A 4–1 reversal at the hands of York City marked Rovers' ninth defeat in their last eleven games and proved to be the end of manager Mark McGhee's tenure at the club.
York initially went ahead through a Garry Kenneth own goal, but lost their advantage just a minute later when Tom Eaves muscled his way through the Minstermen's defence to earn an equaliser. Sixty seconds later York were back in front thanks to Ashley Chambers, and a frenetic five minutes was rounded off three minutes later when Jason Walker put York 3–1 up.
Chambers scored for a second time shortly after the half hour mark, but this would prove to be final goal of the game, the 4–1 result costing manager McGhee his job.
Match details[]
|
York City | 4–1 | Bristol Rovers | 
|
| Kenneth (og 14) Chambers (16, 33) Walker (19) |
(4–1 HT) | Eaves (15) | ||
| Venue: Bootham Crescent – KO: 15 December 2012 @ 1500 | ||||
| Attendance: 3,109 – Referee: Paul Tierney | ||||
| Lineups | ||||
| 24 Michael Ingham | 28 Sam Walker | |||
| 4 Chris Smith | 4 Danny Woodards  |
|||
| 6 Danny Parslow | 5 Garry Kenneth  |
|||
| 16 Jamal Fyfield | 34 Guy Branston |
|||
| 23 Chris Doig |
3 Jim Paterson | |||
| 8 Scott Kerr | 26 Matthew Lund |
|||
| 17 Matty Blair | 6 Tom Parkes | |||
| 19 Michael Potts | 11 Fabian Broghammer | |||
| 26 Patrick McLaughlin |
16 Joe Anyinsah | |||
 9 Jason Walker |
7 David Clarkson | |||
| 10 Ashley Chambers |
32 Tom Eaves |
|||
| Substitutes | ||||
| 1 Paul Musselwhite (GK) | 20 Conor Gough (GK) | |||
| 5 David McGurk | 2 Michael Smith  |
|||
| 7 Jamie Reed | 10 Eliot Richards |
|||
| 12 Lee Bullock | 15 Oliver Norburn | |||
| 13 Jonathan Smith |
17 Ellis Harrison | |||
| 27 Tom Allan |
25 Seanan Clucas |
|||
| 33 Alex Rodman |
27 Derek Riordan | |||
Timeline[]
14 mins: Goal for York City. Own goal scored by Garry Kenneth- 15 mins: Goal for Bristol Rovers scored by Tom Eaves
- 16 mins: Goal for York City scored by Ashley Chambers
- 19 mins: Goal for York City scored by Jason Walker
- 33 mins: Goal for York City scored by Ashley Chambers
- 45+3 mins: Jonathan Smith replaced Patrick McLaughlin
- 46 mins: Michael Smith and Seanan Clucas replaced Danny Woodards and Matthew Lund
- 56 mins: Tom Allan replaced Chris Doig
- 65 mins: Alex Rodman replaced Ashley Chambers
- 89 mins: Eliot Richards replaced Guy Branston
| 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 | |||||||||||||||||||