THE GAME
A goal down at half time at The Pirelli Stadium, Rovers hit back with three goals of their own after the break and returned to Bristol with their first away win of the season under their belts.
For the first time this season manager Matt Taylor named an unchanged starting XI and then saw his side fall behind in the 15th minute when Danilo Orsi took advantage of a defensive mix up involving Clinton Mola and goalkeeper Josh Griffiths.
Ruel Sotiriou did see a shot blocked as Rovers struggled to get a foothold in the game, while the home side might have added a second goal before the break but Elliot Watt, when played in by Nick Akoto, hit his shot straight at Griffiths.
The manager wasted little time in changing his personnel and sent on Shaq Forde and Grant Ward on 50 minutes, in place of Bryant Bilongo and Jamie Lindsay, and two minutes after their introduction they combined to pull a goal back. When Ward played the ball into Forde, he hit a left foot shot past Max Crocombe to register his first goal in a Rovers shirt.
Goal celebrations for Shaq Forde
Just before the hour mark Rovers went ahead as Clinton Mola drove a shot through a packed defence giving Crocombe no chance of saving.
As the home side attempted to get back into the game Griffiths saved well from Ronnie Stutter and then denied Tomas Kalinauskas with another fine save. Burton were then reduced to ten men with eight minutes remaining, as Terence Vancooten saw red after bringing down Gatlin O’Donkor.
Three minutes into time added on Ward made sure of the three points when he beat Crocombe to seal victory for Rovers.
THEY SAID WHAT?
‘There was a huge contrast between the first and second half. That’s me being nice and calm in terms of describing the first half. We weren’t good enough in that period and deserved to be behind in the game.
‘As always, we were honest at half time and tried to implement a few aspects and put a few points across. We made changes as the second half went on and looked like a totally different team.
‘Grant Ward adds drive. I still think he’s getting closer to where we want him. He’s been through a difficult physical period and we want to keep pushing him. Today will do him tthe world of good.’ (Rovers manager Matt Taylor)
‘It was a great game. There were a few ups and downs and not the best start, but it was a good victory to back up the win against Charlton in midweek.
Grant Ward and Shaq Forde celebrate
‘When you’re on the bench, you want to start the game but if you cant then the next best thing you have to do is make an impact when you go on and I think our substitutes have done that this season.
‘I’ve got to give Luke McCormick a little bit of credit for my goal because the ball was between the two of us but he left it for me. It was nice, and good, to get my first goal of the season to seal the victory.’ (Rovers midfielder Grant Ward)
‘Their substitutes made an impact; second half I don’t think they did any more than just run all over us and get tight to us and we didn’t have enough about us. We can’t be like that, we’ve probably got three players that have played at this level second half, so I’ve got to remember that but we do have to learn quickly.
‘We’ve got to learn to enjoy being in front; we were in front against Mansfield and we didn’t see it through because of naivity. We were handling things quite well in the first half but there was always going to be a reaction from Rovers and their substitutes made a massive impact.
‘You can work hard on the training pitch but fundamentally the players make the decisions on the pitch. I don’t like talking about mistakes because I don’t like throwing people under the bus but we are where we are, and we’ve made some wrong decisions.’ Burton Head Coach Mark Robinson).
