ROVERS RELY ON STRIKE PARTNERS

10:21 - 28 November 2005

Bristol Rovers 2 Barnet 1 GOALSCORING midfielders are the rarest of commodities in football and unfortunately for Paul Trollope there is a paucity of them at the Memorial Stadium at the moment. Rovers halted their recent slide on Saturday and again it was one of their strikers, this time Richard Walker, who scored the goals that secured the points. The midfielders did do their bit though, as part of a desperate defensive display to keep their opponents at bay as they ploughed forward in search of an equaliser. Lady Luck was on hand too, as Barnet would have left with a point had the post not intervened twice inside the last five minutes. TheWalker-Junior Agogo axis has now reached the twenty-goal mark for the season, making the pairing one of the most profitable in League Two. With a lack of goals coming from elsewhere on the park, though, Rovers' league position does not reflect the strikers' impressive figures. Walker is confident that he and Agogo can end the campaign with 40 goals between them - a return that should see the Pirates in and around the chase for a play-off place come the spring. But with Craig Disley the only midfielder to get on the scoresheet this season - he has two goals - and the future of Agogo still in the balance as the January transfer window approaches, the failure of the rest of the side to chip in could prove costly as Rovers head into the second half of the campaign. However, after ending his four-game drought, Walker feels that there is no cause for concern and that he is happy to carry the goalscoring burden along with Agogo. "We look at it as our job to score goals and the pressure is on us to do it, because that's what we get paid good money for, " said Walker. "If we're not doing that then there are people who will come in to the team to do it. "It's not something that has affected us that much at the moment. If I have not been scoring then Junior has and vice-versa. "Of course, it would be nice if we could get a few from midfield. Craig (Disley) has a couple, but at the end of the day it's our job to score the goals, really. " And the Birmingham-born frontman went about his job well on Saturday as he opened the scoring after only five minutes. With a poor-looking Barnet side not at the races, Walker was allowed to ghost between flat-footed centre-halves Ismail Yakubu and Simon King to pounce on James Hunt's delicately chipped pass into the danger area. As Barnet keeper Ross Flitney dashed from his line to try to avert the danger Walker contrived to lob the bouncing ball over his head into an empty net. Walker's deft finishing was also in evidence after 20 minutes as Barnet failed to get to grips with Rovers' high-tempo start to the game. The creator was this time Stuart Campbell, who nicked the ball in midfield and set off on a mazy run that took him past two half-hearted challenges to the edge of the box. He slid a precise pass to the feet of Walker, who was lurking free in the penalty area and made no mistake with his first-time left-foot drive low into the corner. After some indifferent form at home this season, the Rovers squad have long been saying that it was only a matter of time before someone was on the end of a severe beating. And, with the Memorial Stadium crowd sensing blood and a poor Barnet side shell-shocked after the opening exchanges, it looked on the cards. "When you are two-up after twenty minutes you think this could be the day, " said Walker. "It was nice to score two goals and I would have loved to have got a hat-trick, but I don't think I had a chance after that." But Agogo did soon after the restart. And he should have done better than putting his header into the arms of Flitney after connecting with Chris Carruthers' free-kick. To Barnet's credit they never gave up and with skilful midfielder Dean Sinclair - kitted out in a fetching pair of black tights - orchestrating their assault, they began to push Rovers back into their own half. And the Bees pulled one back in controversial circumstances midway through the second period. From former Pirates trialist Louis Soares' corner, Ben Strevens rose in the middle of melee to power the ball into the net. But there were howls of derision from the Rovers fans congregated in the West Stand who protested that Strevens had connected with a Maradona-esque punch rather than his head. The goal stood, and Rovers were finding it difficult to find any avenues of respite in the face of Barnet's desire to puncture their opponents backline with their brand of physical route one football. "It was backs-to-the-wall stuff at the end, " said Walker. "When the ball did come up to us, Junior and I gave it away a little too easily and that just invited even more pressure. " The pressure nearly told in a frantic last five minutes when former Gas favourite Giuliano Grazioli rocketed a close-range volley against the angle of post and crossbar, before Liam Hatch was left in despair when his header came back off the woodwork at the death. "Arguably, we should have won it, " said despondent visiting manager Paul Fairclough. "The Bristol Rovers goal led a very charmed life this afternoon." Bristol Rovers (4-4-2): Shearer; Lescott, Elliott, Hinton, Carruthers; Gibb, Disley (Leary 15), Hunt, Campbell; Walker, Agogo (Haldane 87). Subs not used: Edwards, Forrester, Horsell. Barnet (4-4-2): Flitney; Hendon, Yakubu, King, Charles; Strevens, Sinclair, Bailey, Soares (Norville 80); Hatch, Grazioli. Subs not used: Batt, Lee, Tynan, Vernazza.

BARNET WIN COULD SPARK PIRATES RISE