar feelings after last season's struggles

Talking points from Bristol Rovers' defeat to Harrogate at the Memorial Stadium, by Dan Hargraves

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AFTER a summer full of change at Bristol Rovers, the majority of their season opener at home to Harrogate Town felt concerningly familiar.

Despite a new head coach, plenty of new staff, a handful of new players and being in a new league following relegation, Rovers resorted back to bad old habits.

A completely dominant opening half hour should have seen the hosts take the lead as the Gas missed a number of opportunities before going into what Darrell Clarke called post-match "a lull." That was also the case at the start of the second half until they went behind.

The head coach has insisted that he wants to draw a line under last season and that this is a clean slate, so perhaps it is unfair to mention that this is now 11 consecutive league games without victory for Rovers, 10 of those losses. However, supporters haven't forgotten about the woes of last season, particularly during the final six weeks, and the wounds of relegation haven't finished healing, and probably won't for some time yet.

Despite a number of new players in the building, and another to arrive in striker Fabrizio Cavegn, who is a bit of an enigma to Gas-heads considering he has arrived from the Swiss second division, seven of the starting 11 were here last season and only two predated that campaign. There is still a good chunk of players who haven't won the majority of the fanbase over yet despite being here for over a year, and frustratingly Saturday was a missed opportunity to truly begin a clean slate with the fans.

At the same time though, there are still 45 games to go and nothing has been decided after 90 minutes..

Deja vu up top