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.”

Bristol Rovers ended a seven-match scoring drought in style with a comfortable 3-1 win at relegation-threatened Cheltenham.

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

Rovers skipper Antony Evans also saw a first-half penalty saved, but Cheltenham offered very little as their survival chances suffered another major blow.

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.

Charlie Adam was pleased to watch Fleetwood cut the gap to six points from safety after a goalless draw with Bristol Rovers.

Fleetwood dominated spells across the game without finding a breakthrough, while Gavin Kilkenny came closest for the Cod Army when he smashed the crossbar from the edge of the box.

Jayden Stockley’s flicked effort got scooped off the line by Rovers’ Elkan Baggott when the ball looked to be trickling over.

Danny Mayor was denied a first-half goal after Promise Omochere showed his strength to square to his midfield partner, who was denied by a desperate block from Luca Hoole.

Speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, the Fleetwood manager said: “I’m really disappointed from the first 45 minutes, in terms I felt that we never really got going in that first half.

“In reality I felt that we showed there was no real intensity for when we went to press the game and put pressure on Bristol Rovers.

“We felt like we were off it a little bit at stages. In the second half, the boys were much, much better. On another night I felt we could have nicked it and get all three points.

“Overall, I am really happy with a point at home. More importantly we’ve closed the gap. That’s what we’ll continue to do between now and the end of the season.”

For Rovers, all eyes fell on Antony Evans late on in the first half. He spun in behind the Fleetwood defence, but was denied one-on-one by Jay Lynch.

Scott Sinclair was smartly stopped by Lynch again, who got down well to his right to palm an effort wide.

In the closing stages, an Evans free-kick almost fortuitously rolled in, but flicked the outside of the post.

Rovers boss Matt Taylor said: “Chances at both ends tonight. We created the better chances, the cleaner chances against a Fleetwood team who are going well at home.

“I thought our keeper and our young backline stood up to the pressure they gave us too.

“Hopefully, we’re moving in the right direction. We’ve worked hard with our defensive units and our mindset to keep the ball out of our net and not be as leaky as we have been. I thought we showed that tonight.

“The clean sheet is massive tonight. I was so pleased how our defenders worked tonight. Very rarely have we failed to score in a game and very rarely have we not created chances.

“It wasn’t our night tonight. I can’t ask for much more. Post, blocks, saves. If the team’s going to be short of anything, let it be at the top end and not defensively at the other end.”

Bristol Rovers manager Matt Taylor saw a change in formation pay off spectacularly as his side came from two goals down to defeat play-off-chasing Stevenage 3-2 in a thriller at the Lamex Stadium.

The Pirates began the game playing 3-4-3 but found themselves in deep trouble before Taylor replaced defender Elkan Baggott with winger Scott Sinclair after 28 minutes.

With four at the back, Rovers came surging back against a side pushing for the play-offs in League One, with a wonderful strike from captain Antony Evans completing a memorable turnaround.

Taylor said: “It could have been [anyone to come off], but when you change from a back three to a back four you take off one of your centre-halves.

“James Wilson’s, similar to Scotty’s, experience shone as the game went on and Tristan [Crama] has got good legs as well.

“I hope he [Baggott] understands it, I don’t think he’ll like it – nobody likes being dragged – but it was very much needs must in that moment.

“We made changes, personnel and formation-wise, that seemed to settle them a little bit and gave us a better out in terms of the game, and then we started to play.

“Once we started to play, we needed a little bit more to believe in and LT’s [Luke Thomas] moment was a big moment for us because that gave us more belief and more feeling that we were in the game, and then two quality goals.”

Stevenage led 2-0 after 24 minutes through Kane Hemmings’ close-range finish and Jake Forster-Caskey, but Bristol Rovers had a lifeline when Thomas bent a superb effort into the bottom corner.

Evans then set up Chris Martin for the equaliser before smashing in what turned out to be the winner from 25 yards, before Kamil Conteh was sent off in stoppage time for the Pirates.

Stevenage boss Steve Evans said: “We just got a little bit complacent – well, a lot complacent.

“They get the goal completely against the run of play to bring themselves back into the game, we started on the front foot, I think we were very comfortable at half-time.

“I think we were comfortable at the start of the second half, there’s no issues in the game.

“I think there’s a big decision in the game – their boy Evans, who’s a really good player, scores a great goal and makes one, he should be off.

“He’s committed a number of fouls, but one in particular on the edge of their box.

“They get the [second] goal because we let a really good striker get across us and score a goal and the third goal was a great strike, but it’s fair to say in the second half we were way off the pace.”

Fulham boss Marco Silva challenged Rodrigo Muniz to make the forward position his own after he scored in a 3-1 win at Ipswich to send them through to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 2004.

The Premier League opposition proved too strong for the Championship high-flyers with Harry Wilson, Muniz and Tom Cairney on target at Portman Road before substitute Elkan Baggott pulled one back late on.

It was the performance of Brazil striker Muniz which caught the eye after his movement helped create Wilson’s ninth-minute opener from Bobby Decordova-Reid’s pass before the 22-year-old fired home in the 50th minute from Andreas Pereira’s cross.

Muniz endured a difficult 2022-23 campaign on loan at Middlesbrough but after scoring his first Fulham goal since January of last year, Silva talked up his chances of starting Saturday’s clash with Manchester United.

“He is always a candidate and he had a very good pre-season,” Silva said.

“Unfortunately in the moment he was showing his quality, showing how he was growing, even if last season was tough for him, he had a muscle injury and it stop a little bit his development in the pre-season.

“He came back and had a very good game against Tottenham in the first Carabao Cup match we have and he is taking his chances. So, he is always a candidate like the others, like Raul (Jimenez) and Carlos Vinicius.

“They are fighting for the position, we don’t have a number one, two or three. It is for me to decide for each game regarding the strategy and what I want from the game. It is up to them to show the quality they have and to show they are able to play.

“Rodrigo did really well. Let’s see what is going to be my decision for the next match.”

Fulham’s passage into the last-eight was clinched when Cairney’s low effort went through Christian Walton in the 77th-minute.

While Silva was frustrated with Baggott’s headed consolation, he praised the application of his side.

He added: “Yes very good performance. Credit to the players, congratulations to them.

“It is true we did eight changes in our XI and even we probably needed more because we are going to play an early kick-off on Saturday, but in some positions it was impossible to do it.

“If I had the chance, I would do even more (changes), but the main thing for me is we kept our structure, we kept the same way. All the players know the way we want to play and we were really serious in the way we approach the game.”

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna was able to take plenty of positives from only their second defeat of the campaign.

“It was a tough game, no doubt about that, but I think a game and a night we will be much stronger for,” he said.

“It was always going to be a massive challenge irrespective of how the game went or which team we picked.

“To concede an early goal against a really good Fulham team it was always going to be a really tough game, but I’m pleased with how we stuck at it.

“I am pleased we kept trying until the last minute, we tried to stick to our football and there is big positives to take.”