Bournemouth 0 Bristol Rovers 1

Last updated : 12 December 2006 By Footymad Previewer
Richard Walker earned Bristol Rovers a third round home tie with Hereford by scoring the only goal midway through the second half.

League Two Rovers deserved their victory but had to sustain some fierce late pressure from Bournemouth before being certain of going through.

Bournemouth have now won only two of the 12 matches since former Portsmouth assistant-manager Kevin Bond took control at Dean Court.

Rovers and Bournemouth, who drew 1-1 at the Memorial Ground ten days ago, struggled to make clear chances but the best of those fell to Rovers in the first half.

Walker should have done better after 13 minutes when left with only Neil Moss to beat after being picked out by Lewis Haldane.

Walker also found a way through three tackles only to shoot straight at Moss as Bournemouth threatened to cave in.

Bournemouth's leading scorer James Hayter headed on to the roof of the net from a centre by Matthew Connolly in a rare Bournemouth attack.

But Rovers owed a big debt to goalkeeper Steve Phillips for an outstanding save in the 36th minute when he dived to his right on the line to keep out a goal-bound header from Steve Fletcher.

Bournemouth had Shaun Cooper booked for time wasting and Darren Anderton for a foul in first-half injury-time.

Walker hit the Bournemouth bar in the 46th minute with a header from a corner by Stuart Campbell on the left and his goal later in the second half came in almost identical fashion.

Walker peeled away from the Bournemouth defence and flicked home Campbell's corner to expose a big gap in the Bournemouth defence.

Bond sent on all three substitutes in a bid to rescue the match and in the dying seconds was almost rewarded with an equaliser.

Substitute Sam Vokes struck the bar with a drive and in injury-time Josh Gowling had a goal disallowed for pushing.

But referee Danny McDermid waved away furious Bournemouth protests when the goal was ruled out.