There has been no shortage of thrilling second halves at the Mem in recent times and Saturday's 2-2 draw for Bristol Rovers against Fleetwood Town continued that trend.
Much like against League One leaders Plymouth Argyle last month, the Gas roared back after a sub-par first half and had their opponents on the ropes. Against Argyle, Rovers pegged them back to 2-2 amid a raucous atmosphere in BS7 and there were similar scenes at the weekend when Joey Barton's side came from a goal down at the interval to lead 2-1 thanks to goals from Josh Coburn and Aaron Collins.
Fleetwood snatched a last-gasp equaliser, with Shaun Rooney heading his second goal of the game in the 99th minute to break Rovers' hearts. Shortly beforehand in stoppage time, Barton was shown a straight red card by referee Robert Madden on an eventful afternoon that was packed with niggle and sub-plots – with so many connections between the two clubs both on the pitch and in the dugout.
But in the aftermath, Celtic legend Brown admitted his team got away with it after wilting under the pressure applied by the 8,619-strong home crowd on Saturday. He said his players were "frightened" by the occasion
“It was a game of two halves if I am being honest,” Brown said. “I thought in the first half we controlled the game, we created a lot of chances and put Bristol Rovers under a lot of pressure. In the second half I think the home fans frightened our lads a little bit and I have to be honest and say they were fantastic (the fans) but our lads didn’t deal with it well and we caused our own problems with sloppy defending and switching off.
“It was more ball watching and not working out where people were but we managed to get through that. We managed to score two goals, and it was about time we scored a late goal, to be honest.
"The subs made an impact, they gave us some more energy and then right at the end, big Roons (Shaun Rooney) managed to flick the ball on and for me it’s just the willingness to go and score a goal.”
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