Blue wall at Port Soif: Man of the match Richard Davey keeps guard at a free-kick. Sam Langlois and Joe Clatworthy are the defenders. (Picture by Rob Batiste, 0924502)

Jamie Ferbrache’s sixth goal of the campaign scored three minutes into the second half threatened to give Rovers a surprise win against one of the league’s form sides, but Gus Mackay earned the visitors a deserved equaliser after 78 minutes and Rovers survived heavy pressure to hold on.

Territorially, Athletics were very dominant and Richard Davey was, by far, the busier of the two keepers.

In fact, Tics’ Tom Creed had only one save to make, but it was an important one when, in a rare second half raid, Ferbrache nearly doubled Rovers’ advantage with a deft left-foot chip.

Creed just got a glove onto the ball to turn a fine effort wide.

While Rovers welcomed back Matt Patch to their line-up and gave a debut to former Sheffield United junior Joe Clatworthy in central midfield, Steve Ogier opted to start with first-choice strikers Danny Marquand and Tom Jenkins on the bench.

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