Joey Barton urged his players at half time to create another memorable Mem moment against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, and they responded with a scintillating performance to come back from two goals down to draw 2-2.
The Gas and League One leaders played out a thrilling contest in BS7, with little to separate the sides in the first half other than two magnificent goals for the visitors. Finn Azaz – a transfer target for Rovers in the summer – curled in a sublime opener from an improbable angle in the 14th minute before Adam Randell doubled the lead with a thumping long-range strike in first-half stoppage time.
Rovers were not poor in the first half, but their performance levels were transformed after the interval. The decision to deploy winger Harry Anderson as a full-back and introduce striker Josh Coburn from the bench reaped instant rewards, with Anderson playing Aaron Collins into the right channel and Coburn bundled home the Welshman's cross within two minutes of coming on.
Collins got the equaliser just before the hour, prodding home after brilliant work from the outstanding Ryan Loft, and the Gas were the likelier of the two sides to win it, but in the end both Barton and Argyle manager Steven Schumacher had to settle for a point.
"It was a great game and a fantastic advert for League One football and South West football as well," Barton said. "The fans have turned up in their numbers and given amazing support, both sets of fans, and I think they’ve been rewarded with a fantastic game which was in the balance for most of the second half.
"Really pleased in terms of getting back in it after being two down against the team at the top of the pile, but a tad frustrated because we feel we should have beaten them today."
Barton says his players believed they were a match for table-topping Argyle in the dressing room at half time, despite being two goals behind, and he challenged them to add another chapter to the special moments at the Mem under his tenure – a list that includes the thrilling comeback win over Oxford United in the FA Cup 11 months ago and the 7-0 beating of Scunthorpe United in May to clinch promotion.
"It was our first real acid test at the Mem in terms of a top side coming here and we’ve got enough confidence and enough of the real components now to feel this is a really good examination of us." he said. "We find ourselves 2-0 down at half time through two world-class strikes – the first one was worth the admission fee alone – and it is compounded when we go through with a fantastic chance ourselves and we don’t put it away.
"And just before half time, they scored another really good goal. Is spoke to the boys at half time and I said ‘Where do you feel we are?’ and we felt we weren’t a million miles away. We felt if anything, we were probably the better side in the first half, albeit we were 2-0 down, and we said how incredible the fans had been even when we were behind.
"We were shooting to the Thatchers and memorable moments of this group of players have been quite frequent in my time here. I said ‘Let’s create another one’.
"You see two things: opportunity, or threat. I felt it was an opportunity for our lads to put another memorable moment into the Mem.
"We were not downtrodden or disappointed, albeit we were losing the game, and we felt if we got the next goal the Gasheads would get with us and we felt we would have a lot of momentum and it would make it difficult for them.
"As luck would have it, Azza puts a great ball in and Josh Coburn does what all great centre-forwards do. He put his body on the line to get himself in the scoring column.
"After that, I felt there was only one team that was going to win it and our second goal is as good as any of theirs in terms of team play and a good finish from Aaron.
"We’re scaring their goal and the keeper has to make one save from Bobby Thomas. We just couldn’t manage to get that extra goal to put the game to bed."
The Gas are 13th in League One with 19 points from 15 games, stretching their unbeaten run in the third tier to five games.
Barton says his players are full of confidence after a seven-game unbeaten run in all competitions, and that was only heightened by the way they put Argyle under huge pressure in the second half. The manager is relishing the test of Sheffield Wednesday in front of the Sky Sports cameras at Hillsborough on Wednesday evening.
"I’ve known that (we were a good side) even when we had a lot of players out," he said. "We knew we were a decent side.
"The past few weeks for us were establishing ourselves as a League One side against teams that if you finish above, you’ve got a really good chance of staying up, your Exeters, Cheltenhams, MK Dons, Cambridge.
"Now we knew we were going to face the top boys in the division, league leaders today, Sheffield Wednesday on Wesnesday and Derby. We said this will be the acid test for our group. We’ve drawn a game today and we can take lots of positives from that and I’m looking forward to the challenge of Hillsborough on Wednesday night."
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