The Rovers travelled to Bearsden to face Parklife on Sat 13th October with another strong squad. The Rovers set out in a 442 formation with two big strikers linking the play well during the 1st half. The build-up play from the rovers was very good at times and the centre midfield battle was on a knife edge with some good quality being shown from both sides, Parklife's league position not a true representation of the quality they have throughout the team.
During the 1st half the Parklife defence was put under a lot of pressure and could have been 3-0 down in the 1st 30 minutes however their keeper pulled off three Joe Hart esk saves from Graham, Santi and arguably the best coming from a point blank save from the Rovers centre half Stuart Conway. Conway in nosebleed territory for him showed great composure to place the ball low into the right hand corner of the goal only for the Parklife keeper to get down to the shot and get a fingertip to it pushing the ball round his left upright for a Rovers corner.
Unfortunately Rovers could not find that illusive breakthrough goal and on 32 minutes the Parklife right midfield played a 50 yard cross field pass to their striker just floating over the head of Iain MacGregor at centre half, however Kevin 'The Big Boss Man' Donaghy was in good position to make a tackle and block the shot, unfortunately the Referee did not like Donaghy's WWE style bearhug tackle and gave Parklife a Penalty. The Parklife Number 8 stepped up and slotted the penalty past stand in keeper Christie.
With not much between the 2 sides on 55 minutes Parklife got a free kick wide on the left touchline, The ball was swung in with good pace the the Parklife striker lost his marker Iain MagGregor to flick the ball into the Rovers goal, a cheap goal to concede leading into the second half and on the balance of play and chances created the Rovers did not deserve to be 2-0 down.
No changes in shape or personnel at the interval however the Rovers needed to get better control of the middle of the park and use the height advantage we had up front better. On 65 minutes the games was at a stalemate and Rovers were struggling to get the Ball past an inspired Parklife keeper. Rovers went to a 433 with Liam Donaghy coming on at left back for Paul Gallagher and striker Rory Watson came on up front for right winger Daniel Martin with Fraser Graham tucking into the centre of midfield, Rovers taking a more direct style of play feeding Tommy MacIntyre as often as possible. Within 5 minutes Donaghy found Graham in midfield and with some quick feet managed to create some space for himself to hitting a 30 yard screamer into the keepers top left hand corner, the Rovers pressure was building!
On 75 minutes Fraser Veitch came off, Frank Coia was moved up front and Anton Conetta was brought into the centre of midfield helping the rovers apply more pressure on the Parkilfe Back 4. Parklife could not withstand the pressure put on the by the Rovers and with some good build up play down the right flank from Rory Watson and Tommy Macintyre, Carlo Santi broke forward into the box slotting the ball home to draw the game at 2-2.
Both Parklife and the Rovers had chances in the final 5 minutes but the game finished 2-2, man of the match by a long stretch was the Parklife Goalkeeper and although the Rovers dropped 2 points It was a point gained after being 2-0 down. The Rovers general build up play was better than it has been in recent weeks and this helped us create better goal scoring opportunities.
