New boss John Ward suffered the first defeat of his second spell as Rovers' manager, in what was his third game since coming back. The injury crisis being suffered by The Gas at this point was worsened when Garry Kenneth suffered serious knee ligament damage, ruling him out for the remainder of the season.
Northern Irish defender Mark McChrystal made his first appearance in a Bristol Rovers side, while former Rovers man Adam Barrett captained the Gillingham team.
Both goals scored in this game came in the first half. Chris Whelpdale opened the scoring with less than three minutes on the clock, before Deon Burton netted just before the break. The result kept Gillingham at the top of the League Two table, while Rovers dropped to 24th and last.
Match details[]
|
Bristol Rovers | 0–2 | Gillingham | 
|
| (0–2 HT) | Whelpdale (3) Burton (44) | |||
| Venue: The Memorial Stadium – KO: 5 January 2013 @ 1500 | ||||
| Attendance: 6,088 – Referee: Brendan Malone | ||||
| Lineups | ||||
| 13 Steve Mildenhall | 1 Stuart Nelson | |||
| 2 Michael Smith | 2 Matt Fish | |||
 5 Garry Kenneth |
3 Joe Martin | |||
| 29 Mark McChrystal | 6 Leon Legge | |||
| 14 Lee Brown | 12 Andrew Frampton | |||
| 32 John-Joe O'Toole | 26 Adam Barrett | |||
| 6 Tom Parkes | 4 Jack Payne | |||
| 25 Seanan Clucas | 7 Chris Whelpdale  |
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| 11 Fabian Broghammer |
24 Myles Weston |
|||
| 10 Eliot Richards | 17 Adam Birchall |
|||
| 16 Joe Anyinsah |
20 Deon Burton |
|||
| Substitutes | ||||
| 20 Conor Gough (GK) | 21 Tommy Forecast (GK) | |||
| 4 Danny Woodards | 8 Charlie Lee | |||
 15 Oliver Norburn |
9 Danny Kedwell |
|||
| 17 Ellis Harrison | 11 Danny Jackman | |||
| 18 Mitch Harding |
14 Charlie Allen |
|||
| 27 Tom Hitchcock |
15 Callum Davies | |||
| 30 Tom Lockyer | 28 Steven Gregory |
|||
Timeline[]
3 mins: Goal for Gillingham scored by Chris Whelpdale- 44 mins: Goal for Gillingham scored by Deon Burton
- 45+2 mins: Oliver Norburn replaced Garry Kenneth
- 46 mins: Tom Hitchcock replaced Joe Anyinsah
- 57 mins: Steven Gregory and Danny Kedwell replaced Adam Birchall and Deon Burton
- 73 mins: Charlie Allen replaced Myles Weston
- 76 mins: Mitch Harding replaced Fabian Broghammer
| League Two | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | ACC | AFW | ALD | BAR | BRA | BUR | CNM | CFD | D&R | EXE | FWD | GIL | MOR | NOR | OXF | PLY | PTV | RDL | ROT | SOU | TOR | WYC | YOR | |
| Home | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 2–1 | 3–3 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 3–2 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–3 | 3–1 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 2–3 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 | |
| Away | 0–1 | 1–3 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 1–4 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 4–2 | 2–1 | 3–0 | 0–4 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–4 | 1–2 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 3–3 | A–A 0–2 |
1–4 | |
| FA Cup | Capital One Cup | Johnstone's Paint Trophy | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rnd | 1 | Rnd | 1 | Rnd | 1sw | |||||||||||||||||||
| Team | SHU | Team | IPS | Team | YEO | |||||||||||||||||||
| H/A | H | H/A | A | H/A | H | |||||||||||||||||||
| Res | 1–2 | Res | 1–3 | Res | 0–3 | |||||||||||||||||||