Post by harrybuckle on May 15, 2021 12:35:14 GMT
Compiled by Rovers Historian Stephen Byrne what is 2020-21
Season. One of the low points in our Club's long history. Superbly written and highly recommended reading capturing the many low points and unwanted records created in a most unusual season.
Following a dramatic season in three parts, Rovers’ five-year stint in League One came to an end and the side was relegated back to the fourth tier of English football, bottom of the table. To some observers, this tied in neatly in an historical sense, the club having been relegated in 1981, 2001, 2011 and now also 2021. A poor start to the season under manager Ben Garner had been followed by inactivity in the January transfer window and under Paul Tisdale, and then by an inability to get sufficient reaction from the players from Joey B*****, Rovers ending a campaign under four managers, including caretaker manager Tommy Widdrington, in twenty-fourth place with 38 League points. Ultimately, the club’s performance, both on the field and through its management structure, led to a hugely disappointing season and the realisation that League Two football was returning to Bristol.
Had it not been for the relegation scrap, perhaps the 2020-21 season would be best remembered as one hugely affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which had curtailed the previous campaign and now left all clubs in the lower tiers of the Football League suffering economically, amidst questions about the sustainability of many teams. Rovers’ official attendance at virtually all home and away matches this year was zero (the exception being the Football League Trophy game at Orient, where a minimal number of spectators was admitted and an unofficial crowd of just over five hundred was given), supporters being denied the opportunity to watch their club, with tough social distancing measures in place; perhaps this lack of the usual vociferous vocal support from the terraces contributed to a very poor showing on the field. As it was, a lack of goal-scoring strikers and a failure to sign attacking players in the January transfer window, all of which highlighted defensive frailties, was to cost the club on the field. Just as tentative and ill-conceived plans for a European Super League made controversial news headlines in the footballing world, Rovers lost at home to MK Dons to effectively tumble out of third-tier English football.
A flurry of new signings had heralded the possibility of an exciting period ahead. Zain Westbrooke, in particular, had impressed in a very strong Coventry City side which had won the League One title in 2019-20, whilst Max Ehmer, a solid central defender on several occasions against Rovers, joined from Gillingham as captain. Jack Baldwin offered strength in defence, whilst the signings of Josh Grant, David Tutonda, Ali Koiki, Ben Liddle, Pablo Martinez and the exciting crowd-pleaser Sam Nicholson implied creativity. Questions remained up front, despite talented young strikers Brandon Hanlan and Jonah Ayunga joining the club, as neither had scored regularly before at League One level. Rovers' supporters, however, were understandably enthusiastic about the loan signings of Erhun Öztümer, who had previously scored a wonder goal for Walsall at The Mem, and Chelsea’s hard-working midfielder Luke McCormick. Despite teenager Zain Walker’s two first-half goals at Bristol Manor Farm, the side had struggled in pre-season against Cardiff, Newport and Exeter. Tom Davies was sent out on loan to Barrow, as was Kyle Bennett to Grimsby Town and Michael Kelly to Yeovil Town. Jonson Clarke-Harris was the pre-season top scorer and he was sold to Peterborough United before the League campaign could get underway, where he was League One top scorer for the season. By May 2021, Clarke-Harris had scored more League goals in the 2020-21 season alone than all three of Rovers’ strikers had in their combined Football League careers.
Even a season which opened with Luke Leahy’s third-minute goal for the Gas at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light caused concern from the off. In spite of Leahy’s goal, Rovers did not win at Sunderland, even when the home side was reduced to ten men with George Dobson’s red card. Club captain Ehmer conceded an own goal in the first home fixture, a 2-0 loss at the hands of Ipswich Town and 4-1 losses to Doncaster and Fleetwood followed. A goal up in the second minute at home to Hull City, Rovers lost 3-1 with three second-half substitutes all scoring, Keane Lewis-Potter, Regan Slater and the former Rovers striker Tom Eaves; the first time two substitutes had scored against Rovers in the same game had been when Chris Leadbitter and the future Rovers striker John Taylor scored in Cambridge United’s 6-1 victory in February 1991. Wigan Athletic’s Thalo Aasgaard became the first player alphabetically to oppose Rovers in any competition throughout the club’s history. Ched Evans, towards the end of Joey B*****’s Fleetwood’s 4-1 win at The Mem, became the fifth substitute to score a penalty against Rovers in a League match. This fixture, in which Callum Camps scored twice, proved to be the final one of Ben Garner’s tenure as Rovers’ manager, with Rovers in eighteenth place after twelve points in eleven League fixtures; the club had won six out of 33 matches during his spell in charge. Oxford United, as a point of reference, found themselves in the bottom four at this stage but made the play-offs.
