ROVERS head for Southend tonight for the second time in a month, looking to put one over in-form United, now second in the table and into the LDV Vans Trophy final in Cardiff next Sunday at Rovers' expense.

The 2-2 draw in the southern area final was not good enough but showed Rovers are more than capable of dealing with the better sides and getting goals, though they will have to show less frailty at the back.

Manager Ian Atkins shook his head in disbelief after Easter games that earned four points and said: "We've scored 21 goals in the last dozen games and won only two of them!" Down to the fact that they conceded 22.

Saturday's 2-1 success at Notts County was only Rovers' third away league win of the season and their first since August. Despite one of their brighter starts, Rovers found themselves behind after nine minutes but came back just before the break with Junior Agogo's 20th strike of the season following Robbie Ryan's cross, though there looked more than a shade of an own goal about it.

After 53 minutes, in-form Richard Walker scored what turned out to be the winner from an Aaron Lescott cross but then Rovers had to withstand late home pressure, including a goal-line clearance by Ryan.

Play-off chasing Darlington took just 42 seconds to find the net at the Memorial Stadium on Monday and then hit the bar before ball-winning determination by Ryan led to Walker levelling in stoppage time after Agogo's effort had been blocked. But for most of the opening half Rovers were dreadful.

Lescott looked harshly penalised five minutes after the restart for Craig Hignett to score from the spot and youngster Jason St'Juste grabbed a dramatic solo to put Darlington well in command despite much more purposeful stuff from Rovers. For the second home match in succession Rovers came back from two behind to rescue a point through a Steve Elliott header from a Ryan Williams corner and a second from Walker after good work by Ryan, Agogo and Williams. Then again, as in the Mansfield game, Rovers squandered good chances to grab victory.

"In the end we should have won," admitted Atkins, who again lauded a come-back but rued goals conceded that he described as "shockers". He added: "Probably at the moment we haven't enough people who want to take responsibility to grab hold of people and shake them up when needed."

Atkins knows his side must consistently start better. It appears he could do worse than convince them they are two down before the kick-off!