Report by Jon Green

Rovers exited the FA Trophy after defeat at home to Slimbridge on Saturday afternoon.

The hosts had opened the season with two defeats but an improved second hand performance against Dorchester on Tuesday evening gave supporters hope that things were moving in the right direction. However, Rovers succumbed to another limp defeat that left the same supporters walking away scratching their heads.

The opening minutes saw Slimbridge with the first chances but left Archie Matthews, in the Rovers net, untested. Rovers rallied a little and chances fell for Dylan Gould and Will Osborne.

But the half was a rather stale affair with neither team really producing much decent football. The deadlock was broken with a tasty freekick taken from distance by Joseph Stokes. Matthews got his hand to the ball but couldn’t stop the ball hitting the top corner.

Much like Tuesday’s game, Rovers came out in the second half with more purpose and took the lions share of possession for the opening fifteen to twenty minutes. In the 54th minute, Will Osborne headed a corner firmly at the back post but a defender stopped it on the line. This was soon followed by a chance for Darren McAlastair but his shot was saved. Osborne had another header from a corner saved on the line in the 64th minute.

That was the closest the home team came to scoring in the half. Should one of those chances had gone in we may have had a different game. As it was, much like Tuesday, the game was killed off by Slimbridge who’d not tested Matthews in the second half to that point.

Ex-Rovers loanee, Olly Sully, took a shot in the 81st minute that Matthews had to parry but the ball went straight to Joseph Shutt to slam the ball having only just arrived on the field. It was the short of break Rovers haven’t had in the opening games of the season.

Paulton need to start putting away those chances to get their season rolling!