After two consecutive 2-0 defeats, Bristol Rovers stopped the rot against Portsmouth in an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Memorial Stadium last Saturday, writes Steve Knowlson.

For much of the contest it looked like we were going to fall to a third defeat in a row, but this was a far more determined performance than the recent outings against Doncaster and Bolton and the whole team kept going until the very end.

Graham Coughlan dropped misfiring striker Tom Nichols to the bench and started loanees Tyler Smith and Victor Adeboyejo up front with Jonson Clarke-Harris side-lined by injury until the middle of November.

The Gas faithful welcomed back former Rovers favourites Lee Brown and Ellis Harrison with the Pompey squad and it was the visitors who struck first from the penalty spot after Luke Leahy was judged to have pushed John Marquis in the back. It was a soft decision but Gareth Evans made no mistake from 12 yards.

Rovers worked hard in the first half but failed to test the visiting keeper and fell further behind in the second 45 after Ronan Curtis planted a powerful header from close range to put the visitors two up and seemingly cruising toward all three points.

Alex Rodman reduced the arrears with a well-taken shot in the 78th minute and the introduction of fit-again midfielder Liam Sercombe added that extra bit of quality that Rovers had been lacking as we pushed for an equaliser.

Three minutes into injury time it was Sercombe’s well-taken corner that caused mayhem in the Portsmouth six-yard box as the ball went in off the unfortunate visiting keeper McGillivray to send the home fans wild. Rovers had rescued a point and scored two goals despite only having a single shot on target!

It was a hard-fought point won by gritty determination and a never-say-die attitude but in truth it papered over the cracks of a performance short on quality and lacking a cutting edge up front. In Clarke-Harris’s absence we need one of our three fit strikers to start finding the back of the net in the very near future, starting this Saturday with an away trip to Rochdale.