Bristol Rovers

Bristol Rovers FC is a professional football club from the West Country city of Bristol, formed in 1883 as Black Arabs FC playing at Purdown, prior to changing title to Eastville Rovers, after the area of the city in which they played to try to draw more local support after one season as the club moved to Three Acres.

After spending the 1891-92 season at Schoolmasters Cricket Ground, Rovers moved to Durdham Down for a couple of seasons, where they became founder members of the Bristol and District League. The competition was renamed the Western League in 1895.

By this time, the club had moved to Ridgeway before they changed title to Bristol Eastville Rovers, joining the Birmingham & District League for the 1897-98 season after moving into Eastville Stadium. The club dropped Eastville from their title the following year.

Rovers became members of the Southern League in 1899-00 under the first manager, Alfred Homer, before going on to lift the league title in 1904-05. Rovers were accepted into Division Three South of the extended Football League in 1920.

Greyhound racing was introduced to Eastville in 1928, in a move that would much later lead to huge problems to the club. Rovers failed to make much of an impact in the league, with ninth place under Albert Prince-Cox in 1932-33, their best finish before World War Two.

 

Brough Fletcher was manager when ‘The Pirates’ finished fifth in 1948-49 before they reached the quarter final of the FA Cup in 1950-51, going out to eventual winners Newcastle United. Rovers were crowned as Division Three South champions in 1952-53 at a time when forward Geoff Bradford was a fans favourite.

The side retained their new status in Division Two for the best part of the following decade, reaching the last eight of the FA Cup again in 1957-58 where they bowed out to Fulham under the leadership of Bert Tann, before being relegated in 1961-62.

Bill Dodgin, Sr. was at the helm as the Pirates finished third in Division Three in 1969-70 before the side won the Watney Cup in 1972 on penalties against Sheffield United with stalwart keeper Dick Sheppard the hero. A brief look can be seen here.

Rovers would win promotion as runners-up in 1973-74 with a fine side including the partnership of ‘Smash and Grab’ otherwise known as Alan Warboys and Bruce Bannister. Other stars of the line-up were Frankie Prince, Lindsay Parsons and Jim Eadie managed by Don Megson.

A remarkable 8-2 win away to Brighton & Hove Albion, managed at the time by Brian Clough, can be seen here. Rovers struggled as a Division Two team, before they eventually went down after spells under Bobby Campbell, Harold Jarmon and then Terry Cooper in 1980-81.

It was a difficult time for the club as disaster struck in 1980 as Eastville’s South Stand, containing all the records, burned down. Rovers decamped to Ashton Gate alongside rivals City for a few games, while the facilities were adapted.

Fans of Rovers were known as “Gasheads” because of gas works behind the covered Tote End. Eastville still had a large North Stand with seats behind a terrace, and the open Muller Road End with the M32 hovering above it.

Eastville's South Stand after the fire

Bobby Gould took over as manager to steady the ship before he moved on to be replaced by former club midfielder David Williams in 1983. By 1986, with Gould back at the helm and former England skipper Gerry Francis in the team, the greyhound owners of Eastville had increased the rent to such a degree that the club were enforced to move out.

An agreement to become tenants of Bristol City couldn't be reached for several reasons, so Rovers moved thirteen miles east to share an upgraded Twerton Park with Bath City FC. Francis took over as manager in 1987 with star striker Paul Randall in the team, leading the Pirates to the play-offs in 1988-89 before star keeper Nigel Martyn moved on.

Fulham were defeated before Port Vale won the final at Wembley. Rovers were not to be denied in 1989-90 as they lifted the Division Three title. Malcolm Allison had a spell as manager in 1992-93 as his side were relegated to the retitled third tier Division Two.

Twerton Park, Bath

John Ward took over as manager, taking the Gasheads to the play-offs in 1994-95, where they defeated Crewe Alexandra before losing out to Huddersfield Town. However, a huge consolation was received in 1996 as the club moved home to Bristol while Marcus Stewart banged in the goals on the pitch.

Rovers became tenants of Bristol Rugby Club at The Memorial Ground before entering into joint ownership of the venue. Improvements were made to cater for professional football. Ian Holloway was appointed as player-manager at the same time as the club moved in.

The 1997-98 campaign saw the Pirates lose their play-off semi-final to Northampton Town, while Bristol RFC suffered relegation and financial problems with Rovers becoming owners of the stadium, buying out their former landlords’ shares. The goals of Jamie Cureton, Barry Hayles and Jason Roberts giving cheer to Gasheads around the time.

Bristol Rovers dropped down to the bottom tier in 2000-01 despite the goals of Nathan Ellington. Garry Thompson had a spell as manager before the arrival of Ray Graydon in 2002 after the side finished second bottom of the Football League prior to Ian Atkins taking control for the 2004-05 campaign. He was replaced by Paul Trollope.

The 2006-07 season saw the first success at ‘The Mem’ with Rovers reaching the play-offs where Lincoln City were beaten. In the Wembley final Shrewsbury Town were defeated 3-1 with a brace from Richard Walker and a Sammy Igoe goal before Rickie Lambert took over as the main source of goals.

