Leisurely and devoid of passion, it took Jo Kuffour's late goal and the angry shouts from a short-changed crowd to inject it with some life.
There were a couple of angry exchanges between the rival managers with Rovers' Paul Trollope accusing Stuart Gray's Northampton of timewasting before Kaffour's winning volley.
The goal carried its own controversy for keeper Chris Dunn looked to have been bustled by two Rovers players as he stretched for and spilled a cross from David Pipe.
Right at the start Town striker Adebayo Akinfenwa almost became a candidate for the season's quickest goal shooting wide of the left-hand post after just eight seconds.
Kuffour quickly made his presence felt in the game racing through the middle and on to a return pass from Rickie Lambert.
Dunn was off his line just in time to scoop up the ball, but two minutes later Lambert was thundering a free-kick over his bar 45 yards.
It was that sort of optimism which went on throughout the game always suggestive of goals, but hardly likely to provide them.
Northampton might have scored when Ryan Gilligan was given a free-kick 25 yards out after the referee spotted a shirt tug and Giles Coke also drove a promising shot a foot wide as he went down under a tackle.
The only memorable save though came when Dunn, again off his line, twisted and turned to push a smart flick from Kaffour over the top.
There was little change of tempo in the second half and the crowd didn't like it, chanting 'what a load of rubbish'.
The visitors found ambition after the goal and spent the four minutes of extra-time camped in the Rovers penalty area, but could only wish that Akinfenwa's early shot had gone in.