By Steve Knowlson

AN Easter weekend of mixed results left Rovers’ faint play off hopes hanging by a thread.

Good Friday saw a trip across the country to the Priestfield Stadium to play relegation-threatened Gillingham who were desperate for points themselves.

A quiet and evenly-contested first half gave way to a more entertaining second period as Rovers fell behind to Josh Wright’s close range strike just after the hour mark.

Within 10 minutes the Gas were level after Bodin confidently dispatched a penalty awarded after Tom Lockyer was felled in the box. Chasing an equaliser, Rovers poured men forward but we were caught by a classic counter as Cody McDonald scored two injury time goals leaving us on the wrong end of an undeserved 3-1 defeat.

That seemed to be that in terms of Rovers’ chances of a top six finish. However, a tantalising window of opportunity opened with a hard-fought home win against Oldham on Easter Monday.

In a fairly lacklustre game of few clear-cut chances Ellis Harrison’s neat turn and shot after 75 minutes decided the contest, leaving Rovers four points off sixth place with an away trip to Peterborough and an exciting final day entertaining fellow playoff hopefuls Millwall at the Mem still to come.

In reality we’re hoping that Southend, Rochdale and Millwall all slip up to give us any chance of finishing in the playoff places. That’s very unlikely but Gasheads should not be remotely downhearted.

The fact that we’re still competing at this stage of the season in our first term back in the third tier is testament to the excellent work done by Darrell Clarke and his team. We have definitely got our club back and are on target for our best finish and highest average attendance for decades.

Well done to all – let’s carry the momentum into next season, whether it’s in League One -.or perhaps even the Championship!