Endings to matches do not come more dramatic than Bristol Rovers' 2-1 victory over Crewe Alexandra, with Tommy Leigh at the heart of it.
With the Pirates a goal behind heading into the final minutes, with Alfie Pond's first-half goal giving the Railwaymen the lead for the majority of the contest, the hosts needed someone to come up with magic.
Leigh did just that. Coming off the bench, Leigh powered a close-range header past Ian Lawlor to level the score before the midfielder won it late on, blasting his strike into the bottom corner to lift the roof off of The Mem.
Evans made three changes at half-time, with Leigh coming on alongside Ryan de Havilland and Fabrizio Cavegn, and it changed the game. Leigh felt only one team was going to win the game and had a special mention for Brad Young.
"We were on top all of the second half," he said. "I don’t really think they had a lot of opportunities. They had a couple from outside of the box, but Brad has been outstanding.
"He’s a top keeper and made some brilliant saves in that game. I feel like the only team that was going to come off with the three points was us, especially when we got the first. I thought after that, it was our game to lose or draw."
Rovers pushed for a leveller, and the play remained in Crewe for the majority of the second half, but the ball was just not dropping in the right place for the Gas before Leigh crashed his header beyond Lawlor.
"I saw the lad marking me," said Leigh. "I don’t know how long he was on me for, but I just saw him switch off in the last second, and I nipped in front of him and won the header, and luckily enough, it has hit the back of the net."
As Fourth Official George Laflin lifted the board to show four minutes of additional time, everyone at The Mem thought it could have been more. However, Leigh still had time to snatch the winning goal, showing a clinical edge to fire his strike into the bottom corner before racing across to the left corner flag. It was a special moment, with Leigh getting lost in the moment.
"I can’t remember a lot," he reflected. All I remember is getting bundled by loads of lads. It just dropped quite softly, and then I just smacked it as hard as I could. I scuffed it, but they all count, don’t they?
"The noise was absolutely brilliant. As I said, the fans were fantastic. You can hear them, especially when we got the first goal to 1-1, all you do is hear them for the ten minutes at the end. For the ten minutes, all you could hear was our fans; you couldn’t hear any of them. They gave us the boost to go and get the winner."
Rovers had points in the 2025/26 Sky Bet League Two season, where they had difficulties collecting points at home, but The Mem is now back to its very best. The Gas have won four of their last five matches in the fourth tier, scoring at least twice in each game, with Leigh wanting to make it as hard as possible for visiting teams.
"I’ve come here a couple of times, and it’s a tough place to come and especially to get three points is very hard for an away side. We want to make that tough. We don’t want to let the game go by; we want to give it our all and get the three points over the line, especially at home. At this time, we need the three points, and we need to win more games, and I think we can."
