Half-time: Bristol Rovers 0 Northampton Town 0
Bristol Rovers are being held by 10-man Northampton at the Memorial Stadium this afternoon.
Mark McGhee's side almost made a dream start to proceedings when Tom Eaves connected powerfully with a Fabian Broghammer cross in the fifth minute only to see his volley touched onto the post by Northampton goalkeeper Lee Nicholls.
It was the first of a number of chances at both ends of an entertaining opening period in which Northampton were reduced to ten men when defender Anthony Charles was dismissed after illegally preventing Derek Riordan to stride through on goal in the 24th minute.
Riordan angled the resulting free-kick on to the crossbar, but it was Northampton who probably had the two best chances of the first-half and should have been in front when the ball fell kindly around the penalty spot for striker Alex Nicholls in the 18th minute.
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Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, however, further enhanced his growing reputation by repelling the powerful effort with his legs before the ball was hacked away to safety.
Adebayo Akinfenwa muscled his way into a crowd of players inside the penalty area son after to glance a header past Etheridge only to be disappointed to have the 'goal' ruled out before guiding a far post effort just over the crossbar when meeting Nicholls' pinpoint cross just before the break.
Defender Tom Parkes, meanwhile, had returned from suspension as the only change to the Bristol Rovers side that lost at home to Cheltenham on Wednesday night.
McGhee, however, was forced into a late change just before kick-off, which saw the omission of skipper Matt Gill, who was replaced by Eliot Richards.
Richards started on the right-hand side of midfield, which meat David Clarkson was deployed to replace Gill in the centre.
Parkes came back in alongside Garry Kenneth, who wore the armband in Gill's absence, at the heart of the back four, while Matthew Lund, who featured in an unfamiliar right-back role for the 1-0 midweek defeat, retained his place.
Rovers (4-4-2): Etheridge; Lund, Kenneth, Parkes, Paterson; Richards, Clarkson, Norburn, Broghammer; Riordan, Eaves. Subs: Walker, L Brown, Anyinsah, W Brown, Virgo, Clucas.
Northampton (4-4-2): Nicholls; East, Langmead, Charles, Widdowsen; Hackett, Moult, Tozer, Roofe. Subs: Higgs, Demontagnac, Platt, Mukendi, Wilson, Artell.
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