Under caretaker manager Tommy Widdrington, Rovers recorded an exciting 4-3 victory over the Chelsea Under-21 side in the Football League Trophy, Josh Hare scoring his first goal for the club with a powerful downward header in stoppage time to defeat a side which included former Premier League winner and England international Danny Drinkwater. The following day, on 19th November 2020, Rovers appointed Paul Tisdale as manager, a 47-year-old football manager born in Malta, who had previously spent twelve years in charge at Exeter City. Tisdale’s tenure started with two poor performances in the League before an FA Cup goal glut against Darlington, Rovers scoring four times in the last sixteen minutes of the first-half and six times in twenty-nine minutes to run out comfortable 6-0 winners at The Mem. Both full-backs were amongst the five goalscorers, Luke Leahy becoming, after George Dennis in 1931, the second Rovers player to score two penalties in an FA Cup-tie. This was followed by two hugely impressive wins, scoring four at Wimbledon to pull Rovers out of the bottom four, Nicholson and Hanlan claiming two apiece, and beating Plymouth Argyle 3-0 at home, Alfie Kilgour, McCormick and Westbrooke scoring. It proved the only occasion all season when Rovers won back-to-back League fixtures.
However, a very poor run of defeats through January and February left Rovers “sleepwalking into relegation” (Sam Frost). Just one signing in the January window, solid defender George Williams, who had worked under Tisdale at MK Dons, plus the loan acquisition of Cardiff’s goalkeeper Joe Day, indicated Rovers would not or could not address the issue of a lack of a goal-scoring threat. By means of contrast, Burton Albion had been eight points into the relegation zone and nine behind Rovers, having played two games more, after their 5-1 defeat at home to Oxford United on 2nd January, yet they made seven permanent signings and picked up a further five players on loan, won six games in succession and comfortably avoided relegation.
Just as the club was not making any attacking signings during the January transfer window, performances on the pitch were also deteriorating. By the end of January, Rovers had scored in only four of the previous eleven League fixtures and yet no strikers or attacking players had joined the club and this was ultimately to cost Tisdale his position with Rovers. Bizarrely, Rovers’ solitary point in a six-game run through late January came away to high-flying Peterborough United. Having gained just one point in November, this coming against bottom-of-the-table Wigan Athletic, this latest run was disastrous. Rovers did score at Crewe, clawing back a two-goal deficit only to lose 3-2, and crashed 6-1 at Accrington on a depressing Tuesday night in a match delayed by half-an-hour because of snow, with Dion Charles scoring a hat-trick. The combined goal-scoring tally on Stanley’s shirt numbers amounted to 144, easily surpassing the previous highest of 108 from the visit to Luton Town over Easter 1936. With Rovers having lost eight of their first twelve home League fixtures, it was announced on 10th February 2021 that the club had parted company with manager Paul Tisdale.
Seeking a third permanent manager in a few months, Rovers made the perhaps controversial appointment, on 22nd February, of the former England international midfielder Joey B*****. As manager of Fleetwood, he had crossed swords before with The Gas, being sent off at The Mem on one occasion and at Fleetwood on another; he had served a prison sentence for affray in 2008 and, on his appointment, a court case was hanging over him. Yet what he did offer was passion, drive and focus; B***** termed his arrival as “The Great Reset”. However, those anticipating a New Manager Bounce were disappointed, as the club then lost five matches in succession at the end of March to drop into the relegation zone. Amid a palpable lack of self-belief on the pitch, Rovers appeared to plunge headlong into relegation back to the fourth tier after five years away. Reliable defender Leahy took over from out-of-favour Ehmer as captain, his regular supply of goals proving a real bonus alongside Rovers’ shot-shy strike-force.
