The two reasons Bristol Rovers could survive relegation battle

In my time covering Bristol Rovers since the turn of the year, I have seen some good performances and some not-so-good performances. But last night I witnessed something outstanding.

Amid the misery among Gasheads as they headed home following a heartbreaking defeat, there was reason to be cheerful and it came in the shape of Rovers starlet Kofi Shaw and striker Gatlin O’Donkor.

The forward pair showed they are right up for the fight of leading Rovers fight against relegation so all is not lost despite a third defeat on the spin. And should Rovers boss Inigo Calderon harness their attacking prowess, there is every chance the Pirates could have an upturn in fortunes in this season’s run-in.

Resilience

Most fans heading into last night would have been expecting a defeat against league leaders Birmingham City, However it was nothing like that. For 95 minutes, The Gas showed that they can compete and make life difficult for any team at the Memorial Stadium and O’Donkor and Shaw embodied that resilience.

The question that most fans will probably be wondering is where has that level of performance been for much of the season, apart from when Rovers are pitting their wits against the top teams such as Wrexham, Stockport, Huddersfield and Bolton.

After a shaky couple of minutes to start with where they conceded early again just like they did in the home defeat against Mansfield Town, it was clear to see heart and fightback in this Rovers side which gave the fans something to cheer.

Across the game, Jed Ward was kept very quiet in the net only having to make one real save early in the second half. After being the masters of their own downfall against Mansfield last Saturday it was a return to normality for the goalkeeper and back four.

Ruel-ing class

Although it wasn't a game filled with many chances, Rovers still had the better chances and joint top goal scorer Ruel Sotiriou had two good chances. One in the first half and one in the second half, the sort of opportunities we’ve seen him put away before in recent weeks.

The worrying thing is, that despite the good performance for Rovers, they still came away with zero points. Relegation rivals Burton Albion secured a vital three points in a home win against Leyton Orient to crank up the pressure on Rovers.

Shaw thing

With a tough away fixture at Bolton Wanderers this Saturday, Calderon needs to find a way to stop the rot and side need to start picking up points and fast but with Shaw and O’Donkor spearheading the relegation battle, anything is possible.

And it was with the trip up to Greater Manchester that Calderon took off both players early during the defeat by Birmingham.

"We were worried that O'Donkor couldn't start today because of his history with injuries,” a downcast Calderon told reporters after the Blues loss. “So he played on Saturday and we were thinking to maybe rest him today, but we cannot rest too many players so we forced him a little bit. But I thought he was excellent today. Last game, I was not too happy with him. I had a chat with him and I was quite pleased with his performance.

“It was same with Kofi as well. I took off Kofi because of the yellow card. This game of emotion with the yellow card, against the top teams, against the referee, otherwise he would have been on the field because he can still produce things.” The travelling Gasheads will be hoping that’s the case this weekend as Rovers’ relegation fight which is approaching a tense finale.