Frustrated by Fleet

Rovers came in to this game on the back of three straight wins, looking to make it four, but were left frustrated as they were denied twice by the woodwork, twice by the referee and on several other occasions by an inspired Liam Beach in the Fleet goal.

The visitors made the brighter start and stunned the home fans by taking the lead within two minutes of kick-off. A through ball by Cadete found Wilson who broke the offside trap to find himself one on one with Martin Conway. The forward excecuted a composed lob over the on rushing keeper to find the back of the net with what turned out to be Fleet’s only attack of note in the first half. Five minutes later, Jake Newman was played through by Robbie Goodman, but Beach was off his line quickly to smother the danger. Luke Heneghan had a volley saved by Beach moments later before Newman put a free header over the bar. With twenty minutes on the watch, Rovers thought they had levelled when Alex Collard met a corner, only to see the ball rebound off the crossbar and down on to the line before Fleet managed to scramble the ball clear. Heneghan tested Beach again before Jake Newman raced on to a through ball and rounded Beach, only to be hauled down in the box by the keeper. A goal kick was given. Newman was booked for daring to question the call. Benjamin Acquaye, Newman and Seb Simpson all saw efforts saved as the half wore on. Five minutes from the break, Collard bundled a corner goalwards only to see it cleared off the line. Rovers trailed at the break on what seemed to be ‘one of those days’.

Fleet began the second half as they had done the first, although this time the shot was tipped just by Conway. Simpson headed over from a well worked corner before Rovers finally made the breakthrough. Beach’s only mistake of the game saw his poor clearance headed back by Kyal McNulty for Jake Newman, who duly rounded the stranded Beach to level the scores. Midway through the second half Luke Heneghan saw another shot flash just wide of the mark as Rovers looked for the go-ahead-goal. Heneghan then managed to get himself into a prime position following build up play involving Newman and Munashe Sundire, but saw his curled effort fall inches wide. The game then began to unravel as the referee took his chance to steal the show, handing out cards at will and seeming to require help to see which way certain decisions should be given, twice awarding Fleet the ball when it had clearly gone out of play off their players. Fleet were limited to one looping header wide and a tame shot the Conway easily dealt with in the second half, but played to their game plan incredibly well. As the clock ticked into stoppage time, Luke Heneghan put a corner into the box, which was missed by everyone until if arrived with Robbie Goodman, who knew nothing about the chance he had to win the game, the ball hit the full back, then the post, before bouncing behind. In stoppage time, Rovers felt aggrieved that Sundire was penalised for a robust challenge in the middle of the park, this was compounded as a Fleet player ‘evened the score’ with Sundire, flying into a challenge and leaving the defender prone on the turf. Instead of dealing with the incident, the match official blew for full time.

Rovers slip one place in the table with other results in the league going against them and are seven points off the play off places with eight games left to play. Easter Saturday sees Kempston host high-flying Hartley Wintney in a three o’clock kick off.