| League One | ||
|---|---|---|
| Team | Home | Away |
| Brighton | 1-2 | 1-1 |
| Carlisle | 2-3 | 1-1 |
| Cheltenham | 3-2 | 1-2 |
| Colchester | 0-0 | 1-0 |
| Crewe | 0-0 | 1-1 |
| Hartlepool | 4-1 | 1-1 |
| Hereford | 6-1 | 3-0 |
| Huddersfield | 1-2 | 1-1 |
| Leeds | 2-2 | 2-2 |
| Leicester | 0-1 | 1-2 |
| L Orient | 2-1 | 2-1 |
| Millwall | 4-2 | 2-3 |
| MK Dons | 1-2 | 1-2 |
| Northampton | 1-0 | 0-0 |
| Oldham | 2-0 | 2-0 |
| Peterborough | 0-1 | 4-5 |
| Scunthorpe | 1-2 | 2-0 |
| Southend | 4-2 | 0-1 |
| Stockport | 2-0 | 1-3 |
| Swindon | 2-2 | 1-2 |
| Tranmere | 2-0 | 0-2 |
| Walsall | 1-3 | 5-0 |
| Yeovil | 3-0 | 2-2 |
| FA Cup | ||
| Team | H/A | |
| Bournemouth | A | 0-1 |
| League Cup | ||
| Team | H/A | |
| Watford | A | 0-1 |
| League Trophy | ||
| Team | H/A | |
| Bournemouth | A | 0-3 |
Going into their thirty-seventh League One game of the 2008-09 season, Rovers were ten points behind the playoff zone with ten matches left to play, giving them a slim chance of extending their season. The game was against Peterborough United, a team who had beaten them 5–4 earlier in the season in a game that was screened live on Sky Sports. Rovers came into the game on the back of a good run of results which had seem them lose just twice in their last fourteen matches, a run stretching back to Boxing Day.
Coach Paul Trollope named a side that contained once change from the previous match, a 1–1 draw with Crewe Alexandra, with Ryan Green missing through injury. Aaron Lescott moved across from the left-back to the right-back position, and Joe Jacobson was brought into the starting eleven. Taking Jacobson's seat on the bench was Sean Rigg.
Rovers failed to make a major impact on their opponents, who were themselves in good form and lying in second place in the League One table, and lost the game 1–0, thanks to a 70th-minute winner from Aaron McLean. With other results going the wrong way for Rovers, this left them thirteen points below the playoff positions with nine games to play, meaning that any realistic chance of reaching them was now gone.
Match details[]
| Bristol Rovers | 0–1 | Peterborough United |
|---|---|---|
| (0–0 HT) | McLean (70) | |
| at Memorial Stadium | attendance: 7,103 | |
| Lineups | ||
| 1 Steve Phillips | 1 Joe Lewis | |
| 32 Aaron Lescott | 2 Russell Martin | |
| 15 Byron Anthony | 5 Chris Westwood | |
| 6 Steve Elliott | 6 Charlie Lee | |
| 3 Joe Jacobson | 21 Tom Williams 
| |
| 14 David Pipe | 18 Chris Whelpdale | |
| 4 Chris Lines |
11 Dean Keates | |
| 20 Craig Disley | 15 Paul Coutts | |
| 11 Jeff Hughes |
10 George Boyd | |
| 9 Rickie Lambert | 9 Aaron McLean 
| |
| 10 Darryl Duffy |
12 Craig Mackail-Smith | |
| Substitutes | ||
| 21 Danzelle St Louis-Hamilton | 13 James McKeown | |
| 5 Craig Hinton | 3 Shane Blackett 
| |
| 7 Stuart Campbell |
22 Sergio Torres | |
| 17 Jo Kuffour |
24 Shaun Batt | |
| 19 Sean Rigg |
33 Daniel Blanchett | |
Timeline[]
- 66 mins: Double substitution for Bristol Rovers - Jo Kuffour and Stuart Campbell replaced Darryl Duffy and Chris Lines
- 70 mins: Goal for Peterborough United scored by Aaron McLean
- 83 mins: Bristol Rovers substitution - Sean Rigg replaced Jeff Hughes
- 90+6 mins: Peterborough United substitution - Shane Blackett replaced Tom Williams