THE GAME
Rovers made it through to the Second Round of the FA Cup thanks to second half goals by Fabrizio Cavegn and Joel Cotterill and although the home side pulled a goal back and had what they thought was an equaliser disallowed Darrell Clarke’s side held out for the win.
Clarke made five changes to his starting XI for this match, with his hand being forced by injuries and the suspension of Jack Sparkes. And so in came Clinton Mola, Macauley Southam-Hales, Stephan Negru, Bryant Bilongo and Ruel Sotiriou for Sparkes, Kacper Lopata, Alfie Kilgour, Kamil Conteh and Promise Omochere. In the absence of the injured Kilgour, Tom Lockyer took the captain’s armband.
Goalscoring opportunities were few and far between, for both sides, in the early stages of the game and almost half an hour had elapsed before we saw some goalmouth action.
Lakyle Samuel saw his shot saved by Luke Spouthwood, though his effort wouldn’t have counted in any case as he was adjudged to have been offside. The response from Rovers was, inevitably, from Cavegn whose snapshot crashed into the side netting.
Southwood was again called into action to deal with a Jude Arthur shot and although the home side posed an aerial threat at times, there was nothing to separate the teams at the interval.
Southwood produced three outstanding saves after the break to deny Michael Cheek on two occasions and another effort from Mitch Pinnock.
With the home side exerting pressure on Rovers back line, it seemed that they might eventually make the breakthrough, but Clarke’s side had other ideas and struck twice in three minutes to put themselves in the driving seat.
There were 14 minutes of normal time left when Cavegn headed home from close range following a cross from Luke Thomas and three minutes later the striker turned provider when he squared the ball across goal where Joel Cotterill tapped the ball into the net to register his first goal for the club.
Jemiah Umolu headed in at the near post to reduce the deficit seven minutes from time and, two minutes into stoppage time Omar Sowumni thought he had equalised for the hosts, but the goal was chalked off by referee Isaac Searle for an infringement only he appears to have seen. (thought to be offside).
Rovers held out for the remaining stoppage time minutes to go into the hat for the Second Round.
WHAT WAS SAID
‘There was grit and determination today. You see the injuries we’ve got at the club at the moment, and people are putting their bodies on the line. I’ve got two players who came onto the pitch that aren’t 100 per cent as well. A commendable effort, I’m pleased to get back to a win, and I thank the supporters as they came a long way. We’ve had to do a lot of defending, and they put you under a lot of pressure, and we defended our box well.
‘We’re a million miles from where I want us to be. But let’s put everything into consideration today. It’s easy to talk about injuries when you lose football games; it’s an excuse, but we won today, and the players put their bodies on the line and put a little bit of pride back in the shirt. But still, plenty of work to do with the group, so I applaud my players, and we move into the next round and hopefully get a decent draw.
‘Fabrizio is always a goal threat. Although I thought he was poor today, he was still a goal threat. I think with some of our forward play, at times we could’ve looked after it, but the effort was there. The lads are still catching up with minutes: Shaq Forde and Ruel Sotiriou.’ Rovers Head Coach Darrell Clarke
‘I think after the past three weeks, especially in October, this was needed, definitely. I couldn’t ask any more of the boys, and what a reaction. We wanted to get into that second round of the FA Cup, and we’ve come here and we’ve achieved that. So, we’ve just got to look forward to whoever we get and kick on Saturday next week. Bromley are a team that want to stick the ball on you. They have got big target players, so they are very dangerous from set-pieces.
‘I said last week in the interview that it’s a mentality thing, and I think the lads have shown that today. We know we have got the togetherness of the group. It is a great group of lads, and everyone gets on with everyone. So, I think we just looked back at the games to see where we were going wrong, and we put it right today. I think it is just a mentality thing, but today we showed that and got a result. We knew they would be a team that wants to put the ball on top of teams, so our plan was to play, and I think we did that really, really well at times today. I think going forward, it’s definitely something we can do because we’ve got the players for it.
‘There is no better feeling than scoring. It’s been tough for me, obviously, coping with an injury in the last month. I just want to get a run of games going, and I think that is a massive confidence booster going forward and to take into next Saturday. There is no better feeling than scoring. I think everyone knows that Fabrizio is a workhorse who doesn’t stop running. He played so well today, and I think it was Omar Sowunmi that I was on the back shoulder of, and it was a difficult angle for Fabrizio to work the goalkeeper. I thought he could just flash it across the box, so I made the movement in the last minute, and obviously, he’s found me, and I was there for the tap in.’ Rovers midfielder Joel Cotterill
‘I’m really disappointed. I felt we were playing safe and just no real tempo first half. I felt we needed to up the tempo. We’ve got to realise what we are, what sort of team we are. We are a high energy team that presses from the front. I felt we were not doing that. Not creating enough pressure around their goal. We just lacked quality I felt and that that was disappointing for me today. And then the two goals, just poor goals.
‘Ah, you know, I’ve got to say they’re poor goals to concede. I haven’t looked at them closely in detail, but my mind tells me they were both poor goals. They weren’t really worked goals by Bristol Rovers. That said, they’re in our net. So, you know that probably sounds a bit weird to say that. Then we get back into the game. We have a little ten minute spell where we’re looking a bit more like ourselves, putting the ball in a dangerous area, attacking things, and then, you know, we get a goal disallowed, which I can’t hold in. I just can’t.
‘An offside for a player that’s two yards past the front post, nowhere near interfering with play, goalkeeper, anyone, and the guy heads it in at the back post. Not going to lean on that just that decision because it was a bit more than that, but you know, it does kill you a little bit when you throw the kitchen sink at the end of the match, try to get back into it, and you get back in it and you get it snatched away from you. It’s disappointing.’ Bromley Manager Andy Woodman
