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.