There were a handful of hugely positive results. Principally amongst these was a 2-1 victory away to top-of-the-table Lincoln City in October, goals from Daly and Hanlan threatening to kick-start Rovers’ campaign. Likewise, victory over Accrington in March, a 4-1 home win almost avenging the disastrous trip to Lancashire in February, was viewed as a glimmer of hope, as B*****’s reign began to kick in. However, it was followed by a run of one point in five matches, Rovers failing to score in four of those as they slumped into the relegation zone. Catastrophically, the side lost at home to relegation rivals Swindon Town and Wigan Athletic at this stage in the season, dropping points against most clubs in and around The Gas in the table. Rovers failed to score in a club seasonal record 23 League matches, sixteen of them since the start of 2021; defender Luke Leahy was top scorer with eight (he also scored two penalties I the FA Cup and a bizarre own goal against Ipswich town after just forty-seven seconds), ahead of Hanlan on seven, with McCormick and Nicholson both on six. Creativity dried up when Rodman and Nicholson were missing through injury, whilst Öztümer was never the same player after contracting Covid. Then as the Fratton Park clock behind him showed exactly twenty-six minutes played, Ronan Curtis, the youngest of Marie Curtis’ eleven children, fired home right-footed to give Pompey a 1-0 victory over Rovers in April, a result which mathematically confirmed the relegation which had become inevitable through the spring.
Supporters, perhaps clutching at straw a little, bemoaned a disallowed “goal” at home to Swindon Town, where the wrong player had been deemed offside, a penalty at Northampton which was perceived as a touch fortunate and even Ed Upson’s harsh red card against Lincoln. Under B*****’s management Rovers lost without scoring in ten separate League matches. Ipswich scored only two goals in an eight-match spell in the spring; both were against Rovers. Yet the reality was that investment had been inadequate, the defence conceded unnecessarily and goals were at a premium, following an apparent lack of appropriate investment in strikers. An untimely injury to reliable shot-stopper Anssi Jaakkola had led the club to field three goalkeepers behind a shaky defence. Westbrooke, Hanlan, Grant, Ehmer, Nicholson, McCormick, Kilgour, Harries and Baldwin were all regulars in the side, but the absence of an ever-present highlights an air of uncertainty and instability. 32 players were used in League One, including youngsters Jed Ward and Tom Mehew on the final day. Ten League games were lost to the exact score of 2-0, including both fixtures against Gillingham and MK Dons, Rovers having lost six League fixtures by exactly that score in the truncated 2020-21 campaign.
Cup competitions offered little respite in a poor on-field season. Rovers crashed out of the League Cup 3-0 at a strong Ipswich Town, Freddie Sears scoring in both halves, and lost their Football League Trophy encounters on penalties against Walsall and Oxford United, the Saddlers being captained by former Gas defender James Clarke and managed by his namesake Darrell, Rovers’ manager in recent years. Oxford’s goalkeeper Jack Stevens saved three Rovers penalties, one in the match and two in the shoot-out which followed. Victories over Chelsea Under-21 and Orient preceded a demoralising home defeat to Wimbledon. In the FA Cup, Rovers defeated Darrell Clarke’s Walsall and trounced Darlington before falling gallantly to Premier League Sheffield United, twice equalising in a 3-2 defeat at The Mem after Day had conceded an own goal on his début.
A large number of former Rovers players appeared against their former club during the campaign, both Gillingham’s John Akinde and Oxford’s Matty Taylor scoring a brace, Jonson Clarke-Harris, Matty Lund and Tom Eaves also scored, whilst Joe Martin was sent off when Northampton visited The Mem in October, the eleventh player to appear for The Gas and also be sent off against the club in their careers. Former Rovers keeper Sam Walker managed to play twice in twelve days at The Mem for different clubs in January, in the League with Blackpool and the Football League Trophy with Wimbledon. Three opponents were sent off in the opening five League fixtures and four in all, plus one in the Football League Trophy. Conversely, the first Rovers red card of the campaign came when McCormick was sent off for a second yellow card at Burton and this was followed by goalkeeper Day’s last-minute sending-off at Charlton, where Rovers let a two-goal first-half lead slip and lost 3-2, and Upson’s first-half dismissal at home to Lincoln City. MK Dons fielded a sixteen-year-old, Lewis Johnson, when they faced Rovers on Boxing Day; though only twenty-six, Swindon’s Jack Payne was playing for his sixth different club against Rovers in the League. Emile Heskey’s godson Darnell Johnson was in the Wimbledon side Rovers faced in March. Charlton’s Johnny Williams was replaced by Paul Smyth who lasted just eighteen minutes before being substituted by Alex Gilbey; Rovers have substituted a substitute in five League games, but this is nonetheless an unusual occurrence.
