It can be a day for wild celebrations if we beat Rochdale on Monday to virtually seal our place in League One for next season.
Some might say big deal why should that be celebrated? But I recall that dark day in December when we lost 4-0 at home to Doncaster following our cup exit to non-league Barnet and defeats against Charlton and Gillingham.
I felt even then that we were favourites for relegation until the much maligned board took the brave decision to sack Darrell Clarke and appoint Graham Coughlan who has worked wonders to turn things around.
It turned into a long hard winter and the football has not been pretty but Coughlan deserves a lot of praise for the way he has moulded the squad into a hard working unit. His master stroke was persuading Jonson Clarke-Harris to move to Rovers and give the side the boost it needed with his goals.
At Wimbledon it was another backs to the wall game of Jonson Clarke-Harris successfully shackled but Gas now have serious strength in depth - Bristol Rovers Talking Points yet scoring a great goal from outside the penalty area as Ollie Clarke followed up his goal against Bradford City last week by turning and smashing one into the top corner of the Wombles’ net.
It was just how Clarke-Harris had done it at Gillingham and Plymouth to relieve the pressure on our over-worked defence to bring home vital points.
The manager can point to the way his tight defensive policy has got the results and on Good Friday it was no different in the way we virtually had five at the back even against the side with the worst home record in the division.
In the first half it didn’t work, we were overrun again in midfield and soon one down and it could have quickly been two without Tony Craig’s goalline clearance. We didn’t create any chances ourselves but hung on in there.
It was no coincidence that within five minutes of making a double substitution and bringing on Alex Jakubiak we scored. Big JCH held the ball up well with a defender all over him before laying it off to Clarke who turned inside his man to create the space to get his shot in.
The game really opened up after the goal but I thought Rovers contained Wimbledon quite well as they became more desperate for the win.
So we are nearly over the line and after the Easter eggs it would be good to be jumping up and down to celebrate a great escape. What is needed for next season is for another day.