Progress on the pitch was matched when planning permission was granted to completely redevelop The Mem. Unfortunately, the timing coincided with the recession so plans that would have seen Rovers temporarily share Waddon Road, Cheltenham were put on hold.

The team reached the quarter final of the FA Cup in 2007-08 while Rovers stabilised their third tier League One status, until a disastrous 2010-11 season, which saw Trollope depart to be replaced by Dave Penney as the team was relegated. Paul Buckle took charge of side for six months before the appointment of Mark McGhee.

The club were given planning permission to build the new the UWE Stadium on the northern fringes of the city in July 2012 with the Memorial Stadium being sold to Sainsbury’s. However, protests from local residents led to a hold up to proceedings,

Ward returned for a second spell as manager from December 2012 but failed to emulate previous success. He was replaced by Salisbury City boss Darrell Clarke in a brave decision by chairman Nick Higgs. It would backfire as Bristol Rovers were relegated to the Football Conference at the end of the 2013-14 season.

Worse was to come when Sainsbury’s pulled out of their deal and were taken to court by the club. The supermarket giant won the case costing the club valuable finance. Higgs held his nerve as Clarke led his team to the play-offs in 2014-15.

Forest Green Rovers were beaten before Rovers defeated Grimsby Town 5-3 on penalties at Wembley after a 1-1 draw with Ellis Harrison netting to return to League Two after just twelve months away as Matty Taylor led the scoring charts.

The momentum continued as the Pirates were promoted in third place in 2015-16 while off the pitch the club was bought by the Jordanian Al-Qadi family, founders of the Arab Jordan Investment Bank. League One football was secured in 2016-17.

In August 2017 the owners announced that they would not be building the new stadium and instead would look to redevelop the Mem. Graham Coughlan replaced Clarke in January 2019 after successive mid table finishes were threatened to be derailed. The new man steered the team clear of the drop zone.

The 2019-20 season saw Rovers placed fourteenth on points per game after play was ended early owing to the outbreak of COVID-19 a few months after Ben Garner had been appointed as the new manager.

The 2020-21 campaign was one of turbulence as Garner was replaced by Paul Tisdale who only lasted in the role for a couple of months before Joey Barton was put in place with Rovers, but he couldn’t help save his side from relegation. Aaron Collins led the scoring as the team won promotion from League Two at the first attempt.

The Pirates consolidated their League One standing in 2022-23 prior to replacing the controversial Barton with Matt Taylor in December 2023. 

Bristol Rovers FC will play in EFL League One in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Bristol Rovers 0 Tranmere Rovers 1 (Tuesday 28th September 2010) League One (att: 5,589)

On early shift at work I had been planning a visit to The Mem for about a year since I had worked out from my trip to Ashton Gate that I could still get back the same evening. Studying the fixtures, the match with Tranmere fitted the bill perfectly.

A Megabus seat was booked for just £6 to the University of the South West, where Rovers proposed to build their new stadium. My preparation told me that this was more convenient than going all the way into the city. From there a bus dropped me right outside the stadium. 

At one point I was going to walk it. I'm so pleased I didn't bother as my estimations on distance were way out! I went into one of the huge bars in the clubhouse and was served in no time, despite it being fairly busy. After a couple of pints it was time to decide where to stand. 

I plumped for the terrace in front of the Centenary Stand which had decent views but was uncovered for £18. The large seated stand towered above the terrace. Behind the left hand goal was a temporary West Stand which housed the away support, such as it was. 

Opposite was the DAS stand which had the look of a cricket ground stand with its many different sections, and another temporary stand at its west end. To the east of it was the Family Stand which was covered terrace and joined up with the Clubhouse End.

Rovers started brightly but burned out after about ten minutes. Tranmere were nothing special but soaked up any pressure remarkably easily. Veteran visitor Ian Goodison stood out. The locals were not happy and I couldn't blame them. Just before half time I decided to beat the rush and use the gents. Sure enough I came out to find I'd missed the only goal.

It was the first goal in professional football from teenage striker Dale Jennings. Half time offered some relief as I got a beer easily enough underneath the stand. It was obvious that the catering staff were more than efficient and were used to dealing with larger crowds of thirsty rugby fans when spectators can drink throughout the game.

The second half was similar to the first. In a word: rubbish. It really was the worst game I'd seen for some time. To add to things the rain started falling heavily. A little shelter was found under the stairways to the seating decks. I left about ten minutes from the end. 

I popped back inside to take photos from the Family Stand before catching the bus back towards Temple Meads station from where I had booked an advanced ticket on the 10.35 train back to Paddington for just £10. 

There was still a bit of time to kill before the train, so I was not upset to see signs pointing to a newly opened Wetherspoons pub just a couple of minutes walk away. It certainly helped me sleep on the train home.

It hadn't been the best game I'd been to with the highlights being the superb pasties at the ground and listening to Preston come back from 4-1 down to beat Leeds 6-4 at Elland Road on my radio. It was however another ground off my list and another new area visited.


The pictures on this section of Eastville have been taken from the internet.