Boss Matt Taylor was delighted to see Bristol Rovers click into gear as they brushed Cheltenham aside with a comfortable 3-1 win to end their seven-game wait for a goal.

Scott Sinclair opened the scoring in the first half and Brandon Aguilera and Elkan Baggott added two more after the break before Liam Sercombe’s stoppage-time consolation for the relegation-threatened hosts.

Rovers skipper Antony Evans also saw a first-half penalty saved, with Rovers in total control.

“Everyone will talk about the goals, but I thought we looked solid as a team,” Taylor said.

“We looked like a proper team and we should’ve been more than one ahead at half-time and that’s no disrespect to Cheltenham.

“We know we look good as a team on paper, but we’ve never had everyone available, all of the time.

“We controlled things and started the game well, but needed something to show for it and Scotty was cool and calm for the opener.  His legs were a constant threat to their back line.”

Former Chelsea and Man City star Sinclair opened the scoring in the 12th minute, finishing neatly past Luke Southwood and inside the bottom left corner after being played in by Luke Thomas.

Evans was brought down in the box by Southwood 10 minutes before half-time, but the goalkeeper redeemed himself by diving to his left to keep out the spot-kick.

Cheltenham, managed by ex-Rovers boss Darrell Clarke, made two changes at half-time, but they were not able to find a way back into the game and it was 2-0 in the 56th minute.

Thomas found substitute Aguilera and he rolled a shot into the bottom right corner.

Former Cheltenham loanee Baggott headed the third from Harvey Vale’s corner in the 76th minute.

Sercombe was set up by fellow ex-Rovers player Matty Taylor in the 94th minute, but it was too little, too late for Cheltenham.

Clarke admitted his team are majorly struggling for confidence, with four games left to save their season, starting at one of the teams they can catch – Burton – on Tuesday night.

“I am searching for answers with the group and we have some walking wounded and players putting their bodies on the line,” he said.

“I get the frustration and disappointment from my supporters, who have been great. We just have to keep going.

“We have to make sure we don’t feel sorry for ourselves because unbelievably it’s still in our hands, with four games to go.

“We have to keep going and make sure we are ready to go Tuesday.

“While we still have a chance, we’ll go there and try to win the game.”

Lincoln boss Michael Skubala hailed his free-scoring side after they hammered Bristol Rovers 5-0.

The impressive Imps took their recent tally to 16 goals in three games with another fine display at Sincil Bank.

Luton loanee Joe Taylor will get the plaudits for a first professional hat-trick, sandwiched between captain Paudie O’Connor’s opener and Reeco Hackett’s late fifth.

Anthony Evans missed a penalty for the visitors, who had a man advantage for the last 15 minutes after Ethan Erhahon was sent off.

“We started well again,” said Skubala, whose side are two points off the play-off spots after a 13th game unbeaten.

“We talk about starting bright, starting fast, and we did that.

“I just said to the boys this is what we do. If you’re going to come and play us you have to be on it.

“Scoring five goals was fantastic. You saw us scoring goals, but we needed our keeper today. Big man Lukas was fantastic. Those are the things that don’t get mentioned when you score loads of goals.

“You saw his and Paudie’s quality today. As much as we talk about goals, we’re getting clean sheets as well. I thought those two were fantastic today.

“I don’t know how many Joe’s scored. I just like people scoring goals. Joe at the minute, his positioning in behind is fantastic.

“He’s improving all the time. That’s why he came here. He’s a real threat to anybody.”

Rovers boss Matt Taylor understandably cut a frustrated figure after his side were put to the sword.

He questioned his players’ desire with a number of them out of contract in the summer.

He said: “We started the game so poorly. There were some diabolical moments, defending for the goals.

“The script was set in terms of what to expect from them. It looked like some couldn’t match it and some looked like they didn’t have the mindset to match it.

“The first goal was embarrassing. Their goals are diabolical defending. They’re my responsibility.

“All I ask is they take more personal pride in their performance. That first half an hour was too poor a showing for me to accept.

“There’s a bigger picture which we all know about. Is that affecting some players on the pitch at the moment? You’re only damaging yourself if you play like that. You only damage yourself and damage your own futures.

“Clarity’s all I need going forward and that’s taught me a little bit more about some of the personality.

