THE GAME
Following two home wins on the bounce it was, perhaps, understandable that Steve Evans selected the same starting lineup for a third successive game.
The three players he signed on transfer deadline day, namely Tommy Leigh, Richie Smallwood and Joe Quigley, were all named on the bench.
However, the Head Coach saw his charges slip to defeat following a hard fought contest in which the visitors, arguably the best side seen at The Mem this season, ran out 3-2 winners.
Chesterfield were quickly out of the blocks and scored with only three minutes on the clock when Liam Mandeville’s cross saw Tom Naylor power a header past Brad Young, who had already done well to palm another Mandeville cross behind for a corner.
For the opening quarter of an hour, the visitors were well on top and their passing and movement both on and off the ball was causing Rovers some real problems. In fact, they could have scored at least another two goals before Rovers got to grips with the game.
Young made another important save, from Lee Bonis, and Mandeville hit a shot wide of the target when well placed.
Having weathered the early Chesterfield storm, though, Rovers hit back; Alfie Kilgour fired an effort over the bar before the equaliser arrived just before the half hour mark. A Ryan de Havilland corner was palmed away by goalkeeper Zach Hemming as far as Kofi Balmer and his flick on was nodded across the box by Riley Harbottle to Shaq Forde who gratefully headed past Hemming for his first league goal of the season.
All square at the break the two sides continued to probe for openings at the start of the second half and Chesterfield went close when a Dylan Duffy effort beat Young only for Balmer to clear off the line.
Evans introduced all three of his deadline day signings within ten minutes of the restart as some of his players began to flag and their introduction had the desired effect as Forde scored his second goal of the afternoon to give his side the lead. The goal came after Leigh crossed into the area and Quigley headed the ball into the path of Forde who comfortably beat Hemming.
Three minutes later, though, Chesterfield were level when Naylor, not to be outdone by Forde, claimed his second goal of the afternoon when he met a deflected Sam Curtis cross and looped a header over Young’s outstretched arm and into the net.
Young then saved well from Mandeville to prevent a third Chesterfield goal while Clinton Mola might have scored for Rovers but, after being set up by Forde, he blazed a shot over the bar.
Then, with 12 minutes remaining Chesterfield edged in front again when Berry met a Curtis cross at the back post and volleyed past Young to complete the afternoon’s scoring.
In spite of the result, there were many positives to take from this Rovers performance and while they are still in need of points to climb further up the league table, if they continue to show the same pride, passion and commitment that has been on show in the three games played in the space of seven days, then there is every reason to be optimistic going forward.
WHAT WAS SAID
‘I’m disappointed. Listen, I didn’t think we started the game well. For the first 20-25 minutes, I think we looked tired. Probably a repercussion of the efforts that the boys put in last Saturday and Tuesday, because we had to go to the wire to win both of them. I think Chesterfield were far better than us for the first 25 minutes. The goal was a poor goal for us to concede. We lost the man in the middle of the goal; it was just a simple defensive error. The boy has put his hand up in the dressing room, and then we got the goal back. It was a well worked goal and a good header from Shaq; it’s all to play for. Second half, we were good, we tweaked it a little bit, and we went in front.
‘We bring Joe Quigley on, he wins a great header down, and Shaq does what Shaq does. Scores. Then our defence for the second goal was horrendous, really. We’re in the middle of our box, we’re not marking anyone, we’re marking space. Space has never scored a goal, and so, Kofi Balmer’s left to deal with two at the back post.
‘The boys have given us everything they’ve got; they’re fighting. We had to make some changes; some were enforced, young Fabrizio has been ill all week since he woke up on Wednesday morning, and the kid has been ill. He ran himself into the ground for us, so that was an enforced change. Then Ryan de Havilland was just feeling his groin a little bit at half time, so we said, ‘let’s just see how it goes,’ and we just decided to make the change, but originally, I thought we did well in there.’ Rovers Head Coach Steve Evans
‘I think it’s a bit unlucky, a bit unfortunate. I think we battled well today, and to be honest, if you concede three goals at home, nine times out of ten you don’t really deserve anything. They’re a good team, but we did well to come back in the game. It’s the sloppy goals that let us down. We knew the first half wasn’t good enough from us, especially with the standards we set in the last two games. We started poorly, and they were on top of us.
‘They wanted it more than us, which is not good enough, but then we did well to get back in the game and get to the half-time at 1-1, even when we weren’t playing well. Then, of course, we have done well to get the lead, but that’s when we just have to take the sting out of the game and just leave with something.
‘I’m happy that we’ve got three home games and then we’ve got six points out of them, but we’re still disappointed because we were leading today, and I think that’s showing that we kind of turned the corner a bit because even in the dressing room we felt that, okay we lost a game, but we weren’t happy with it and we’ve got to win next week as there’s a big one at Cambridge.’ Rovers midfielder Clinton Mola
‘We said to the players ‘can we come here on this pitch, roll our sleeves up and perform?’ and they answered all the questions that were asked. I thought they were terrific and fully deserved their win.
‘Bristol Rovers’ tails were up but we started the game so well. We missed a few chances but got the goal and we started on the front foot and set the tone for the whole game. Our record on the road is good and we are in touching distance now of the top six.
‘But the games are whittling down and those draws need to be turned into wins, because we’ve drawn a lot on the road.’ Chesterfield’s First Team Coach Gary Roberts
