CRUEL BLOW: Dave Bridgwater saw his injury-time penalty saved by the Yate goalkeeper.
Rovers 1
Yate Town 2
WHAT should have been a parade lap may now have to become a great escape if Rovers are to beat the drop.
Their form throughout December and January suggested they would cross the safety threshold at a canter.
After a Bank Holiday weekend from hell, they have reached crisis point.
Following Saturday's no-show at Bashley, redemption was clearly on the brain for Duane Darby.
In making just one change, Leigh Downing coming in for recent signing James Coulman, Darby was clearly intent on stirring a reaction from his charges.
The Greens' caretaker boss said: "I said to them the good thing about it was we had a game within 48 hours.
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"With the rollocking that I had given them, I thought they would stand up to it."
Frankly, his players never kept up their side of the bargain.
Sapped of self-belief, desire and work ethic, this Rovers side wasn't even a shade of the one that battled relentlessly to a point against King's Lynn only nine days earlier.
Not even lady luck proved to be enough to kick them into gear.
Firstly there was the gift of a comedy own goal from Yate skipper Lee Jeffries after keeper Tony Court's calamitous Paul Robinson-esque air shot, which looked to have lifted spirits.
And not even the awarding of a stoppage-time penalty, which Dave Bridgwater duly missed, could get Rovers out of jail.
With a moderately productive first-half under their belts it is difficult to see how they allowed the rug to be pulled from beneath them.
Darby's men are still lacking an injection in the final third, but they were arguably the more useful side in the opening period.
The first meaningful chance fell to Gary McPhee who received Bridgwater's pass on the edge of the box and brilliantly turned his marker before firing straight at Court.
The home side went close again on the half hour mark through Matt Birley, whose mis-hit from McPhee's knockdown went past the post.
Craig Davidge found himself clean through for Yate's best chance of the half, but was denied by a superb last-ditch tackle from reliable full-back Chris Duggan.
Rovers have been longing for a season defining moment and they thought it had finally arrived on 31 minutes.
Jeffries appeared to be in little danger when gathered the ball inside his box. He passed back to Court, but the ball took a cruel bobble and crept under the keeper's foot and into the net.
However, it didn't prove to be the positive omen Greens supporters were expecting.
A toothless half of football from their side was to follow, and Yate were quickly gifted a route back into the match through Jake Reid when Ashley Williams found space to cross from the right hand side. Reid was left unmarked and he obliged in heading home the equaliser.
Ten minutes later, when the cold reality of Rovers' predicament was still hitting home, Blakemore rattled home a second. A hoofed clearance split centre-back partnership Gary Knight and Daryl Burgess and Blakemore capitalised to run clean through and slot a simple finish past Lewis.
Darby took matters into his own hands, entering the field to form a three-pronged attack with McPhee and Jozsef Jakab.
McPhee was the busier of the frontmen, volleying over from the edge of the box, before earning his team a lifeline in the fourth minute of injury time.
The former Solihull Moors striker received the ball out wide and was felled inside the box as he attempted to skip past Williams.
Bridgwater stepped up and hit his spot-kick towards the bottom left-hand corner, but Court redeemed himself with a comfortable save to compound a weekend to forget for Rovers.
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