ROVERS succumbed to another home defeat on Saturday with high-flying Portsmouth in town.
Darrell Clarke made two changes to the side that drew with Plymouth last weekend, with wing back Daniel Leadbitter recovering from his hamstring injury and last weekend’s goalscorer Ellis Harrison starting in place of Matty Taylor who dropped to the bench.
Rovers started brightly with a couple of half chances for Harrison and Easter before Pompey started to exert some pressure, with Lee Nicholls in the Rovers goal called into action on a couple of occasions.
On 29 minutes Portsmouth took the lead. A ball into the penalty area caused trouble for the Gas defence and Gareth Evans arrived to head past Nicholls.
Rovers responded strongly forcing the visiting ‘keeper into a couple of saves as the game ebbed and flowed to the break.
Rovers scored shortly after the restart from a Jermaine Easter shot which hit the underside of the bar, off the ‘keeper and into the net.
Easter struck the woodwork again before Portsmouth scored the winning goal 20 minutes from the end, Jordan Stockley prodding home from close range.
It was a good game of football played in front of marginally more than 8,500 fans, but yet again the inability to score enough goals combined with some sloppy defending cost Rovers dear.
Tuesday night saw one of the longest away days for Gasheads as an intrepid band of 200 made the 550-mile round trip to Hartlepool — and they were richly rewarded for their efforts.
Clarke made five changes, including the return of Mark McChrystal as skipper. Rovers swept aside Hartlepool 3-0 in a confident and accomplished performance with Taylor, Billy Bodin and Easter all finding the back of the net as we secured a vital three points and moved up to 14th in League Two.
Next up is another long away trip as Rovers take on Morecambe at the Globe Arena on Saturday (3pm start).