Bristol Rovers v Burton Albion Bristol Rovers 3 Brunt 5′: O'Toole 62′: Richard 70′: .
Burton Albion 0
FT 90 +5
HT 1-0
Bristol Rovers got back to winning ways with an emphatic victory over promotion hopefuls Burton Albion.
Striker Ryan Brunt opened the scoring early on, side-footing home Joe Anyinsah's cross.
John-Joe O'Toole doubled their lead from close range after the break and Eliot Richards lashed home a third from Ellis Harrison's cut-back.
Third-placed Burton created few chances and had goalkeeper Stuart Tomlinson to thank for keeping the score down.
In the space of a few first-half seconds he produced two good saves from defender Tom Parkes.
It was Albion's first defeat in eight games, but they remain in the automatic promotion places, while John Ward's Rovers moved up to 17th and are now six points clear of danger.
VIEWS FROM THE DRESSING ROOM
Bristol Rovers manager John Ward told BBC Radio Bristol:
What we've shown today, after a bit of adversity in the last two games, is that we've stayed strong - both mentally and physically.
Play mediaI think it's important to show that boys have played well, even in defeats here.
Today we've put a top three team to the sword and I've been really pleased with that.
It was a very positive approach from everybody.
Burton Albion manager Gary Rowett told BBC Radio Derby:
I sensed we weren't quite going to have the same tempo, but it's very difficult when you've been losing games.
Play mediaIf you change it and you lose 4-0 you feel you've done the wrong thing, so I just thought I'd give them the opportunity to keep going.
After 10 or 15 minutes, we could quite conceivably be two or three down, but I thought after that we got a bit of a grip and started to create a few opportunities.
Going in at half time 1-0 down I wasn't too upset. I just thought they might sit back and give us a chance to come onto them if we did it properly.
But we just didn't show the same intensity levels that we've seen over the last six or seven performances.
Lineup, Bookings (2) & Substitutions (6) Bristol Rovers
13 Mildenhall
02 Smith
04 Woodards
06 Parks Booked
14 Brown
29 McChrystal
32 O'Toole
10 Richard
16 Anyinsah (Norburn - 25' )
17 Harrison (Paterson - 82' )
26 Brunt (Tounkara - 60' )
Substitutes
20 Gough
19 Virgo
21 McDonald
03 Paterson
15 Norburn
27 Hitchcock
34 Tounkara
Burton Albion
13 Tomlinson
20 O'Connor
21 Holness
24 Sharps
08 Weir (Dyer - 72' )
14 McCrory
19 Maghoma (Phillips - 62' )
23 Bell Booked
26 MacDonald
29 Kee (Zola - 63' )
30 Symes
Substitutes
16 Lyness
02 Corbett
05 Diamond
17 Phillips
22 Dyer
10 Zola
18 Paterson
Ref: Naylor
Att: 6,065
muzza2
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