{"id":565051,"date":"2025-11-12T05:02:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T05:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/565051\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T05:02:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T05:02:27","slug":"energetic-bristol-rovers-praised-as-they-top-vertu-trophy-group-with-94th-minute-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/565051\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Energetic\u2019 Bristol Rovers praised as they top Vertu Trophy group with 94th minute winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol Rovers will play their round of 32 game in the Vertu Trophy at home thanks to a 94th minute winner from Kamil ContehGoal celebrations for Kamil Conteh of Bristol Rovers during the Vertu Trophy Match between Bristol Rovers and Plymouth Argyle at Memorial Stadium on 11 November 2025. Photo: Tom Sandberg\/PPAUK<\/p>\n

Bristol Rovers <\/a>assistant head coach Jon Stead praised the energy of the team after they secured a 94th minute winner against Plymouth Argyle to top their group in the Vertu Trophy.<\/p>\n

The Gas bounced back after Saturday\u2019s disappointing defeat to Gillingham<\/a>, to beat League One opposition, who had Kornel Szucs sent off after only two minutes.<\/p>\n

In a game of few chances, the Gas dominated possession and found it hard to break down the Pilgrims, who maintained a resolute shape with 10 men. Rovers looked untroubled defensively, and Kamil Conteh pounced on a goalkeeping mistake by Luca Ashby-Hammond from a corner in the 94th minute to secure the three points.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bristol Rovers facing ‘physicality issue’ as Gas ‘strugging to get goals\u2019<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol Rovers\u2019 Clinton Mola discusses relationship with Bryant Bilongo and playing in a back five<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking about the performance, Stead said: \u201cAs a player, I have played against 10 men a lot of times and it can be very difficult. It can be challenging. The game doesn’t look how you expect it to look and sometimes, mentally, you can come off the gas a little bit, pardon the pun, but I don’t think we did today. I thought we were really energetic, I thought it wasn’t for a lack of trying. I think we were really looking to hurt the opposition at every opportunity we got.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sign up for our Rovers newsletter<\/p>\n

Bristol Rovers are preparing for a new season in League Two with Darrell Clarke back at the helm and you won’t miss a beat with our free newsletter.<\/p>\n

All the latest news, views, interviews, gossip and analysis concerning the Gas, delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n

It’s completely free and you can sign up HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

There were 2,110 fans inside the Memorial Stadium<\/a> on a wet and windy night in north Bristol and Stead was keen to praise the supporters inside the ground. He said: \u201cThere was never the kind of groans and the, \u2018oh, get it forward\u2019. They could see that we were trying. We just lacked that final moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the club announced that four players will go on international duty<\/a>, with Luke Southwood, Joel Cotterill, Ollie Dewsbury and Freddie Issaka all set to miss the trip to Accrington Stanley on Saturday. Despite this, the Gas picked a strong starting eleven against the Pilgrims, but were careful about managing the minutes of key players, including Stephan Negru, who was taken off midway through the first-half.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bristol Rovers Live on Whatsapp<\/p>\n

Join Bristol Rovers Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol Rovers stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bristol Rovers Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n

Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol Rovers news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n

To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n

No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n

We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n

To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking about the substitutions, Stead said: \u201cWe’re looking to look after people as well, because we’re missing key players, we’ve got a lot away on international duty and we’ve got a really important game on Saturday. So, managing all those bits and pieces is difficult because you don’t want to risk the tie because we want to win it, but you don’t want to risk bodies either because we can’t afford to lose anybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I feel at the minute, I’ve not spoken to the medical staff, but I feel at the minute we’ve probably got that right. We’ve won the tie, we’ve topped the group, we get a home draw now, and nobody [is] lost to the medical table, so I think we should be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darrell Clarke, Manager of Bristol Rovers during the Vertu Trophy Match between Bristol Rovers and Plymouth Argyle at Memorial Stadium on 11 November 2025. Photo: Tom Sandberg\/PPAUK<\/p>\n

Next up for the Gas is a trip to 20th placed Accrington in League Two. Darrell Clarke\u2019s<\/a> side will be looking to end a five-game losing streak in the league and will hope to build on tonight\u2019s victory against Tom Cleverley\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Darrell Clarke frustrated with ‘forward-thinking play’ as Bristol Rovers narrowly beaten by Gillingham<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol Rovers player ratings vs Gillingham: Max Clark strike enough to beat the Gas<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Rovers will play their round of 32 game in the Vertu Trophy at home thanks to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2707,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-565051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-rovers-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115534977661773212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}