After their narrow victory last weekend, Rovers were again in League action this week when, for a change, they were the visitors up at the Heath, to face 2nd place Tollgate Inn FC, in a vital top of the table clash.
The Blues welcomed back Manu Falcao, Lee Glacken, Jamie Davis and Geoff Green to the starting line up, as they looked to take a giant step towards their goal of promotion to League 1.
With the 2 sides knowing exactly what to expect from each other, both teams began the game looking to take an early advantage over their opponents. As a result the early exchanges were very even with both sides creating openings which niether were able to capatalise on.
The deadlock was broken on the quarter of an hour mark, and in some style, when Rover's centre half, Andrew Clarke, picked up the ball 15 yards outside of the Tollgate box. His purposeful, powerful run saw him beat several of the home side's players, to fire Rovers into the lead from 12 yards out.
With their tails up, Rovers continued to push forward and only 5 minutes later, they doubled their lead when, Rover's goal machine, Micky Cross, made it an incredible 13 straight games in which he has scored, as he slotted home to make it 2-0 to the league leaders.
Rovers then found themselves in dreamland when, after a further 5 minutes, Micky Cross found himself in the position to put the Blues 3 up, and the Rover's marksman made no mistake from close range, as the visitors took full control of this vital match.
With the Blues well on top and crusing, the game was then thrown back into the balance when, in a devestating 5 minute spell for the visitors, Tollgate hit back twice, as they were able to catch the Rover's defense and midfield napping.
Despite the shock of conceding twice in quick succession, Rovers were able to re-group and re-focus and an action packed 1st half ended without further change to the score.
During the break manager, Paul Winstone, tried to raise the head's of his players, who depite leading, were disappointed that they had let Tollgate back into a match that Rovers had been in full control of. He reminded them that they were winning and were more than capable of going on to claim all 3 points but warned that they would need to be fully switched on for the 2nd half and be ready for the home side to throw everything at them as they went in search of an equaliser.
And so turned out to be the case as after the break Tollgate did start the better of the 2 sides and were creating the better chances and using their possession better than the Blues were. Despite having the upper hand though, Rovers were able to continue to hold firm against their hosts and still posed a threat when they were able to get the ball forward.
Half way through the 2nd period came possibly the defining moment of the match when, during another Tollgate attack, the ball was slotted through the Rover's back 4 for one of the home side's strikers to run onto and with only Wayne Pottle to beat in the Rover's goal, the frontman's curling shot struck the base of the right hand post and painfully ran across the visitor's goalmouth, narrowly missing the left hand post and staying out for Rover's to clear.
After this scare, and as the game entered it's final quarter, the home side bagan to tire which enabled Rover's to come back into the game a bit more and consequently started to open up the Tollgate defense, as the hosts pushed more men forward in an attempt to level the match.
Despite both sides creating half chances as the game creeped towards the final whistle, niether side was able to capitalise on any of them and Rovers were able to see out the match to claim a vital 3 points.
The win sees Rovers strengthen their position at the top of League 2 and they can now look forward to a Saturday off next week when the rest of the league are in action, as the chasing pack look to close the gap on the high flying Blues.
