You’d have been forgiven for thinking we were in the delights of spring at the sun drenched Glanford Park on Saturday lunchtime. Rovers clearly wanted to make hay while the sun shone, as they started brightly in the first half.
Mallik Wilks put in a blinding performance in the League Cup game against Scunthorpe back in August and appeared keen to do so again. He looked a threat all half and was rewarded with a neat first-time finish to put Rovers ahead on 25 minutes when a ball in from Herbie Kane aimed for Ali Crawford found its way to Wilks’ feet just inside the box.
Rovers had several decent chances to extend their lead, but failed to do so. The best of them falling to John Marquis around three yards from goal, however he somehow contrived to miss the target, managing to scoop the ball over the bar; quite a feat.
These untaken chances – couple with what must be said was a rather lacklustre Rovers performance after the break – proved costly in the end as Scunthorpe came back into the game in the second half.
The equaliser came twenty minutes from time, after a swinging ball into the box from Tony McMahon caused some hesitation in the Rovers defence and was headed home by Kyle Wootton.
The cliché of ‘a game of two halves’ could definitely be used for this one.
by Adam Bates
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