ROVERS secured a hard-fought victory against Bury on Good Friday but defeat at Fleetwood on Easter Monday all but ended our play-off hopes.

Although Bury came to the Memorial Stadium in bottom place in the division, they put up a valiant show and presented a tough test.

We started slowly and were not at our best as our play lacked any fluency or incisive passing movement.

Bennett looked our liveliest player and was at the heart of all our best moves, showing the trickery and vision that is making him a shrewd acquisition by manager Clarke.

We struggled to create any clear cut openings and although Nicholls was handed a start in a bid to reignite his Rovers career, he failed to show sufficient prowess in front of goal with wasted chances.

Defensively we looked well organised but we didn’t show enough creativity in midfield and it looks like it will take time for winger Mensah to adapt to playing at this level.

Bury went close in the first half but it ended goalless and it was the visitors who took the lead in the 54th minute as Slocombe could do little to keep out a well placed shot.

The Pirates upped their game and Clarke sent on Moore and Telford in place of Mensah and Nicholls to give us fresh impetus.

Telford made an immediate impact as he shot calmly and clinically to level the scoreline in the 65th minute after being set up by Bennett.

Rovers kept up the pressure but it was not until the 85th minute that we made the breakthrough as Bennett was upended in the box and Lines made no mistake with the spot kick.

The win kept us in the hunt for a play-off spot but our hopes were dashed at Fleetwood as we slipped to a 2-0 defeat.

We played well for large spells but were unable to prise open their defence and any thoughts of victory ended with the dismissal of Lines in the second half. An experienced player should know better than to argue with the ref and pick up two needless yellow cards that proved costly.

The result left us 10th in the table and seven points off the top six. We face another tough test on Saturday as promotion-chasing Charlton are the visitors to the Mem.