First-year scholar Sam Straughan-Brown felt Rovers U18s responded well against Lincoln City to pick up their first EFL Youth Alliance League win of 2024.
The young midfielder put the game to bed in second-half stoppage time with the first goal of his scholarship after Kenneth Imariagbe put the youth team ahead before the break.
Straughan-Brown said: “It was a really tough game but we all dug deep and showed a really great reaction to what happened last weekend.
“We didn’t want to concede, stuck to that and Kenny’s scored a great goal for us to go into the break ahead. From there I thought we controlled the second-half really well and to top it off on a personal note I’ve gone and scored to seal the win.
“We held our shape, pressed when we needed to and I thought we were just really good throughout the game."
Following his first goal as an apprentice of his boyhood club, Straughan-Brown was relieved to have contributed to the youth team’s victory.
He added: “It does feel like it’s been a long time coming because I’ve been working hard after training, putting in the extras and I’ve just been waiting for it to finally drop. Hopefully I can kick on and add more goals to my game but also get the assists and we’ll just see where it goes.
“I saw Kenny breaking away in the centre but I also saw they had another man coming at me so I opened my body up to cross to him but I saw the keeper went for that early so I went for goal instead.
“I’ve always been told to look for those things and thankfully it’s paid off.”