Balanta hopes to have done enough on his return to action at Dartford to retain his place when Bristol Rovers play at the Memorial Stadium for the first time in more than five weeks on Saturday. Balanta came off the bench at Princes Park to replace Jermaine Easter after only eight minutes of Saturday's 2-2 draw, to play for the first time since he was replaced before half-time against Gateshead on December 19. A knee injury means Easter may be struggling to play any part again when Lincoln City provide the opposition at the Memorial Stadium for the first home game since New Year's Day, and Balanta said: "The conditions weren't the best, but I was just pleased to be back out on the pitch playing after six weeks without a game. With Jermaine (Easter) getting injured I thought the gaffer might go like-for-like and put Ellis (Harrison) on, and in some senses I was surprised when he called me out. Anyone who was there could see that the pitch was horrible, but I thought I played maybe a six or seven out of ten and I'd like to think I have done enough to have another chance. You never know what the gaffer will do because we have a good squad here and there is competition for places. It has been a fresh week for everyone and I've worked hard on the training pitch so I'm hoping to be picked again. I've been back in training properly for the last two or three weeks and I feel good. My time here has been a bit stop-start, but I am always positive and I hope that is all behind me now." Rovers, meanwhile, spurned an opportunity to narrow the gap on Vanarama Conference leaders Barnet to five points by dropping two points on a horrendous pitch against Tony Burman's relegation strugglers. Darrell Clarke's side were forced to settle on reducing the deficit to seven points with 14 games of the campaign left to play, but Balanta said: "Football is a very tricky game to predict. You can't make definitive judgements based on the fact that we have dropped a couple of points in one game. Anything can happen towards the end of the season when the pressure of challenging for promotion or fighting against relegation can really throw up some unexpected results. It is disappointing to go and play a part-time team and not come away with three points, but we mustn't be too despondent. The only thing we can do is dust ourselves down and go again ready for when we play Lincoln on Saturday." Taken from the Post
Not sure about Balanta - we do need to see more from him really, but so far its not looking great from him