“It’s irrelevant about the chances we created. We’ve said so many times about being good about creating, but five goals against. It’s irrelevant.

“You can’t look like a good footballing side at times if you can’t do the basic fundamentals of defending a football game.”

Boss Matt Taylor revealed he was left out of pocket after watching his Bristol Rovers side collect all three points with a 1-0 victory at play-off hopefuls Leyton Orient.

Chris Martin recorded his 15th goal of the season when a first-half set-piece from skipper Antony Evans eluded the home defence and the unmarked Martin claimed the faintest of touches before the ball nestled in the far corner of the net.

Rovers found themselves reduced to 10-men after 82 minutes when James Wilson was dismissed for an off-the-ball incident with Brandon Cooper, but they emerged with their goal intact after soaking up relentless second-half pressure.

“This game has cost me five hundred quid for the clean sheet and five hundred for the set-piece goal,” Taylor said.

“I’m having to bribe players as we’re going to Cheltenham races in a few weeks, so £1000 is a lot of money and you can buy a lot of nappies for that but it was more than worth it!

“I thought it was a high-quality game of football in the first half. Orient are a really strong team and we know they have a fluid rhythm about them but I liked our structure.

“They started the second half really brightly and we changed our shape and got more of a foothold in the game, and I didn’t think our goalkeeper was overworked. But the unexpected happened and we lost a player for the last 15 minutes of the game.

“We then had to withstand the pressure with backs against the wall defending and we rode our luck at times, but again Jed (Ward) has only really had to make a couple of saves.”

Orient boss Richie Wellens felt his side deserved more from the match.

“It was a smash and grab,” he said.

“We conceded three shots on our goal and they scored from one of them. It was a poor goal from us to give away. A sloppy free-kick and a cheap set play but the delivery was very good and (Chris) Martin does what he does best, which is to get across people in the box.

“Second half, I can’t even remember them being in our box or in our half at times. We had 18 corners and started the game OK with opportunities to take people on but just looked just a bit leggy.

“It was a disappointing day in terms of results this afternoon but another really solid performance. We’ve lost two games when we’ve played midweek and the opposition haven’t. It’s not an excuse but we did look tired and hence why I need to make changes.”

New boss Matt Taylor says he is still learning about his players after Bristol Rovers endured some tricky second-half moments in a 4-2 FA Cup second-round victory at Crewe.

Taylor secured his first win in his third game since taking charge of the Pirates at the beginning of the month, but what looked like an easy canter to a third-round trip to Norwich faded in a jittery closing period at Gresty Road when the home side halved a four-goal deficit.

John Marquis, James Wilson and Anthony Evans all scored in the first half and Ryan Cooney’s own goal made it 4-0 before Elliott Nevitt and Aaron Rowe got the the League Two side back into the contest.

Taylor said: “It is not about me, but about the team winning games of football.

“I am learning about this group of players and the first 70 minutes was really positive.

“Crewe have had good home form, so to be 3-0 up at half-time was excellent. We have now got to work as hard as we did for the first 70 minutes of that game.

“I’ve watched a lot of footage and that is the best I’ve seen from us. We won the ball high up the pitch when we were able to get pressure on the opposition and we have got players of a certain talent that can put the ball in the back of the net.

“But while we were excellent in parts, we were not in other parts and a few things went against us which I was not happy with. We could have been 5-0 up and probably should have been with a penalty decision and the game would have been dead and buried.

“But they broke away and put the ball into the back of the net and we had a little bit of a stagger in the second half. There’s a little bit of learning we have to take from that, but considering Crewe got two goals back with a bit of time left I am pleased it didn’t materialise into something else.”

Crewe manager Lee Bell was frustrated with how his side started the game.

“We have too good a group of players to allow things like that to happen,” he said.

“There’s a lot to learn from as the goals we conceded were unacceptable and if we continue that trend then we are not going to be successful.

“Bristol sat deep and we got in behind a number of times in the first half, but the decisions we took were the wrong ones.

“We have got to get better and get better, but we have got players who are coming back to fitness and hopefully we’ll have a full squad to pick from in the next week or two.

“Our crowd have been brilliant and we wanted to make it as exciting as we could for them – I thought we could have pinched one more as well – and hopefully they won’t see too many performances like that or see us let goals like that in again.”