The Memorial Stadium Saturday 12th November 2022
Bristol Rovers 2 Coburn (58), Collins (80)
Fleetwood Town 2
Rooney (14 & 90 + 9)
Referee: Robert Madden Attendance 8,829
With former Fleetwood manager Joe Barton now in charge at Rovers and a couple of his former Fleetwood players now at the Mem, this promised to be quite a game.
With Antony Evans making his 50th league start for the club the manager made two changes to his starting XI; when will he ever be able to name an unchanged side?
Josh Coburn and Lewis Gibson returned to the side at the expense of James Connolly and Luke McCormick though the changes had little effect on a poor first half performance when the visitors looked the better side by far.
It came as little surprise when Fleetwood took the lead after just 14 minutes. It came after Shaun Rooney picked up on Lewis Gibson’s clearance and lashed the ball past James Belshaw. His goal celebrations in front of the Thatcher’s End didn’t go down well with Gasheads and he antagonised them even more on two later occasions when kicking the ball into the crowd after it had gone out of play.
It was 39 minutes before Rovers fashioned their best chance of the half and then Gibson headed over from an Evans free kick with only goalkeeper Jay Lynch to beat.
Barton, no doubt as frustrated as anyone with his side’s first half showing, made a change at the break and elected to switch from a back four to a back three, bringing on Connolly for James Gibbons and deploying Scott Sinclair and Lewis Gordon as wing backs.
It worked a treat and Rovers took the game to their visitors from the off. The pressure was relentle4ss and with Aaron Collins leading Fleetwood a merry dance it seemed only a matter of time before Barton’s side would draw level.
The equaliser duly arrived with 58 minutes on the clock and it was the industry of Collins that let to Coburn scoring his fourth goal in only his fifth league start; he just happened to time his run into the box to perfection to slam a low cross from the left from his strike partner high into the roof of the net.
Collins squandered two good goalscoring opportunities as Rovers continued to dominate, one effort landing on the roof of the net and the other drifting agonisingly wide of the upright.
He wasn’t to be denied, though, and with ten minutes remaining he rose above defender Josh Earl and planted a firm header beyond Lynch and into the net to put his side ahead.
With tempers becoming frayed out on the pitch and Barton still apparently seething that referee Bobby Madden had denied his side what he thought was a blatant penalty following a foul on Collins (the striker was booked for simulation) the manager was shown a red card in the 89th minute after confronting the match official.
Seconds later the fourth official indicated there would be a minimum of seven minutes added time. In the ninth minute of those seven (work that one out!), Fleetwood equalised when Rooney capitalised on some poor defending to head into the bottom corner.
Wisely, perhaps, the manager didn’t undertake press duties post match but handed responsibility to his deputy, and another former Fleetwood man, Andy Mangan.
Bristol Rovers: Belshaw, Gibbons (Connolly, 46), Thomas, Gibson, Gordon, Finley, Rossiter, Evans, Sinclair (Hoole, 86), Collins (Marquis, 90), Coburn (Saunders (90 + 4).
Substitutes: Jaakkola, Clarke, McCormick
Fleetwood Town: Lynch, Baker (Holgate, 65), Nsiala, Earl, Rooney, Sarpong-Wiredu (Batty, 72), Vela, Warrington (Lane, 86), Andrew, Morton (Omochere, 72), Mendes-Gomez (Garner (J), 86).
Substitutes: Stolarczyk, Garner (G).
ALSO
No former Rovers players in the Fleetwood Town side
Yellow cards were issued to Lewis Gordon, Aaron Collins, Jordan Rossiter and James Belshaw
Manager Joe Barton was issued with a red card
Sam Finley was skipper
Ten added minutes
Fleetwood’s equaliser came in the ninth minute of second half added time even though the board showed only seven!
(Photos courtesy of JMP)
Keith Brookman