ROVERS suffered the disappointment of two postponed matches over the New Year period, leaving fans and players short of action.

The cancellations were no great surprise given the horrendous weather conditions suffered around the country over the last couple of weeks.

The New Year’s Day fixture at home to Cheltenham was a big loss, not only to supporters hoping to watch the Pirates secure three valuable points but to the club’s revenue as a decent gate would have been expected.

The FA Cup Round Two clash with Crawley proved to be a long drawn out affair as the clubs’ third attempt at resolving the contest on Saturday had to be delayed once again as it fell victim to the weather.

It came after the first game at the Memorial Stadium ended in a 0-0 draw and the replay had to be abandoned due to torrential rain and a flooded pitch during the second half.

The game eventually went ahead on Wednesday night, where two late goals gave Rovers a 2-1 win, with a trip to Birmingham in the third round the prize.

Whoever gets through that tie will then face Swansea at home later this month after the Welsh club’s shock win at Old Trafford knocked out Manchester United.

Hopefully during the transfer window we will see a couple of new faces arrive to bolster the squad, in addition to Chris Beardsley who extended his loan to the end of the season this week.

Rovers’ continuing involvement in the FA Cup has meant they have fallen behind in the league as a number of fixtures took place on Saturday.

Our main rivals at the foot of the table picked up points to narrow the gap and leave us in an even more precarious position.

We are still third from bottom but Torquay have pulled level with us on 23 points while Northampton are just a point behind.

We do have games in hand but it is always better to have points on the board, so the importance of beating Exeter at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday is now even greater.