Champions Hull, Oxford, Gillingham, Charlton, Ipswich, MK Dons, Crewe and relegation rivals Swindon all completed League doubles over Rovers, whilst The Gas beat Shrewsbury Town home and away. Ehmer, Baldwin and Day all conceded own goals – indeed there were two own goals in the first-half of the Trophy game at Orient – and James Daly became the first footballer born after New Year’s Day 2000 to score a League goal for The Gas. The Football League Trophy game against Wimbledon saw Rovers, following a change in the rules, use five substitutes in a match for the first time. Veteran James Coppinger scored Doncaster Rovers’ goal at The Mem in the spring to become the oldest player to score against The Gas in the Football League and only the second man to do so after his fortieth birthday.
Goals proved to be a real issue, with the club inching past the record low 21 goals at home of the 1980-81 campaign. Tellingly, Rovers and Northampton Town scored fewest goals in the division and both were relegated. Marauding full-back Leahy was top scorer but the side floundered when Jaakkola, Nicholson and Rodman were out injured. Full-back Tareiq Holmes-Dennis had also been forced to announce his premature retirement with long-term injuries. Up front, Ayunga played with real passion, yet his only two League goals came in a ten-minute first-half burst at home to Pompey in the spring. Critically, Rovers picked up just eight points in the ten games against their principal relegation rivals, losing at home to each of Swindon, Wigan and Rochdale after New Year. Fourteen home League games were lost, a club record surpassing the eleven in both 1946-47 and 1980-81, and twenty-eight League defeats exceeded the previous club record set in 1992-93. Having suffered only three relegations in the entire twentieth century, Rovers had now been relegated for the fourth time in the twenty-first century. Whilst several unwanted club records tumbled, the run of five successive home defeats in 1946-47 remained intact. Rovers were sad to hear of the passing of the club’s former Chief Executive Gordon Bennett on 18th September 2020 at the age of seventy-four and of experienced central defender Graham Day, who died on 8th February 2021 aged sixty-seven.
Positively, the Rovers story continues unabated despite the global pandemic, with the club staving off the threat of financial ruin. Much of this stemmed from club president Wael Al-Qadi’s decision to capitalise over £18 million in loans owed by Rovers to his company Dwane Sports and write off £2 million in interest, to leave the club “substantively debt-free”, vowing to cover losses incurred during the global coronavirus pandemic. Of 42,679 deaths nationally attributable to coronavirus by mid-October 2020, some 256 had died in Bristol and the number of pandemic-related deaths in the city had risen to 468 by the start of April 2021. On a more positive note, Alex Rodman won the League One Player in the Community Award, a national achievement for his work in education during the crisis, and the club’s Community Trust was declared regional winners for their work within the community. Yet, perhaps against all odds in a sea of sadness, confusion and concern, Bristol Rovers Football Club, albeit now in a lower division and under a new manager, lived to see another day.
This is the Bristol Rovers story. It is one of triumphs and disasters, of brushes with glory and of eternal years of optimism. The phoenix will rise once again from the ashes. The Pirates have sailed all too often into troubled waters and the choppy seas of the Conference were no exception, but all must hope that calmer straits lie ahead and that the good ship Bristol Rovers can steer an even course through the oceans of time to come.
Season. One of the low points in our Club's long history. Superbly written and highly recommended reading capturing the many low points and unwanted records created in a most unusual season.
Following a dramatic season in three parts, Rovers’ five-year stint in League One came to an end and the side was relegated back to the fourth tier of English football, bottom of the table. To some observers, this tied in neatly in an historical sense, the club having been relegated in 1981, 2001, 2011 and now also 2021. A poor start to the season under manager Ben Garner had been followed by inactivity in the January transfer window and under Paul Tisdale, and then by an inability to get sufficient reaction from the players from Joey B*****, Rovers ending a campaign under four managers, including caretaker manager Tommy Widdrington, in twenty-fourth place with 38 League points. Ultimately, the club’s performance, both on the field and through its management structure, led to a hugely disappointing season and the realisation that League Two football was returning to Bristol.
