THE GAME
Rovers duly made it four wins in a row with this defeat of Barrow, achieved with first half goals from Josh McEachran and Fabrizio Cavegn who both scored their first league goals for the club.
Whilst they dominated first half proceedings, though, Darrell Clarke’s side struggled to make any impact after the break and, come the end of the game, were hanging on to claim all three points.
Clarke opted to make two changes to his starting lineup for this game as Luke Southwood returned in goal following his awayday travels with Northern Ireland, while Joel Senior started at right back in place of Macauley Southam-Hales.
Following an opening 15 minutes in which Rovers enjoyed a great deal of possession, it was left to Josh McEachran to open the scoring with 16 minutes on the clock. When the ball was cleared to him, following a Rovers corner, the midfielder saw his cross cum shot deceive visiting goalkeeper Wyll Stanway and end up in the back of the net.
It was the midfielders first goal since 2018 and his first half performance was exquisite as he conducted affairs from the middle of the park.
Goal number two arrived in the 29th minute and came after a superb knockdown by Promise Omochere from a ball into the box that found Fabrizio Cavegn perfectly positioned to take advantage and knock in his first Rovers goal from
close range.
There should have been more first half goals as Clarke’s side continued to dominate, but they didn’t arrive, and the visitors fashioned two opportunities to reduce the deficit.
An overhead effort from Josh Gordon drifted wide of the upright, while Lewis Shipley squandered a close range opportunity. As the half drew to a close Rovers should have added a third goal, but Omochere fired into the side netting after being played in by McEachran.
Barrow went in search of a goal from the start of the second half and their pressure paid off on 69 minutes when Elliot Newby curled a cross into the area and Connor Mahoney glanced a header into the net.
Southwood then made an outstanding save to deny Barrow substitute Isaac Fletcher and when the same player went down under a challenge in the area, there were a few people, particularly the Barrow fans, inside the ground who feared referee Sam Allison was going to award a penalty.
Instead, the match official decided that Fletcher had dived, gave him a yellow card and Rovers a free kick and they somehow managed to hold out to claim the win
WHAT THEY SAID
‘I was really pleased with the first half. I think there are bits that we want to unpick from the second half to be fair. The discussion that we’ve had in there, we’re pleased to be winning football matches, that’s four on the spin now, and that’s what we want to do. It’s hard to win football matches, but we perhaps want to win them a little bit more convincingly than we did in the second half.
‘I thought Joel Senior did his job really well. He’s trained really well as well. He found himself unlucky to be out of the team with a questionable red card at Chesterfield a few weeks back, but he’s professional, and he’s applied himself, so he gives himself a good platform to be ready when he’s called upon.
‘We want to make this place a fortress. That has to come from us on the pitch first and foremost, but we know that the fans will get behind that as well. So, did I feel as if we, as a staff, felt perhaps a little bit stressed, come the last 45? Yes, we did, and I’m sure the players might have felt the energy as well. So, there are things that we will unpick and we’ll try and be better at from the second half, but like I say, we’ve won a game of football and they’re hard to do. They’re hard to do in any league, but particularly this league.’ Rovers Assistant Head Coach Rhys Carr
‘I didn’t mean it, to be fair. I just wanted to whip it across the six yard box, and with the wind, it helped it a little bit, and I got the goal. To be honest, I thought it was going to be a bad cross, but the closer it got, I knew it was going to go in. The goalkeeper was scrambling a little bit. I’m happy to get my first goal of the season, and I’m happier with the three points.
‘I need to get in and around the box a little bit more. I’m usually playing in that deep lying midfield position, and I’m not really on the set pieces at the moment in this team because we’ve got great deliverers, like Jack Sparkes. That’s no excuse. I definitely need to get a few more goals.
It was a great result, and that’s four wins in a row. I thought we did some things really well, and then we were quite sloppy in other aspects of the game. I thought in the first half, we had control in moments, but not complete control like we want to at home. We just didn’t get going in the second half, and I think we need to take more responsibility. Obviously, I know it was windy, but with the long kicks, I think we may need to play a little bit more because we were just kicking into them, really, and it was coming straight back. But I don’t want to take away the three points. I thought it was a great result, so now we look forward to next Saturday.’ Rovers Midfielder Josh McEachran
‘Obviously it was a stonewall penalty near the end of the game. I thought the referee was poor today. He apologised to me at half time because he got two unbelievable decisions wrong that he gave to them.
‘I don’t want his apology at the end of the day because he’s just cost us a point. It’s a stonewall penalty and we should be coming away with at least a point.
‘We were outstanding second half, we absolutely battered them. With the chances we had we could have won the game in the second half. We need to show belief starting games rather than waiting for something to happen, like we did today.’ Barrow Head Coach Andy Whing
