The Memorial Stadium Saturday 24th September 2022
Bristol Rovers 0
Accrington Stanley 1
Pritchard (54)
Referee: Lee Swabey Attendance: 8,906
One week on from the defeat against Lincoln City Rovers had the opportunity to bounce back with another home game, against Accrington Stanley.
Manager Joe Barton made three changes to his starting lineup; he was without the services of Luca Hoole, who was away on international duty with Wales, and he left out Glenn Whelan and Antony Evans.
In their places came Alfie Kilgour, Bobby Thomas and skipper Paul Coutts. So, having not gone with a recognised central defender the previous week, he went with two this time around, though persisted playing three at the back instead of a four. To my mind Lewis Gordon, one of the back three, is a full back or wing back and not a central defender.
The visitors began brightly and Sean McConville, who had made his 400th appearance for Stanley seven days earlier, hit an early effort over the bar.
The expected Rovers response to their last home defeat never really materialised and although Aaron Collins worked tirelessly up front he received little support from his colleagues and it was the striker who had his side’s first real opportunity of the half though he dragged his 17th minute shot wide of the upright.
Accrington should have scored the game’s opening goal after James Belshaw went walkabout midway through the first half. The keeper saw danger when Joe Pritchard received the ball out on the left and rushed out of his area in an attempt to avert any danger. However, Pritchard took the ball around him and got in a cross which was cleared by Rovers before Tommy Leigh could direct a header into the unguarded net.
As an uninspiring first half drew to a close, Collins was just wide of the mark with another effort, but a drab opening period that had seen Rovers lacking energy and inventiveness ended goalless.
Belshaw made a smart second half stop from Mitch Clark seven minutes after the restart and two minutes later Stanley were ahead.
Coutts was caught in possession in the middle of the park by Pritchard and headed for goal. He was stopped in his tracks by Thomas at the expense of a corner. That was quickly taken by McConville and his cross reached the unmarked Pritchard who headed past Belshaw.
Both sides huffed and puffed after that, and although Rovers forced goalkeeper Lukas Jensen into a couple of routine saves the closest they came to a goal arrived eight minutes from time when Collins crashed a shot on to the angle of bar and post.
Defeat saw Rovers extend their run of league games without a win to seven and there were rumblings of discontent amongst a crowd of almost 9,000 as the players left the pitch.
What they didn’t want to hear was the manager saying the goal came about because the ball boy had given the ball back to the corner taker too quickly. The fact is that his defenders weren’t switched on to what was happening and reacted to the short corner far too late. At the same time, the lack of a cutting edge up front was a major concern.
Bristol Rovers: Belshaw, Kilgour, Thomas, Gordon, Anderson (Jasper, 73), Coutts (Rossiter, 58), Finley, McCormick (Marquis, 66), Clarke (Evans, 58), Loft, Collins. Substitutes: Jaakkola, Whelan, Saunders. Accrington Stanley: Jensen, Clark, Thame, Astley, Rodgers, Conneely (Martin, 63), Whalley (Hamilton, 71), Coyle, Pritchard, McConville, Leigh (Sangare, 88).
Substitutes: Delfouneso, Sloane, Savin, Fernandes.
ALSO
There were no former Rovers players in the Accrington Stanley side
Yellow cards Antony Evans, Ryan Loft
Paul Coutts was skipper and then Sam Finley after he was substituted
Four substitutes used
Eight added minutes
(Photos courtesy of JMP)
Keith Brookman