The second game of John Ward's second spell as manager earned him his first win since returning to the club. Joe Anyinsah and Matthew Lund gave Rovers a 2–0 lead at the break, and despite a second half goal for Conor Hourihane, The Gas managed to hang on for a 2–1 victory.
Lund and Cian Bolger both played the final games of their respective loan spells and returned to their parent clubs after the match, while new boys Steve Mildenhall, John-Joe O'Toole and Tom Hitchcock all made their Bristol Rovers debuts.
Plymouth Argyle manager Carl Fletcher was sacked after the game, ending a 15-month spell in charge.
Match details[]
|
Bristol Rovers | 2–1 | Plymouth Argyle | 
|
| Anyinsah (19) Lund (25) |
(2–0 HT) | Hourihane (62) | ||
| Venue: The Memorial Stadium – KO: 1 January 2013 @ 1300 | ||||
| Attendance: 7,332 – Referee: Mark Heywood | ||||
| Lineups | ||||
| 13 Steve Mildenhall | 20 Rene Gilmartin | |||
| 2 Michael Smith | 2 Durrell Berry  |
|||
| 6 Tom Parkes | 4 Maxime Blanchard | |||
| 29 Cian Bolger | 14 Onismor Bhasera | |||
| 14 Lee Brown | 17 Curtis Nelson | |||
 26 Matthew Lund |
3 Robbie Williams  |
|||
| 15 Oliver Norburn |
6 Conor Hourihane |
|||
| 32 John-Joe O'Toole | 8 Luke Young |
|||
| 11 Fabian Broghammer |
7 Paris Cowan-Hall | |||
| 16 Joe Anyinsah |
9 Nick Chadwick | |||
| 27 Tom Hitchcock | 11 Warren Feeney |
|||
| Substitutes | ||||
| 20 Conor Gough (GK) | 1 Jake Cole (GK) | |||
 10 Eliot Richards |
10 Rhys Griffiths |
|||
| 17 Ellis Harrison | 15 Paul Wotton | |||
| 18 Mitch Harding |
16 Jamie Lowry | |||
| 25 Seanan Clucas |
19 Joe Lennox |
|||
| 30 Tom Lockyer | 21 Matt Lecointe | |||
| 33 Alefe Santos | 30 Mark Molesley |
|||
Timeline[]
19 mins: Goal for Bristol Rovers scored by Joe Anyinsah- 25 mins: Goal for Bristol Rovers scored by Matthew Lund
- 62 mins: Goal for Plymouth scored by Conor Hourihane
- 72 mins: Durrell Berry booked for a foul on Fabian Broghammer
- 72 mins: Seanan Clucas replaced Oliver Norburn
- 75 mins: Joe Lennox replaced Robbie Williams
- 77 mins: Eliot Richards replaced Fabian Broghammer
- 78 mins: Rhys Griffiths replaced Warren Feeney
- 83 mins: Conor Hourihane booked for a foul on Tom Hitchcock
- 84 mins: Mark Molesley replaced Luke Young
- 90+1 mins: Mitch Harding replaced Joe Anyinsah
| 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 | |||||||||||||||||||