Bristol Rovers 0-0 Scunthorpe United (League Two)

The Gas drew 0-0 with Scunthorpe United at the Mem this afternoon in a game that won't live too long in the memory. That's not to say that it was a boring spectacle but the lack of action in front of both goals will ensure this match is forgotten about in a few games' time.

Lockyer was a key man today - Lifted from: bristolrovers.co.uk

The big question for Gasheads was whether John Ward would opt for the 4-5-1 formation that offered plenty of encouragement against Watford in midweek or whether he plumped for a more traditional 4-4-2. He stuck with the former as he was unable to welcome back any of the injured players to his squad and felt the best way of going about Scunthorpe was to pack the midfield. Tom Lockyer, who impressed on his full debut on Tuesday, retained a starting spot in central midfield in an unchanged XI.

Rovers started brightly with a few pieces of energetic approach play involving Eliot Richards and David Clarkson. For the positive intent that was evident, Sam Slocombe in the Scunny goal wasn't tested, a trend that continued for the entire 90 minutes frustratingly. There was a good tempo to our play initially and gaps were appearing in the away defence but unfortunately Ellis Harrison was unable to use his pace to get in behind. While the Iron showed resilience and good organisation it was certainly Rovers who would have been happier quarter of an hour in - until the injury curse that has blighted the club for 12 months struck again.

The experienced Deon Burton jumped for a header with defender Tom Parkes and elbowed him in the back of the head. The moment the Rovers captain lost the header he staggered a couple of paces to his left, visibly in trouble, before collapsing to the ground. He was momentarily unconscious and the referee immediately brought proceedings to a halt in order to call medical attention. After a fashion the stretcher was brought on and Parkes was carried off the field and it meant Ward needed to make a decisive call on who would take his place. The impressive Lockyer was told to partner Mark McChrystal in central defence and his fellow U18 graduate Alefe Santos was brought on out wide, pushing Clarkson into the middle.

You feared at this point that our experienced visitors would go on and take the initiative and make life difficult for Lockyer at the back but that didn't happen. The composed youngster slotted into the role seamlessly and didn't give Burton or Sam Winnall a sniff all afternoon. This allowed Rovers to concentrate on keeping the ball but there was an edginess to our play in the final third that prevented us from creating shooting opportunities. Clarkson came close with a right footed shot that drifted wide of Slocombe's near post late in the half but instead of prompting Rovers into life it served to wake up Scunthorpe's slumbering midfield.

The Iron took control for the final 5 minutes or so and penned our back four firmly on the edge of the penalty box. Winnall struck the outside of the post following a corner that wasn't cleared and moments later midfielder Terry Hawkridge struck a sweet shot against the other post. From nowhere Scunthorpe suddenly looked particularly menacing and can count themselves unlucky not to have gone in front. Ward will have been happy the half-time whistle sounded when it did as it gave his team the chance to take a breather and re-group.

Fortunately the second half didn't continue in the same vain but it can't be said that Rovers looked any better going forwards. Other than a couple of low Richards crosses that forced corners we didn't look like scoring and it put a lot of pressure on our back-line to keep a clean sheet. Former Scunny loanees McChrystal and Steve Mildenhall were playing well to deny their ex-team any real opportunities, although a close-range header was well tipped over by Mildenhall midway through the half. As time went on Brian Laws' team kept possession a lot better and had one or two efforts that drifted just wide of the woodwork. We never really looked in any danger of conceding but those shots did remind us all that we needed to stay focussed until the very end of the game if we wanted to earn a point.

There was plenty of perseverance and desire in the Rovers team but Santos, the quiet John-Joe O'Toole and Richards struggled to make anything stick up top. You couldn't fault their work-rate but it just wasn't coming off and it was clear for everyone to see that we missed the likes of Matt Harrold and Ryan Brunt. Shaquille Hunter and Mitch Harding were given run-outs late on but couldn't contribute a goal threat and the game ended in a hard-fought draw.

Ward will be by far the happier of the two managers this Saturday night considering the circumstances and he'll be hoping to rest his players leading into next weekend's massive Severnside derby with Newport County. Scunthorpe will return north disappointed not to have won the game but a point on the road is never a bad result. For Gasheads, we can take great pride in the fact we held a good side to a 0-0 draw without 10 first team players and use that to give us renewed belief that we have enough about our squad to pick up points while the injured continue their recoveries. It's not ideal and I have no doubts we'd all prefer to have all our players available now but we haven't been dealt any luck recently and just have to get on with it. We have a platform off which we can look to build a run of form now, beginning with Newport next Saturday.