The Rovers line-up included many members of the U18s squad, paired with players from the Development Squad.
The hosts went ahead in the 2nd minute through Saydee and added to their tally in the second half when O’Connell completed the scoring in the 71st minute.
‘We responded to going a goal behind early on and even though they had the better share of the chances, we limited them to just a one-goal lead at the break.
‘I was impressed with a lot of aspects of our play, but we just couldn’t find the key to score or react quick enough to balls dropping in the box to get a goal and we just missed that little bit of a cutting edge that we showed in last week’s fixture at Oxford.
‘The pattern of the second half followed the first. We created chances, but couldn’t find a goal to bring the scores level and they made us pay by adding a second in the final phases.
‘Ultimately, we got done on two of our own throw-ins, which was disappointing – a bit too much youthful exuberance instead of managing the situation.
‘We would like to thank Bournemouth U21’s for today’s game and our recent friendly at Melksham and wish them all the best for the season.”
Rovers: Trialist, Lovelock, Egan, Biss, Heal, Mehew, Budd, Tomlinson, Jones, Phillips, Warwick.