Rovers Grit Teeth To Grind Out Victory

Another gritty display by Rovers saw them come from behind to grab victory against Heybridge Swifts. A swift opener, timed at just 16 seconds, gave Heybridge a dream start at Burroughs Park, Shamido Pedulo going round Adam Seal to slide the ball into an empty net. Just thre‌e minutes later, Seal was called into action to keep out Pedulo, saving well to his left.

Rovers got back on terms through Billy Radley's deflected shot. The midfielders effort took a nasty deflection off of Damien Green, with keeper Samuel Cowler wrong footed as the ball coasted past his left hand.
Ellis Sands was unlucky not to put Rovers ahead, his free kick tipped over the bar by Cowler just after the half hour mark.

Rovers began to get a grip on the match and were making in-roads down the right through Radley and Ranger, with Johnson and Kent mixing well down the left.

Half Time: Rovers 1 - 1 Heybridge Swifts

The second half, unbelievably, started in the exact same fashion as ex-Rover Billy Hunt grabbed a goal after just 17 seconds to put Heybridge back into the lead.
Rovers, with the wind at their backs were striding forward, with Ranger and Trenkel instrumental in a lot of play and Rovers almost got their rewards 10 minutes into the half when Billy Johnson ran onto a Trenkel flick header, but his shot was straight at the keeper and his rebound found the outside of the post.

Trenkel played provider for Rovers equaliser, his flick on header found Cleaver who calmly feined a shot to the right of Cowler who had started going left. Exactly 10 minutes later, Cleaver was on the scoresheet again as Billy Radley kept the ball in at the near post for Trenkel to fire the ball across the face of the goal where Cleaver slid in to turn the ball over the line.
Tom Ranger fired the ball inches wide of the far post followed by Billy Radley firing wide in a 5 minute spell that had Heybridge on the back foot. Playing into the wind was a hinderance to the Swifts with the wind picking up as the half went on. With 10 minutes remaining Kent almost grabbed his second goal in as many games as a good corner set piece saw him exchange passes with Trenkel, the left backs firing inches past the far post.

One of the final attacks of the half saw Heybridge manager Cliff Akurang header just past the post as the Swifts pushed forward for an equaliser, but it was not to be.

A very entertaining match and once again, Rovers team spirit lifted the players in order to fight back and find the winner to lift the club to 6th place in the league.

Full Time: Rovers 3 - 2 Heybridge Swifts