For Rovers’ Manager Brian Little and his beleaguered side, things don’t get any better as an improved performance resulting from a change in formation still proved fruitless as Rovers yet again left Ashton Gate empty handed.

Rovers perhaps had the better of the first half, including a disallowed goal from Chris Greenacre but in the end, as was the case at Huddersfield and Nottingham Forest, a second half goal by the home side proved to be the difference between the two sides as Rovers returned to Prenton Park pointless yet again and increased the pressure on manager Brian Little.

Little made two changes to the personnel of the team from the side that lost 2-0 at home to Scunthorpe but the biggest change was in the formation as he opted for a 3-4-3 formation.  Calvin Zola returned to the Rovers starting line-up after a prolonged absence with a broken foot and joined Greenacre and Facey in a three-pronged attack in the absence of captain Jason McAteer who was suspended but is now also injured. 

The other change saw Gareth Roberts return from injury on the left side of midfield in place of Carl Tremarco.  Alex Bruce was moved up into right midfield, with Steve Jennings and Mark Rankine in the centre.  Reserve goalkeeper Steve Wilson lost his place on the bench as Little chose instead to have five outfield players.

Rovers started extremely brightly and had three good opportunities to score in the opening seven minutes.  The first chance created by a Gareth Roberts free-kick fell to Ian Sharps who sliced his shot wide after two minutes.  After four minutes, a sloppy backpass from a Bristol City defender saw Chris Greenacre nip in and cross from the by-line but Facey couldn’t reach it as the ball was intercepted.

Calvin Zola had a good chance cut out by the defence on seven minutes before the visitors got their first chance just a minute later but Mike Jackson cleared the danger.  Rovers continued to create chance after chance with Zola, Facey and Greenacre all having several opportunities in the opening half hour.

In fact Greenacre thought he had his seventh goal of the season for Rovers after 20 minutes with a great finish but the goal was ruled out for offside.  Rovers finished the half the better side but almost went in 1-0 down when Murray broke clear.  However, under the watchful eye of his international manager John Toshack, Gareth Roberts was alert to the danger and did enough to put the player off his shot which sailed wide.

Both sides continued to exchange chances in the second half with Rovers having a great chance after just 45 seconds of the half but Facey’s cross was parried clear by the goalkeeper.

On 63 minutes, Theo Whitmore replaced Calvin Zola and just two minutes later the home side took a lead that they didn’t really deserve after Rovers and been the more dominant force in the game.  Luke Wilkshire fired a shot on goal that rebounded straight back to him off a post and he made no mistake from the rebound comfortably beating Achterberg.

Despite the blow of conceding a goal, Rovers were still the better side and after Summerbee and Aiston had replaced Goodison and Rankine with just over ten minutes remaining, boththe substitutes were involved in further chances for Rovers. Greenacre headed over the bar from Aiston’s cross and Nicky Summerbee fired a 25 yard free-kick just wide of goal towards the end.

So despite what may be Rovers best performance for some time, certainly in terms of goal scoring chances, they still failed  to score for the fourth game in a row and left for home with no points again.  What is worse is that draws for both Milton Keynes Dons and Blackpool lifted them above Rovers in the league table leaving Brian Little’s men second from bottom.

The debate will rage on about whether Brian Little’s time as Rovers manager is coming to an end but failure to win on Saturday at home to Colchester United will surely make things a whole lot worse for him.  Another performance like today though and a win is a great possibility next week.

The Team Line-Ups

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