One of the youngsters, Malachi Hardy, made a miraculous early goal-line clearance to deny Ollie Dewsbury after Ellis Harrison’s effort in the first minute was ruled out for offside – indeed, the hosts were frustrated by the linesman’s flag multiple times throughout the night as we defended dutifully while looking threatening every time we pushed forward.
We broke the deadlock on 10 minutes when Williams-Barnett collected the ball in midfield, he spotted Young off his line but instead of attempting his trademark effort from distance, picked the right pass to Thompson marauding down the left and he finished clinically from the angle. Four minutes later, a fine pass from the superb Reiss Russell-Denny sent Williams-Barnett clean through on goal and he sat Young down at the edge of his area before rolling the ball home. And it got even better within two minutes of that as Oli Irow played Akhamrich down the right and he finished well inside the near post on his right foot.
Our dominance forced Rovers to change shape, but their first goal was of our own making as a mistake at the back allowed Harrison to fire high into the net in first-half stoppage time, reducing our lead to 3-1. Nine minutes after the restart, the hosts pulled another one back when Cavegn got the better of right-back Rowswell and blasted past Archer, although Williams-Barnett almost replied with a dazzling individual moment, sitting a defender down and producing an audacious 360-degree turn to beat advancing keeper Young, only to fire wide as he steadied himself again.
Thompson took matters into his own hands to restore our two-goal cushion on 58 minutes, though, cutting inside from the left and producing a fine finish into the far top corner from a tight angle, right in front of the away end. But Archer’s dismissal after rushing out of his area to challenge the onrushing Howley seven minutes later changed the course of the tie, Hutchinson curling the resulting free-kick home to bring it back to 4-3.
Williams-Barnett tried a lob from distance but saw his effort drift wide, but Rovers had their tails up and after Dewsbury fired over, Cavegn saw off the retreating Jun’ai Byfield before firing home to level the scores with 17 minutes remaining. You’d have fancied Bristol Rovers to win at that stage but Cavegn – twice – and Dewsbury squandered opportunities as our 10 men gave everything to make it to the final whistle and secure a point.
Then came the shootout, with Russell-Denny and Howley firing over the bar as both sides scored three of their first four. Maguire later saved Dewsbury’s kick brilliantly down to his right to give us a chance to win it, but Logan’s attempt was kept out by the foot of Young, who then superbly saved Rowswell’s fierce effort after Taylor Moore had scored to give his side the extra point on offer.
‘The sending-off was a turning point’
Under-21s Coach Wayne Burnett underlined how goalkeeper Archer’s dismissal was a key moment, but said he was proud of the way the team dug in after that, reflecting: “It was a breathtaking start from us, we were 3-0 up in 16 minutes with some excellent football, we conceded a goal just before half-time which gave them a bit of a lift and we knew in the second half that they would be a bit more aggressive with their pressing and push players forward, but I still felt we were in control of the game. I think the sending-off was a turning point but I really enjoyed watching us after we went down to 10 men – we showed real resilience and togetherness, so I was really pleased about that.”
On another impressive outing for the Under-18s players in the squad, Wayne added: “It was immensely pleasing. We have to keep reminding ourselves that these players are still very young, for some of them it’s only their third game at Under-21 level and their application and attitude was excellent. They have moments in games where you can see their potential but I was really pleased with their work ethic, how hard they ran and at times how they showed maturity. Have they got stuff to learn and get better at? Of course they have, but for players of such a young age they showed real maturity and certainly had an influence on the game.”