Coburn ends his goal drought but Rovers still slip up at Shrewsbury
JOSH Coburn’s first goal since January was not enough to inspire a comeback as Bristol Rovers suffered a narrow defeat at Shrewsbury last night.
In their penultimate game of the season, Rovers conceded early goals in both halves, undermining what for long periods was a controlled performance. Former Gas skipper Luke Leahy opened the scoring in Shropshire with a bullet header and Rob Street doubled the lead after the interval.
Coburn finished off Scott Sinclair’s cross to set up a grandstand finish, but good chances to equalise went begging as Shrewsbury hung on under intense pressure at the New Meadow. Rovers stayed 15th in the table with just Sunday’s visit of Bolton Wanderers to the Memorial Stadium left to play.
It just three minutes for Leahy – a Rovers player from 2019-21 – to reacquaint himself with his former supporters, meeting Elliott Bennett’s deep corner with a late run and powerful header to leave Ellery Balcombe with no chance. Leahy held his stare towards the away end as he wheeled away to celebrate. Rovers were slow out of the blocks and playing from behind, but they gradually established a footing in the game, with their physical front three increasingly involved. Ryan Loft and John Marquis linked brilliantly 40 yards from goal to draw the defence out of shape, and Grant Ward surged into the vacated space before unleashing a powerful drive that was brilliantly blocked by Tom Flanagan.
The Gas were in control of the possession battle by the midway point of the half and pressure was beginning to be applied. It almost resulted in a penalty when Josh Coburn chased Loft’s through ball and he was shoved to the floor by Chey Dunkley. Rovers were adamant it was in the area, but referee Lee Swabey sprayed the foam a couple of inches outside.
Sam Finley let fly from the set piece and it was superbly blocked by Leahy en route to goal, but Rovers kept the pressure on until the interval, and they saw a second decent penalty appeal waved away by Swabey as Dunkley clumsily collided with Coburn in the area.
Rovers would have been confident of finding a route back into the game in the second half, but Street landed a sucker-punch eight minutes after the resumption. He burst away from Jarell Quansah and found the bottom corner of Balcombe’s net.
Barton responded with a quintuple substitution, including the introduction of League One Player of the Season Aaron Collins and Antony Evans. It brought more vigour to Rovers’ display and the deficit was halved with 20 minutes remaining.
One of the replacements, Scott Sinclair, was at the fore, with his hanging cross outfoxing goalkeeper Marko Marosi and Coburn was on hand to finish off from point-blank range, ending a goal drought stretching back to January 7.
Rovers had Shrewsbury penned in their own territory from that moment, and they should have been level when Collins showed the speedy footwork that earned him acclaim as the league’s best player, speeding away from his man and driving at goal with 15 minutes to play. Marosi must have anticipated a shot, but Collins slid a reverse pass into Coburn who was brilliantly denied by the sprawling goalkeeper. The Gas produced another gilt-edged chance with seven minutes remaining, but the unmarked Luca Hoole could not direct Lewis Gibson’s cross on target with a free header.