Composure in the final minute.

[Colin C No.3]

5 minutes of injury time shown by the fourth official.

Rovers had already started to run the ball into the corners in order 'run down time', a tactic you may or may not agree with, especially with potentially another 10 minutes to play.

Cheltenham had an exponent of the long throw who was handed a towel by the nearest ball boy on every occasion on which to dry the ball before he launched it into the box. A great option to have as I believe they can often be more effective than corners, but we defended it very well particularly Butler.

As the clock wound down the 5 minutes of injury time Cheltenham had one last opportunity to launch the ball into the Rovers box. Their keeper ran the length of the pitch to join all but one Cheltenham player in the box. But Rovers got the ball away & it dropped to a Rovers player (I think was Middleton) who drove into the Cheltenham half. Only one defender  (who was back pedalling for all he was worth) stood between him & the Cheltenham goal. 35 yards out he had 4 options, 1. Carry the ball a bit closer to the goal & the defender who had now stopped on the 18 yard line & get past him, 2. Shoot now with only the defender to beat, 3. Lob the ball over him 4. Pass to Marquis who was tearing up the field to join with two Cheltenham players on his heels.

Now for me it had to be any one of the first 3 options but he chose option 4. Unfortunately his weight of pass was abysmal & forced Marquis wide with the two opposing players. Marquis ended up with the ball at the corner flag & went down when one of the Cheltenham players made contact with him. The ref saw it as a dive & waved play on. The ball was then launched back into the Rovers half but thankfully the ref then blew for full time.

Composure is what marks a good player from an ordinary one. If it wasn't Middleton my apologies to him, but whoever it was should have made it 2-0

[selby]

It was not Middlton it was Mandaville.
   Both players came on late in the game,and both players played very well for the short time they were on the field, and played a big part in controlling the game in the last ten minutes.
   When Mandaville collected the ball wide right he had his back to the goal,turned,and ran with the ball at pace.Admitted his final ball was overhit,but he had committed all the defenders to him and a better pass to Marquise would have been a tap in.
   

[Alickismyhero]

That is correct Selby.

[The Red Baron]

Was going to say, option 4 was perfectly good. It was just that the execution was poor.

On a wider point I agree with the OP that we started trying to wind the clock down too early. We should still have been looking for a second.