The opening 20 minutes saw Scunthorpe having more of the possession, but not really able to do much with it. That was down to a combination of some excellent defending at the back and the visitors lack of any incisive attacking play. After that point, Rovers got more on top and two goals in five minutes the first from Jolley could perhaps have been kept out by a more alert keeper, but the second was an unstoppable volley from Nevitt and we finished the half on top.
Second half saw a good early effort by Jolley tipped away, but after that Rovers appeared to be sitting deeper and when we did attack, it didn't seem to make that much impact. Scunny came closer to getting on the scoresheet one effort cleared away and another decent cross slid into the box needed a touch. Interesting to speculate what might have happened if the visitors had got one back at this point. Instead a great long pass from Spearing to Foley, who still had work to do, but Sam carried the ball and finished calmly to put the game out of reach. Rovers had a few chances to extend the lead further and Watson bundled the ball in for a comfortable 4-0 win.
I felt the defending was quality to the extent that Doohan was mainly restricted to mopping up long-distance daisy-cutters, though impressed that Ross used a few theatrics from the Scottie Davies handbook to kill time as the game went on. Up front, probably one of the best performances in a Rovers shirt for Nevitt, who was winning a lot more headers and directing them better, capped by a quality goal. Jolley has a different style, makes a nuisance of himself and difficult to shake off, he was really effective today. Glatzel also looked in decent nick when he came on.
The area of the park where we had some difficulties was midfield. I'm an admirer of Jay Spearing, but he wasn't up to his usual standard in the first half, giving the ball away or conceding throw-ins with misplaced passes and not making any contact with the ball (or thankfully the player) with one of his flying tackles. Thankfully the later stages of the game were more of the expected quality. I barely noticed O'Connor ~wasn't sure why he got booked(?) he did a lot of work in a quietly effective manner. Liam Feeney is a marmite player, I wish that the manager would take all set piece responsibility away from him, as once again he was very poor in their execution. In other aspects he had a decent game. McPake's start was enforced by other absences/departures. It was encouraging that he seemed to be developing an understanding with Macdonald and that he was prepared to get stuck in putting in a few challenges and blocks, while there were glimpses of the attacking flair that is his main attraction.
MoM is a difficult one I could see why the sponsors went for Jolley, while Macdonald was back to his best, but I'd have given it to Nevitt.
A word about Keith Hill. I got to the ground early and he was on the pitch just after two. Posed for a picture with some Rovers fans, had a joke with the goalkeepers being put through their paces pre-match then went off to train his own side. I don't think he was the right fit for us, but he wasn't the malign influence Mickey Adams was. Hope he can turn things round for Scunthorpe, whose fans deserve credit for their respectful behaviour during the memorial service.