Had it not been for the relegation scrap, perhaps the 2020-21 season would be best remembered as one hugely affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which had curtailed the previous campaign and now left all clubs in the lower tiers of the Football League suffering economically, amidst questions about the sustainability of many teams. Rovers’ official attendance at virtually all home and away matches this year was zero (the exception being the Football League Trophy game at Orient, where a minimal number of spectators was admitted and an unofficial crowd of just over five hundred was given), supporters being denied the opportunity to watch their club, with tough social distancing measures in place; perhaps this lack of the usual vociferous vocal support from the terraces contributed to a very poor showing on the field. As it was, a lack of goal-scoring strikers and a failure to sign attacking players in the January transfer window, all of which highlighted defensive frailties, was to cost the club on the field. Just as tentative and ill-conceived plans for a European Super League made controversial news headlines in the footballing world, Rovers lost at home to MK Dons to effectively tumble out of third-tier English football.
A flurry of new signings had heralded the possibility of an exciting period ahead. Zain Westbrooke, in particular, had impressed in a very strong Coventry City side which had won the League One title in 2019-20, whilst Max Ehmer, a solid central defender on several occasions against Rovers, joined from Gillingham as captain. Jack Baldwin offered strength in defence, whilst the signings of Josh Grant, David Tutonda, Ali Koiki, Ben Liddle, Pablo Martinez and the exciting crowd-pleaser Sam Nicholson implied creativity. Questions remained up front, despite talented young strikers Brandon Hanlan and Jonah Ayunga joining the club, as neither had scored regularly before at League One level. Rovers' supporters, however, were understandably enthusiastic about the loan signings of Erhun Öztümer, who had previously scored a wonder goal for Walsall at The Mem, and Chelsea’s hard-working midfielder Luke McCormick. Despite teenager Zain Walker’s two first-half goals at Bristol Manor Farm, the side had struggled in pre-season against Cardiff, Newport and Exeter. Tom Davies was sent out on loan to Barrow, as was Kyle Bennett to Grimsby Town and Michael Kelly to Yeovil Town. Jonson Clarke-Harris was the pre-season top scorer and he was sold to Peterborough United before the League campaign could get underway, where he was League One top scorer for the season. By May 2021, Clarke-Harris had scored more League goals in the 2020-21 season alone than all three of Rovers’ strikers had in their combined Football League careers.
Even a season which opened with Luke Leahy’s third-minute goal for the Gas at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light caused concern from the off. In spite of Leahy’s goal, Rovers did not win at Sunderland, even when the home side was reduced to ten men with George Dobson’s red card. Club captain Ehmer conceded an own goal in the first home fixture, a 2-0 loss at the hands of Ipswich Town and 4-1 losses to Doncaster and Fleetwood followed. A goal up in the second minute at home to Hull City, Rovers lost 3-1 with three second-half substitutes all scoring, Keane Lewis-Potter, Regan Slater and the former Rovers striker Tom Eaves; the first time two substitutes had scored against Rovers in the same game had been when Chris Leadbitter and the future Rovers striker John Taylor scored in Cambridge United’s 6-1 victory in February 1991. Wigan Athletic’s Thalo Aasgaard became the first player alphabetically to oppose Rovers in any competition throughout the club’s history. Ched Evans, towards the end of Joey B*****’s Fleetwood’s 4-1 win at The Mem, became the fifth substitute to score a penalty against Rovers in a League match. This fixture, in which Callum Camps scored twice, proved to be the final one of Ben Garner’s tenure as Rovers’ manager, with Rovers in eighteenth place after twelve points in eleven League fixtures; the club had won six out of 33 matches during his spell in charge. Oxford United, as a point of reference, found themselves in the bottom four at this stage but made the play-offs.
