ROVERS got the New Year off to a fantastic start with a thrilling comeback against Portsmouth to secure all three points.

Over 10,000 fans packed into the Memorial Stadium on New Year’s Day to watch a pulsating encounter between the sides.

After two creditable draws away from home over the festive period, it was vital to win this clash to move us away from the bottom-four danger zone.

But we knew it would be tough as Pompey were on an impressive run of form and have had the better of us in recent fixtures.

Rovers started well and enjoyed plenty of attacking play and possession in the first half. Pompey also looked dangerous on the attack but we were defending well and Broadbent was catching the eye some foraging runs forward and resilient defending.

Lines was also influential in midfield, supported by Ollie Clarke who was showing signs of a return to form and the ever-lively Sinclair.

The opening 45 minutes ended goalless but it was entertaining and evenly poised.

The Pirates had faded a little at times in the second half and the injured Broadbent was replaced by Sweeney.

But we were still mounting plenty of attacks and the game was on a knife-edge.

After contributing so much positive play, we suffered a huge setback in the 64th minute as a header was directed past Smith in the Rovers goal to give the opponents the lead.

But the players were undeterred and inspired by the introduction of Sercombe and Harrison from the bench, they threw everything forward in search of the equaliser.

We got our reward in the 84th minute when Sinclair capped an excellent performance by pouncing on a rebound from a Bodin shot to level the scoreline.

We breathed a sigh of relief as a point was the least we deserved from the display, but better was to come.

The Mem erupted as Sercombe scored the winner in the 90th minute with a low shot from 25 yards.

The win lifted us up to 14th and showed the tremendous character of the players, as they performed brilliantly to recover from going a goal down against quality opposition.

They have a well-deserved break now with no game this weekend.