Basildon United made the short trip down the A127 for this ESL encounter and despite Southend United being at home the fixture attracted our highest home attendance, 126, of the season. In fact approximately another 40+ entered at half time hopefully as a result of the start of the "Our Village, Our Club" campaign that has recently started.
Those in attendance witnessed the proverbial 'Game of two halves' as the game became the hard fought tussle most expected.
Basildon started the better of the two and in the first 10 minutes it was one way traffic with a shot from Terry Martin going over on 4 minutes, a succession of corners, and shots from Ben Sartain and Emoka Owunbiko giving cause for concern.
It wasn't until 10 minutes that Rovers had their first real sight of goal as Jay Smith lined up a shot which was blocked well by John Sinnott. As the ball was played back in Sinnott clearly used knees and hands to control the ball however referee Gerry Heron waved play on. A poor decision we felt.
Rovers began to make some in roads with Nick Skelton firing straight at Steve Brown from close range on 15 minutes after a long Stuart Hepburn throw and Dan Trenkel flick.
Rovers won a free kick soon after. Collins took it however it went behind to give possession back the the Bees.
As the half wore on there were little in the way of chances until 30 minutes when a great Billy Radley run and cross was met by the head of Trenkel only for his header to go just over.
Almost straight away Basildon attacked with Tyler Hayes trying his luck from long distance only for Dale Brightly to produce a fine save tipping the ball over.
Joe Skeels was booked on 32 minutes after a crude challenge on Greg Akpele and after the scramble from the free kick Hayes shot hit the post and was cleared by Stuart Hepburn who was injured in the process. Hepburn struggled on however left the action later in the half with potentially a broken bone in his foot ( as we now know the diagnosis is a badly bruised foot). He was replaced by James Pugsley.
On 38 minutes Rovers had what appeared yet another clear cut penalty turned down after Dan Trenkel was brought down. The referee adjudged the Boss to have dived however if this was the case he should be booked but a card was not shown. Another poor decision from the officials not to award the penalty.
The game swung back to the visitors and on 40 minutes Ben Sartain struck a superb 25 yard shot which arrowed past Dale Brightly into the left hand corner of the net. This put the Bees 1-0 up which they had deserved and that's how it ended at half time.
The second half saw the home side in the ascendancy as the half time team talk clearly fired them up.
Billy Radley was getting some success down the right hand side with some tricky runs and had a shot saved. Lewis Sparrow went close from the resulting corner with his effort going just wide.
Rovers were forced into a change after Joe Skeels was injured in a challenge on 55 minutes. Billy Johnson came on for his first appearance in two months due to injury and Joe unfortunately left the ground on crutches and we are still waiting for an update on the severity of his ankle injury.
On 56 minutes Rovers had a great chance after great work by Trenkel on the right gave the Boss the chance to put the ball into the box for the incoming Max Kent who couldn't quite reach it.
Radley was having some more joy with run and shots on 60 and 61 minutes with the latter flooring media team member Graham Boosey behind the goal. Worryingly the person who laughed the most was his Dad. We then placed Graham centrally behind the goal to see if that would help the shots hone in on him.
Basildon made a change on 63 minutes with Brad Williams coming on for Greg Akpele.
Rovers continued to press and had several scrambles in the box but the ball just would not bounce their way and we were beginning to feel it wasn't going to be.
If Rovers did find their way through they found an inspired Steve Brown in the Bees goal stopping everything as he did from Radley, Collins, Skelton, and Trenkel.
Rovers made a change on 75 with Sammy Knott replacing Gary Paterson.
Ben Sartain had a shot go close on 82 which would've sealed it however it went agonisingly wide.
The visitors made a change on 83 with Tom Cocklyn coming off and Angelo Ogunseye coming on.
In the last minute of the game with time running out the ball was played into the Basildon goalmouth only for Tyler Hayes to inexplicably stop the ball with his hand. Referee Heron had no option but to finally award Rovers the penalty and surely send Hayes off. He did 50% of the job only showing Hayes a yellow card.
Dave Collins showed his mettle and stepped up to take the game saving penalty. Dave struck it well to Browns left and although he went the right way the placement was superb and it was all square at 1-1.
The game re started however full time was blown soon after and as player Boss Trenkel said "We played our get out of jail free card" and he was dead right although 1-1 seemed a fair result in the end.
Rovers stay top and the next action at Burroughs is in the FA Vase v Hullbridge on December 7th with a place in the last 32 at stake.