Under caretaker manager Tommy Widdrington, Rovers recorded an exciting 4-3 victory over the Chelsea Under-21 side in the Football League Trophy, Josh Hare scoring his first goal for the club with a powerful downward header in stoppage time to defeat a side which included former Premier League winner and England international Danny Drinkwater. The following day, on 19th November 2020, Rovers appointed Paul Tisdale as manager, a 47-year-old football manager born in Malta, who had previously spent twelve years in charge at Exeter City. Tisdale’s tenure started with two poor performances in the League before an FA Cup goal glut against Darlington, Rovers scoring four times in the last sixteen minutes of the first-half and six times in twenty-nine minutes to run out comfortable 6-0 winners at The Mem. Both full-backs were amongst the five goalscorers, Luke Leahy becoming, after George Dennis in 1931, the second Rovers player to score two penalties in an FA Cup-tie. This was followed by two hugely impressive wins, scoring four at Wimbledon to pull Rovers out of the bottom four, Nicholson and Hanlan claiming two apiece, and beating Plymouth Argyle 3-0 at home, Alfie Kilgour, McCormick and Westbrooke scoring. It proved the only occasion all season when Rovers won back-to-back League fixtures.
However, a very poor run of defeats through January and February left Rovers “sleepwalking into relegation” (Sam Frost). Just one signing in the January window, solid defender George Williams, who had worked under Tisdale at MK Dons, plus the loan acquisition of Cardiff’s goalkeeper Joe Day, indicated Rovers would not or could not address the issue of a lack of a goal-scoring threat. By means of contrast, Burton Albion had been eight points into the relegation zone and nine behind Rovers, having played two games more, after their 5-1 defeat at home to Oxford United on 2nd January, yet they made seven permanent signings and picked up a further five players on loan, won six games in succession and comfortably avoided relegation.
Just as the club was not making any attacking signings during the January transfer window, performances on the pitch were also deteriorating. By the end of January, Rovers had scored in only four of the previous eleven League fixtures and yet no strikers or attacking players had joined the club and this was ultimately to cost Tisdale his position with Rovers. Bizarrely, Rovers’ solitary point in a six-game run through late January came away to high-flying Peterborough United. Having gained just one point in November, this coming against bottom-of-the-table Wigan Athletic, this latest run was disastrous. Rovers did score at Crewe, clawing back a two-goal deficit only to lose 3-2, and crashed 6-1 at Accrington on a depressing Tuesday night in a match delayed by half-an-hour because of snow, with Dion Charles scoring a hat-trick. The combined goal-scoring tally on Stanley’s shirt numbers amounted to 144, easily surpassing the previous highest of 108 from the visit to Luton Town over Easter 1936. With Rovers having lost eight of their first twelve home League fixtures, it was announced on 10th February 2021 that the club had parted company with manager Paul Tisdale.
Seeking a third permanent manager in a few months, Rovers made the perhaps controversial appointment, on 22nd February, of the former England international midfielder Joey B*****. As manager of Fleetwood, he had crossed swords before with The Gas, being sent off at The Mem on one occasion and at Fleetwood on another; he had served a prison sentence for affray in 2008 and, on his appointment, a court case was hanging over him. Yet what he did offer was passion, drive and focus; B***** termed his arrival as “The Great Reset”. However, those anticipating a New Manager Bounce were disappointed, as the club then lost five matches in succession at the end of March to drop into the relegation zone. Amid a palpable lack of self-belief on the pitch, Rovers appeared to plunge headlong into relegation back to the fourth tier after five years away. Reliable defender Leahy took over from out-of-favour Ehmer as captain, his regular supply of goals proving a real bonus alongside Rovers’ shot-shy strike-force.
There were a handful of hugely positive results. Principally amongst these was a 2-1 victory away to top-of-the-table Lincoln City in October, goals from Daly and Hanlan threatening to kick-start Rovers’ campaign. Likewise, victory over Accrington in March, a 4-1 home win almost avenging the disastrous trip to Lancashire in February, was viewed as a glimmer of hope, as B*****’s reign began to kick in. However, it was followed by a run of one point in five matches, Rovers failing to score in four of those as they slumped into the relegation zone. Catastrophically, the side lost at home to relegation rivals Swindon Town and Wigan Athletic at this stage in the season, dropping points against most clubs in and around The Gas in the table. Rovers failed to score in a club seasonal record 23 League matches, sixteen of them since the start of 2021; defender Luke Leahy was top scorer with eight (he also scored two penalties I the FA Cup and a bizarre own goal against Ipswich town after just forty-seven seconds), ahead of Hanlan on seven, with McCormick and Nicholson both on six. Creativity dried up when Rodman and Nicholson were missing through injury, whilst Öztümer was never the same player after contracting Covid. Then as the Fratton Park clock behind him showed exactly twenty-six minutes played, Ronan Curtis, the youngest of Marie Curtis’ eleven children, fired home right-footed to give Pompey a 1-0 victory over Rovers in April, a result which mathematically confirmed the relegation which had become inevitable through the spring.
