The Wham Stadium Saturday 14th January 2023
Accrington Stanley 2
Leigh (51), Astley (79)
Bristol Rovers 0
Referee: Tom Nield Attendance: 2,510
Rovers headed to the north west looking to record a first ever away league win against Accrington Stanley, with high hopes of ending that dismal run.
There was a shock before kick off, though, when it was revealed that loan signing Bobby Thomas had returned to Burnley, his parent club, and then gone immediately back out on loan to League One rivals Barnsley.
We have to assume that happened on the Friday, as the defender was registered by Barnsley in time for him to be on the bench for their game at Charlton Athletic.
His absence meant that Rovers could only name six substitutes for the game, but meant a league start for Luke McCormick who has yet to hit the heights he did during his first spell at the club.
The opening 45 minutes of the game failed to excite the crowd of just over two and a half thousand, and the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock came after 11 minutes. Goalkeeper Toby Savin found Shaun Whalley and he ran on before beating James Belshaw with his shot only to see it hit the base of the post and rebound to safety.
The aforementioned McCormick had Rovers’ best chance of the half, five minutes before the break, but his effort was blocked and the home side were able to clear their lines.
Manager Joe Barton made a change at the break and sent on Ryan Loft at the start of the second half, in place of Antony Evans.
The home side opened the scoring six minutes after the restart, though there were strong claims, by Rovers, regarding a handball in the build up.
Rosaire Longelo’s ball into the box was controlled by Harvey Rodgers, though the ball did bounce up and hit him on the arm before substitute Tommy Leigh pounced and fired a shot past Belshaw.
According to the letter of the law referee Tom Nield made the right call in allowing the goal to stand as the player who scored didn’t handle. However, I wonder how many more match officials would have stopped play and given Rovers a free kick. The law needs clarifying!
As Rovers attempted to get back on level terms Loft was fouled by Rodgers as he broke clear but the Accrington man collected a card of the yellow variety, as opposed to a red one.
Accrington made the game safe with 11 minutes of the game remaining when Sean McConville’s corner was headed on by Rodgers and Ryan Astley was on hand to hit a right foot shot into the net from six yards.
That was the cue for Barton to leave the technical area and march down the touchline, though he remained somewhere near the corner flag to watch the remaining ten minutes.
Afterwards he said he thought that if he stayed in the technical area he would do, or say, something he shouldn’t to the match officials and felt it was best that he walk away.
To say that the manager was frustrated would be an understatement and it wasn’t just the decision to let the home side’s opening goal stand, but his own side’s inability to keep a clean sheet.
Accrington Stanley: Savin, Astley, Conneely (Tharme, 62), Rodgers, Coyle, Longelo (Sisay, 78), Martin, Hamilton, McConville, Whalley, Pressley (Leigh, 39).
Substitutes: Jensen, Woods, Adekoye, Fernandes
Bristol Rovers: Belshaw, Hoole, Connolly, Gibbons, McCormick (Marquis, 67), Coutts, Finley, Evans (Loft, 46), Sinclair (Saunders, 79), Collins, Coburn.
Substitutes: Jaakkola, Gordon, Whelan
ALSO
There were no former Rovers players in the Accrington Stanley side
Yellow cards were issued to Sam Finley and Scott Sinclair
Three substitutes used
Only six substitutes named
Paul Coutts was skipper
Nine added minutes
(photos courtesy of JMP)
Keith Brookman