Bristol Rovers 1-1 Stockport County
Sky Bet League One, The Memorial Stadium, Tuesday 11 February 2025
Sil Swinkels marked an incredible debut by scoring the latest of equalisers for Bristol Rovers i a 1-1 draw with Stockport County.
A tight and somewhat nervy contest that, in truth, was void of high-quality chances, was seemingly settled on 53 minutes when Isaac Olaofe tucked in from three yards out for the visitors.
But debuting defender Swinkels had other ideas.
Entering the fray on 70 minutes, the Aston Villa loanee showed great composure to head in Matt Butcher’s free-kick in the first minute of added time to secure a point for the Gas.
Inigo Calderon made two changes to the starting XI defeated Peterborough United; both enforced as the returning Ward featured in goal and Martin started up front.
Both were involved in the initial exchanges too as Matt Butcher’s searching free-kick was headed wide by Martin on 11 minutes, before Ward endeared himself to the home crowd at The Memorial Stadium on his first showing of the season with an expert save to deny Will Collar.
Ruel Sotiriou’s cross from the left led to another headed chance for the Gas, one that Luke Thomas put wide, with the Cyprus international then turning his own header past the near post from a Butcher corner.
An intrinsic first-half almost concluded with Stockport grabbing the lead. Another header, this time a close-range one by forward Olaofe, was brilliantly turned away from point-blank range by Jed Ward to keep the score level at the break.
There was an air of fortune about the opening goal, which came eight minutes after the restart and fell Stockport’s way. Collar’s effort was decent, hitting the post, but Olaofe was quicker to react to tap in from close range.
Head Coach Calderon reacted by making four changes with twenty minutes to play, giving debuts to centre-back Swinkels and Michael Reindorf while also bringing Scott Sinclair in for his 100th professional Bristol Rovers appearance.
But chances were extremely limited in a challenging game for the Gas, and it seemed like defeat was certain.
That was until the match ticked into four additional minutes, when Butcher swung in a stupendous free-kick. Swinkels moved quickest, sending a fantastic header past Ben Hinchliffe and into the goal via the post to secure a share of the spoils.
Bristol Rovers: J.Ward, Sousa (Senior 70), Wilson ©, G.Ward, Sotiriou (Lindsay 83), Thomas (Swinkels 70), Taylor, Martin, Hutchinson (Reindorf 70), Butcher, Hunt (Sinclair 70)
Subs not used: Roberts (GK), Moore
Goals: Swinkels 90+1
Booked: Hunt,
Stockport County: Hinchliffe, Touray, Diamond (Hamilton 86), Olaofe (Cosgrove 72), Collar, Pye, Connolly, Wootton © (Knoyle 72), Moxom (Bailey 72), Norwood, Hills
Subs not used: Addai (GK), Andresson, Rydel,
Goals: Olaofe 53,
Booked: Connolly, Norwood
Referee: David Rock
Attendance: 6,643 (526 away)
