Bristol Rovers 1-0 AFC Wimbledon (League Two)

Tom Hitchcock was Rovers' hero with late winner

Tom Hitchcock scored his first professional goal to earn Rovers all 3 points in a difficult game with struggling AFC Wimbledon. Neal Ardley's men came to the Mem to make life difficult for us and were successful in stifling our forward play until substitute Hitchcock intervened and put his name in the headlines this evening. The result ensures Rovers have mathematically avoided relegation with 4 games to spare and sit just 5 points outside the play-offs, which in itself is a remarkable achievement.

The game was destined, or so we all thought, to end as the York City game did 7 days earlier. Despite an attacking line-up we never really got ourselves in to dangerous positions to truly test goalkeeper John Sullivan. This was in part down to the tricky nature of the dry pitch but mainly because Wimbledon were set up with men behind the ball to compact the space in their final third. Oumare Tounkara and Ryan Brunt, who looked very lively at Dagenham on Easter Monday, did not look quite as menacing and although they worked tremendously hard they found no reward. The first half's best moment from a Rovers perspective was when winger Fabian Broghammer pounced in the box and sent a shot across goal that came back in to play off the post. It came from nothing and offered hope that the game was there for the taking if we were able to put our visitors under more sustained pressure in the second period.

Unfortunately we didn't really do that well enough. To their credit the Wombles kept the ball well in midfield, with ex-Rover Harry Pell orchestrating most attacks, and that prohibited what we were able to do. We never looked in any real danger of conceding but didn't look potent enough to put the ball past Sullivan and claim the 3 points. John Ward threw on Tom Hitchcock in a last effort to win the match and it was to pay off. The ball was played in to the box and Tounkara was able to divert the ball to Hitchcock, who expertly directed the ball in to the bottom corner to send the Mem in to euphoria. The young striker ran and jumped in to the Gasheads in the Blackthorn End to enjoy his first professional goal. The atmosphere had been decent all game but the noise-levels lifted even further as a result, aided by the fact Bristol City were trailing 3-1 to Burnley to all but seal their relegation. It was a real party.

The travelling contingent of Wimbledon fans, who came in impressive numbers, were clearly disheartened by Rovers' late goal but did will their team on as best they could when the ball was in the vicinity. Clayton McDonald, playing in place of the suspended Tom Parkes, was playing superbly alongside stand-in captain Mark McChrystal at the heart of our defence and gave little change to experienced strikers Gary Alexander and Jack Midson. They couldn't create a real effort of note to trouble the returning Steve Mildenhall, which will disappoint Ardley, but that is in no short part down to how we were playing defensively. That was the key today. We weren't playing all that fluently going forward but we gave ourselves a chance by remaining solid, as we have been since John Ward took over. When the final whistle sounded there was a huge sense of delight, relief and hope, feelings that were experienced in the terraces and on the pitch. Following a team huddle the players and management dispersed and paid their respects to Gasheads, who reciprocated. The good feeling around the club was in full-swing once again and under the Bristol sunshine we could all leave the Mem very happy indeed. All of us except Wombles, of course.

We go in to a big game with Bradford City at Valley Parade on Tuesday night with confidence and that should make for a good game considering they still want to make the play-offs. Is it game on for our own top 7 hopes? Ask me on Wednesday.

Up the Gas!