Familiar failings haunt Rovers as campaign ends with defeat
James Piercy reports on Bristol Rovers’ game against Bolton at the Memorial Stadium
BRISTOL Rovers bowed out of the 2022/23 season with a performance that represented their campaign in microcosm; full of attacking flair and forward momentum but with defensive flaws that served as a clear example to Joey Barton as to what needs to improve for next term.
Bolton Wanderers are bound for the play-offs, exactly where the Gas want to be, and won the game with a glorious strike from Aaron Morley with Luca Hoole and John Marquis reducing the deficit, but the visitors also sustained injuries to key men which could prove significant in the post-season.
For the Gas, Barton will now look to enhance the group that took them to 17th in League One, unable to meet their closing target of finishing as the best placed of the promoted teams with Exeter City’s 3-2 win over Morecambe leaving the Grecians with a three-point advantage.
Aaron Collins enjoyed their first opening as he successfully pressed a Bolton defender on halfway, his tackle spooned the ball into the air allowing Josh Coburn to then slot a ball down the vacated channel for the Welshman to run in on goal. Collins cut inside and had options to his right but instead elected to try and guide a shot into the corner which was successfully blocked by a covering defender.
Bolton had displayed the more sustained attacking purpose, albeit without creating much to trouble James Belshaw, but found the opener through a source that will irk Barton in a wider sense when reviewing the campaign. The Gas have been poor at defending setpieces all season and from Morley’s outswinger into the near post, fullback Gethin Jones flicked a looping volley over Belshaw and although the ball was drifting over the line, Shola Shoretire made sure with the final touch. Jones’ afternoon, however, was over as he was forced off with a hamstring strain.
It was their 20th conceded this season from a set-piece - among the worst teams in the division and an Achilles heel Barton will need to find the remedy for if they are to progress next season.
What the Gas do possess, though, is an attacking threat and the lead lasted barely three minutes as the Gas drew level via a set-piece of their own. Rovers took it short with Sam Finley sending in a teasing ball which Ricardo Santos missed completely, the ball zipped through and struck the face of the post for Hoole to then gratefully head in.
Victor Adeboyejo caused Rovers, and specifically Jarell Quansah issues, with the Liverpool loanee fortunate not to be booked for a quite blatant shirt tug on halfway as the Bolton forward turned him and looked to gallop clear. He was free of the defence not long after, breaking the offside trap before rolling a pass into Shoretire who took a first time shot only to be brilliantly denied by a diving block by Antony Evans.
And moments before half-time, Adeboyejo sprinted onto a long ball in between Lewis Gordon and Lewis Gibson, drilling an immediate shot which beat Belshaw but kissed the outside of the far post.
But the best move of the half came from the hosts as a wonderful first-time ball by Collins had Scott Sinclair sprinting away down the right, he looked up and picked out an unmarked Coburn with a pinpoint cross. The on-loan Boro striker connected with his head but struck the crossbar, the ball rebounding kindly to Ward but somehow he was thwarted by Joel Dixon in the Bolton goal.
That moment also proved Coburn’s last of the afternoon as the striker did not re-appear for the second half after colliding with a Bolton player immediately after clattering the upright. After the break another sweeping Rovers move, this time sparked by Quansah
from deep, fed Lewis Gordon down the left whose cross picked out the advancing Evans but his volley was deflected wide.
Bolton manager Ian Evatt emptied his bench to try and preserve some energy levels and that disruption allowed Rovers to take a degree of control in the game, but former Cheltenham forward Dan N’lundulu soon proved problematic for the hosts.
A long ball forwards was weakly headed into his path and he took his chance on the run, beating Belshaw from 20 yards as he tucked the shot into the far corner. Collins then stung Dixon’s palms with a strong effort and Marquis could not convert the rebound but Aaron
Morley then put the result beyond doubt with the best goal of the game.
Bolton worked it from left to right and a short pass was played into Morley who cut inside, looked up, and then bent a strike around Belshaw and into the top corner.
Barton’s response was to make a raft of substitutions with Ellery Balcombe, as he returns to Brentford on loan, and the retiring Glenn Whelan among the new faces but despite the changes the Gas did not reduce the deficit.
Calum Macdonald wriggled into space down the left and drilled a cross into Collins whose deflected first-time shot beat Dixon but did not quite reach its intended destination with Marquis on hand to toe it over the line.
Rovers pushed for an equaliser in injury time, with Whelan replaced to a standing ovation, and Scott Sinclair nearly added a storybook end to his and the Gas’ season as he rattled the crossbar from Collins’ inside pass. But it was not to be, and Barton and the Gas hierarchy will now consider how best to make the next step into the realms of what Bolton have in front of them this month.
Bristol Rovers: Belshaw, Hoole, Quansah, Gibson, Gordon, Evans Finley, Grant Ward, Sinclair, Coburn, Collins.
Subs: Connolly Marquis, MacDonald, Bogarde, McCormick, Whelan, Balcombe. Bolton: Dixon, Toal, Santos, Johnston, Jones, Sheehan Thomason, John, Morley, Adeboyejo, Shoretire.
Subs: Michael Williams, Charles, N’Lundulu, Lee, Kachunga Randell Williams, Jerome.