Bristol Rovers 1 Wycombe Wanderers 2

Last updated : 31 December 2005 By Footymad Previewer
Wycombe kept top spot with a more impressive win than the score shows.

They had to hold off a spirited Rovers rally in the last half hour but after going two up never looked like losing.

These days John Gorman's side need little to top up their confidence but they got it anyway with a fourth minute penalty for hand ball against Craig Hinton.

It looked a harsh decision for Tommy Mooney's chip struck the defenders right arm with Hinton making no movement. If the award was dubious the execution was purely professional with Mooney sending Scott Shearer the wrong way.

The move had began with a long ball from Stefan Oakes swung out to Kevin Betsy on the right wing, the first of many similar ones which all caused trouble for Rovers.

With just one defeat in their previous six matches improving Rovers are themselves not short of self belief and pressed forward looking for the equalizer but their final ball was not accurate enough and they lacked the assurance to go past defenders.

Their best chance came when Wycombe's right-back Danny Senda lost out to Craig Disley.

The Rovers man was through for a shot but it all fizzled out with a cross ball and an offside flag against Richard Walker. Before then Wycombe had thrown away a certain looking goal which could have sewn up the game. In Rovers back line Aaron Lescott had been robbed by Mooney and the veteran got through to the by-line, his far post cross to the un-marked Charlie Griffin left a tap-in but he blasted it over.

Griffin made up for his incredible miss inside the first minute of the second half as he set up Mooney's second goal with a deep cross from the right.

The home side were without their main striker Junior Agogo who went off with a hamstring but pulled a goal back with an overhead kick from Walker.

It was his 14th goal this season and took a full length dive from Frank Talia soon after to deny him another strike.