Rovers beat league leaders Lincoln City to move up to third in Sky Bet League One after a first goal from Taylor Richards.
John Bostock missed the game while he continues to rebuild his fitness after being without a club for a short period. Omar Bogle tested positive for coronavirus during medical checks ahead of his signing so is currently self isolating within government and EFL guidelines. Josh Sims was also absent as he continues his recovery from injury.
Darren Moore made one change from the side that beat Wimbledon midweek with Joe Wright coming in for Jon Taylor.
For the opening 15 minutes Lincoln largely dominated the game and they came close to taking the lead through TJ Eyoma, but the right back was off target.
Then Rovers begun to grow into the game. A quick counterattack from Rovers on the sixteenth minute saw the move finish with Taylor Richards who got his second in as many games after finding the bottom corner of Alex Palmer’s goal.
Moments later a corner came for Rovers and a good move saw a low ball from Matt Smith latched onto by Richards whose shot was block which caused a scramble. Lincoln eventually cleared the danger.
Gradually the Imps begun to grow back into the game and came close to equalising when Tom Anderson miss cued his interception allowing Brennan Johnson to have an attempt on Balcombe’s goal.
Rovers managed to absorb the pressure from Lincoln and saw out the first half to keep their slender lead intact.
In the second period the hosts came out in full throttle with a double chance coming on the 51st minute for Michael Appleton’s team. First Morgan Rogers tried his luck from close range, but Balcombe tipped away only for it to fall to the feet of Conor McGrandles whose shot was wide of the mark.
On the hour mark Lincoln won a penalty with Jorge Grant going down and then taking the resulting kick. His penalty was no match for Balcombe who read the kick himself and saved to his bottom left corner.
For the remainder of the game Lincoln held the most possession but Rovers worked incredibly hard defending against them to render their attacks to near in affective with shots there were having coming off target. The closest they came to taking the target was Grant's effort which rattled the bar.
In the dying moments of the gaem, Lincoln won yet another penalty. This time substitute Anthony Scully took - going in the oppositie direction to Grant's earlier one. This did not fool Balcombe however, who pulled off yet another sensational penalty save to help Rovers take all three points.