For nearly four months, the fixtures had been relentless, with two games to contend with almost every week and an unforgiving festive period. So it was something of a shock to the system that Rovers would only take to the field twice more in January after the win at Nuneaton. Neither of these fixtures were at home, meaning there was a gap of some 36 days between the New Year’s Day draw with Torquay United and the visit of Lincoln City on the first Saturday of February. The main reason for this was being out of the FA Trophy, while some of our scheduled opponents were still competing in that tournament, which was eventually won by North Ferriby United in dramatic circumstances. The trip to Woking on January 18 always looked a tricky game, as the home side harboured play-off ambitions of their own and had prolific former Rovers loanee Scott Rendell in their ranks. The game ended goalless, a result which pleased some supporters for one reason or another, but the two points dropped meant that we could not continue to make inroads on Barnet. If that result was acceptable, the ensuing one at lowly Dartford two weeks later certainly was not, as Rovers twice squandered the lead to draw 2-2, a minor capitulation which led to Darrell Clarke’s only really critical post-match interview of the season, blaming naivety rather than a breathtakingly boggy pitch for the result, with Ryan Hayes twice profiting from our shortcomings to cancel out strikes from Matt Taylor and Ellis Harrison. With Lyle Dalla Verde having left with an injury and David Martin not quite making the grade before leaving at the turn of the year, Leicester City’s Adam Dawson was the latest winger to join the club on loan. After coming off the bench at Dartford, he started for the first time against Lincoln in a fixture that bizarrely saw Rovers playing at home in yellow shirts - a decision made by Darrell Clarke, who was wary of any kit clash. Dawson impressed in what turned about to be one of the easiest wins in recent memory, as a toothless Lincoln came with barely any attacking intent and created just the one opportunity in a game which Rovers dominated to an embarrassing extent. With the woodwork having been hit several times, the biggest shock was that it took 36 minutes for an unerringly accurate Lee Brown free-kick to open the scoring, before Nathan Blissett doubled the lead with a simple finish moments later to round things off. Things promised to be much more difficult when Rovers travelled to Lincoln’s local rivals Grimsby Town a week later, in a meeting of the two sides who looked most likely to catch Barnet for top spot. With the stakes being so high and the two teams so evenly matched, it proved to be a tight affair, but Tom Lockyer’s unorthodox finish gave us one of our most impressive wins of the campaign - not a bad time for the versatile academy graduate to register just his second goal for the club. The next two games were both at home to sides that had beaten us in the early weeks of the season, but victory in each of them would take Rovers to the top of league, albeit having played a game more than Barnet. As our run without defeat in the Conference neared the 20 mark, the team was clearly growing in confidence and the defence was going from strength to strength, but a few doubts still lingered about our attacking play and our Goals For column. The game against in-form Altrincham turned out to be quite a nervy affair as we often struggled for fluency in a scrappy encounter, but our ability to grind out victories was clearly improving as Tom Parkes netted the only goal just before half-time, heading home from a corner. It was a nice goal, but not worthy of its status of being among the club’s top five goals of the season. Dawson’s delivery was good and Parkes met it well, but there were at least a dozen more memorable efforts than that over the course of nine months. Anyway, it brought us a vital win which resulted in a different pressure when Braintree Town visited on Tuesday. This was the chance to move to the summit and that looked to have an effect on some of the players and swathes of supporters, with some edgy play witnessed during the 90 minutes. We appeared to have been given a wonderful chance when the Irons went down to 10 men for a foul which led to Matt Taylor converting from the penalty spot. However, a determined Braintree rallied and Simeon Akinola scored a fine overhead kick to level matters before the break, and as they sat back and aimed to frustrate it seemed as though Rovers lacked the ideas to penetrate a stubborn backline. But Ellis Harrison was the wildcard, and he was on hand to finish when presented with an opening to spark chants of ‘We are top of the League’ around the Memorial Stadium for the first time in many a year. It was the first of several huge goals that a rejuvenated Harrison would score between then and the end of the season, and he was at it again in the North East just four days later as Rovers won another very tricky game against Gateshead to maintain their narrow lead. The Welsh U-21 international seized his chance to lift the ball over goalkeeper Adam Bartlett after the home side had failed to deal with a long kick forward by Steve Mildenhall. This five-match winning run that had propelled Rovers to the top earned Darrell Clarke his second Manager of the Month award. The unbeaten sequence which had lasted since October could not go on forever, but the manner of its passing was a little disappointing as Eastleigh gained what was fully merited win in Bristol to boost their increasing play-off hopes. They dominated from the start and denied Rovers the chance to build any fluency or momentum, although their opening goal came in regrettable circumstances when Steve Mildenhall allowed what looked a harmless free-kick along the ground to slip through his hands. Jack Midson had all the time in the world to make it two in the second half and only the visitors’ wastefulness prevented them from further goals as the Rovers defence seemed uncharacteristically rattled. A fine effort from Matt Taylor made the score-line appear close, but there were no complaints at the final whistle. It was a result and performance which perhaps emphasised that there was still something missing in our squad, and Darrell Clarke made a big statement in the transfer market in his bid to rectify that, signing free agent Jermaine Easter, a player with significant Championship experience who had played for Millwall earlier in the campaign, and bringing Chris Lines back to the club on loan from Port Vale in what was another major coup, as well as a popular move among the fans. The deals did not seem to be having the desired effect with 10 minutes remaining of the next match at FC Halifax Town, with Rovers 2-0 down and staring at another loss. But Lee Brown gave us hope with a powerful strike from the edge of the box, before Lines made full use of his creative talents to pick out Ellis Harrison, who took the most wonderful touch before thundering the ball home in customary style, a strike later named our Goal of the Season. The dramatic point was not enough to retain top spot as Barnet succeeded where we failed against Eastleigh, but it was still a pleasing result as we acknowledged the race for automatic promotion would go all the way. It was Easter’s turn to make his mark as Rovers faced Aldershot on March 21, firing home a loose ball early on to give us the lead. Aldershot levelled as Brett Williams finished well after some defensive indecision from a free-kick, but the slight sense of anxiety that was present at the stadium faded when Andy Monkhouse scored an excellent individual goal to make it 2-1. It was shortly followed by an excellent team goal, as a Tom Parkes pass set Lee Brown away to cross perfectly for an airborne Matt Taylor to turn the ball in and seal another victory. The game was also notable for Will Puddy displacing Steve Mildenhall in goal, a place he would retain for the rest of the season. BT Sport cameras were on hand to capture what promised to be a key game in the promotion race at the end of March, as we faced a Macclesfield Town side that had the second best home record in the Conference (after Rovers). It proved to be a physical encounter - and also quite a frustrating one for the viewing public as we hardly looked capable of making a breakthrough and too many players had an off day in what turned out to be a 0-0 stalemate. Nevertheless, avoiding defeat was the main objective and that was achieved. There was clearly at least one more gear for Rovers to reach for the five regular league games that remained. It was just a case of finding them and taking the race to Barnet as well as we could… To be continued…
