Rover's made the long journey to mid Suffolk to meet Bacton United in league 2 action, looking to bounce back from their disappointing cup defeat last weekend.
With several inury problems and players unavailale, a patched up Rovers took to the field, knowing that a victory against their bogey side, would take them joint top of the league.
Wayne Pottle, Angelo Goduti, Liam Harris and player/manager Paul Winstone, all made a rare start for Rovers, in this crucial, 'must win game'.
The visitors started very brightly, seeing plenty of possesion, and should have been 2 goals up within the first 15 minutes but Tiernan Boland and Manu Falcao both wasted their opportunities when 1 on 1 with the Bacton Keeper. Rovers looked certain to take the lead on 20 minutes when a long corner to the far post was met by Angelo Goduti, whose header crashed against the post, with the goal gaping.
As the half progressed the game started to take a nasty turn for the worse as the encounter became more and more bad tempered.
Rovers were finally rewarded for their domination of the game on the half hour mark, when Micky Cross raced through the Bacton back line, to fire past the keeper superbly, from 18 yards out.
The visitors continued to dominate possession after the goal, and extended their lead 10 minutes later, when Tiernan Boland beat the offside trap and lobbed the keeper from the edge of the area.
Rovers went into the break disappointed however, as right on the stroke of half time, Bacton were able to pull a goal back, with their first real attack of the game, after some sloppy defending left a Bacton striker free to curl a shot into the top corner of Dave Clarke's goal, whose first real action of the half was to pick the ball out of his net.
Rovers hoped that all their dominance and missed chances would not come back to haunt them again, just as they had done when the 2 sides met at the Heath earlier in the season. It was hard to imagine that Rovers would slip up though as a repeat of the first half would surely see the visitors end their awful run of results against Bacton.
Football can be a funny, cruel game though and the 2nd half turned into a very strange affair as the lackluster home side, finally managed to get their foot on the ball and the lion's share of possession, suddenly swung their way.
As the match went on, the game became more and more nasty, as both sides began to loose their cool and composure. Despite their new found dominance, the home side still were unable to create any real chances in front of the Rover's goal and with only 15 minutes remaining, the visitors looked to have made the game safe, and finally end Bacton's voodoo hold over them, when against the run of play, they were able to break away and Tiernan Boland was able to score his 2nd of the game with a brilliant individual effort from 20 yards out, which gave the home keeper no chance.
With only 8 minutes of the match remaining, the game took another twist, when the home side were awarded a penalty, after Manu Falcao caught a Bacton player as he shot at goal and Dave Clarke was sent the worng way from the resulting spot kick.
Moments later the game swung back Rover's way after a niggley tussle between jamie Feltner and the Bacton skipper saw Feltner thrown to the ground and the home side were reduced to 10 men.
Despite having the numerical disadvantage, the home side continued to pressure Rovers, as they looked to see out the final minutes to claim the victory. That victory was snatched from them however, with virtually the last kick of the game, in almost identical fashon to their earlier encounter at the Heath, as Bacton drew level with a brilliant strike from all of 30 yards out, which sailed over Clarke's head and into the Rover's net to keep Bacton's 'bogey side' hold over Rovers well and truely in tact.
Devastated Rovers, now have the difficult task of picking themselves up, after yet another 2 points dropped against Bacton, for their crucial, top of the table clash with Elephant & Castle next week but will hope to be back to near full strength with the return of several cruical players.
