STARLET ELLIS IS CLARKE’S ‘WINNER’
BRISTOL Rovers starlet Ellis Harrison showed he is quickly adapting to life on League Two, and manager Darrell Clarke admits the 21-year-old is a great player to have around.
Harrison, who played a starring role last season as Rovers returned to the Football League at the first attempt, bagged a late winner against ten-man Yeovil Town to clinch their first league win of the season.
He made it two goals in as many games as he broke Yeovil’s resistance with just two minutes left to fire Rovers to victory.
A man-of-the-match display from home keeper Artur Krysiak looked set to deny the Pirates as he made impressive saves to keep out efforts from Harrison, Ollie Clarke and Matty Taylor.
But after Yeovil midfielder Matty Dolan was sent off for his second bookable offence, Harrison blasted past Krysiak from close range.
Rovers boss Clarke said: “As the game went on we wondered if it wasn’t going to be our day but then Ellis pops up with a great strike.
“We kept probing, committed more men forward and finally the ball fell for Ellis to smash the ball past their keeper, who had a great game and pulled off some great saves.
“It was a quality strike from a young lad who is improving all the time. I keep whacking him round the head now and then to keep him in check but he works hard and he’s a winner. I love winners.
“I think I’ve got a team of winners and you could see the effort they put in out there to make sure we got the three points.”
Rovers dominated the first half but saw the outstanding Krysiak, who arrived at Huish Park from Exeter City last summer, keep them out with a series of fine saves.
He tipped over a 20-yard shot from Harrison before repeating the trick to keep out a similar effort from Clarke.
Then Taylor broke clear, only to be denied by Krysiak, before Chris Lines’ looping corner was cleared off the line by a Yeovil defender.
Having been booked in the first half, Dolan was sent off on 65 minutes after receiving a second yellow card for a trip on Daniel Leadbitter, leaving the Glovers up against it.
And Rovers finally made their numerical advantage count when Lee Brown headed across goal for Harrison to smash a shot into the top corner, giving the impressive Krysiak no chance.
Yeovil have now lost all three games this season and boss Paul Sturrock is dealing with a lengthy injury list.
Sturrock said: “Our goalkeeper was man of the match and that tells a story. We are a very inexperienced team and we’re trying to find our feet.
“We’ve got a lot of injuries and players are being forced to play out of position to compensate for that.
“Rovers deserved to win. They were the better side over the 90 minutes and the red card was the final nail in the coffin for us.
“Everything seems to be going against us at the moment. Our job is to win football matches and things aren’t going our way.”