Barnet 1-1 Bristol Rovers (League Two)

Matt Harrold scored his first of the season at Underhill

Rovers battled back from a goal down to earn themselves their first point of the new season but will feel mightily disappointed not to have taken all three.

A shocking performance first half saw the home side take the lead through Ricky Holmes, in similar circumstances to the way Alfie Potter scored for Oxford on Saturday, 10 minutes in. Despite the ineptitude of our display in the first 45 minutes Barnet rarely threatened Sam Walker in goal. Mark McGhee's half-time team talk was simple - sort your performance out and you can get something from this game. We did exactly that in a much brighter, more creative second period and deservedly got back on level terms through a Matt Harrold header. There was plenty of time for us to go on and win the game but we came up against a goalkeeper who decided to have the game of his life. Liam O'Brien made numerous saves to deny Harrold, David Clarkson, Lee Brown and Wayne Brown which earned himself the man of the match accolade at full-time.

Whilst the 326 travelling Gasheads were pleased with a draw away from home they were frustrated that we were unable to force home our advantage and take a victory back to Bristol. Mark McGhee and the team will have identical feelings but will undoubtedly be buoyed by the improved performance and they can take plenty of confidence going in to our trip to Wycombe on Saturday. If we can pick up a win at Adams Park then our start to the season will look decent, anything less and it will be viewed as a massive disappointment. It'll be a tough game though and we may be without Garry Kenneth, who limped out of the warm-up pre-match tonight. He was due to start alongside debutant Tom Parkes but was unable to take his place in the team and could be absent on Saturday too. This will massively frustrate McGhee as he is clearly keen to get his star centre half out on the pitch sooner rather than later.

Despite his statement on Monday which suggested a striker would not be arriving imminently as Joe Anyinsah and Eliot Richards needed a 'chance', we still lack a goalscorer in our team. I can't see the logic in McGhee's comments after our chase of James Constable all summer so perhaps it's a case of biding our time in the transfer market and delaying hopes of recruiting until some point next week. Hopefully we can obtain clarity on this from his post-match interview which will be made available at some point tomorrow.

So Rovers have their first point of the season away from home. Not bad. Now it's all about continuing our improvement with a positive display and result against Wycombe Wanderers in a few days time.