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Rovers fire blanks but should their 'goal' have stood?:MATCH REPORT AND SLIDESHOW
ROVERS 0 v NOTTINGHAM FOREST 0: HISTORY will record that on loan keeper Lee Camp kept his first clean sheet for Nottingham Forest at the Keepmoat Stadium last night.
But whether he did or not will remain the subject of much debate among both sets of fans.
Camp failed to hold a stinging 25 yarder by Coppinger on 77 minutes and the ball dropped behind him and bounced towards goal.
The keeper scrambled back and scooped it clear. Only he knows whether Rovers should have been awarded a goal.
Neither of the officials were well placed to make a decision, so Camp got the benefit of the doubt.
Rovers showed three changes to the side which started at Turf Moor on Saturday.
Former Forest favourite Gareth Taylor came in for Jason Price playing alongside James Hayter, preferred to Lewis Guy.
James Coppinger played as part of a front three for the first time this season.
Coppinger went close to giving Rovers the lead after two minutes when he hit the crossbar from the edge of the box after he had picked up the ball from skipper Brian Stock's blocked shot.
The rebound dropped nicely for Taylor but he shot high over.
Said Coppinger:"It is hard to say whether we would have gone on to win the game had I scored.
"But it would have given us a lot of belief, especially with us struggling to score goals.
"If we'd have scored early then they would have had their backs to the wall. They would have had to come out and try and score and it would have opened the game up and that's what we like."
Taylor had a shot deflected for a corner, from which Matt Mills headed narrowly wide, after getting on the end of a cross by Martin Woods.
Taylor will be the first to admit that he should have at least hit the target when drilling his shot wide of the far post on the half hour.
"I think that we were on fire in the first 25 minutes or so; I thought that we were different class," said Coppinger. "But it is so hard to maintain that standard."
Joe Garner's goalbound header took a deflection and sailed just wide of the far post for another corner.
Record signing Nathan Tyson showed good pace on a run on goal only to shoot wide of the far post.
Tyson again troubled the Rovers' back-four with his pace on 34 minutes and had not last man James Chambers, subsequently booked, not brought him down just outside the area, Rovers could have found themselves behind.
Many Forest fans felt that Chambers should have walked but manager Colin Calderwood said that referee Penn got the decision right.
"Nathan was going away from goal," he said.
"We were aware of how lethal Tyson is when the ball is played in behind
and that's what they rely on," said Coppinger.
"Garner was also a threat but I thought that we defended really well and you have to take your hat off to all the lads because we defended as a team."
It needed a terrific save by Sullivan in stoppage time to deny Garner's goalbound header at the near post.
Camp got down well to smother Hayter's 48th minute shot during Rovers' first raid of the second half.
Tyson continued to prove a handful for the Rovers defenders and he was just inches wide of the right-hand post with a tremendous strike from the edge of the area on 53 minutes.
Hayter, who had worked hard, suffered a knee injury during an attack and had to be replaced several minutes later.
Both sides could have snatched a winner in the final quarter with Garner almost grazing the crossbar from just inside the area. His replacement Robert Earnshaw fired just wide.
Rovers' Stuart Elliott went close to winning the game at the death. Spotting that Camp was off his line the Northern Ireland international tried his luck from around 40 yards out only to see the ball go the wrong side of the post.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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