Supporters, perhaps clutching at straw a little, bemoaned a disallowed “goal” at home to Swindon Town, where the wrong player had been deemed offside, a penalty at Northampton which was perceived as a touch fortunate and even Ed Upson’s harsh red card against Lincoln. Under B*****’s management Rovers lost without scoring in ten separate League matches. Ipswich scored only two goals in an eight-match spell in the spring; both were against Rovers. Yet the reality was that investment had been inadequate, the defence conceded unnecessarily and goals were at a premium, following an apparent lack of appropriate investment in strikers. An untimely injury to reliable shot-stopper Anssi Jaakkola had led the club to field three goalkeepers behind a shaky defence. Westbrooke, Hanlan, Grant, Ehmer, Nicholson, McCormick, Kilgour, Harries and Baldwin were all regulars in the side, but the absence of an ever-present highlights an air of uncertainty and instability. 32 players were used in League One, including youngsters Jed Ward and Tom Mehew on the final day. Ten League games were lost to the exact score of 2-0, including both fixtures against Gillingham and MK Dons, Rovers having lost six League fixtures by exactly that score in the truncated 2020-21 campaign.
Cup competitions offered little respite in a poor on-field season. Rovers crashed out of the League Cup 3-0 at a strong Ipswich Town, Freddie Sears scoring in both halves, and lost their Football League Trophy encounters on penalties against Walsall and Oxford United, the Saddlers being captained by former Gas defender James Clarke and managed by his namesake Darrell, Rovers’ manager in recent years. Oxford’s goalkeeper Jack Stevens saved three Rovers penalties, one in the match and two in the shoot-out which followed. Victories over Chelsea Under-21 and Orient preceded a demoralising home defeat to Wimbledon. In the FA Cup, Rovers defeated Darrell Clarke’s Walsall and trounced Darlington before falling gallantly to Premier League Sheffield United, twice equalising in a 3-2 defeat at The Mem after Day had conceded an own goal on his début.
A large number of former Rovers players appeared against their former club during the campaign, both Gillingham’s John Akinde and Oxford’s Matty Taylor scoring a brace, Jonson Clarke-Harris, Matty Lund and Tom Eaves also scored, whilst Joe Martin was sent off when Northampton visited The Mem in October, the eleventh player to appear for The Gas and also be sent off against the club in their careers. Former Rovers keeper Sam Walker managed to play twice in twelve days at The Mem for different clubs in January, in the League with Blackpool and the Football League Trophy with Wimbledon. Three opponents were sent off in the opening five League fixtures and four in all, plus one in the Football League Trophy. Conversely, the first Rovers red card of the campaign came when McCormick was sent off for a second yellow card at Burton and this was followed by goalkeeper Day’s last-minute sending-off at Charlton, where Rovers let a two-goal first-half lead slip and lost 3-2, and Upson’s first-half dismissal at home to Lincoln City. MK Dons fielded a sixteen-year-old, Lewis Johnson, when they faced Rovers on Boxing Day; though only twenty-six, Swindon’s Jack Payne was playing for his sixth different club against Rovers in the League. Emile Heskey’s godson Darnell Johnson was in the Wimbledon side Rovers faced in March. Charlton’s Johnny Williams was replaced by Paul Smyth who lasted just eighteen minutes before being substituted by Alex Gilbey; Rovers have substituted a substitute in five League games, but this is nonetheless an unusual occurrence.
Champions Hull, Oxford, Gillingham, Charlton, Ipswich, MK Dons, Crewe and relegation rivals Swindon all completed League doubles over Rovers, whilst The Gas beat Shrewsbury Town home and away. Ehmer, Baldwin and Day all conceded own goals – indeed there were two own goals in the first-half of the Trophy game at Orient – and James Daly became the first footballer born after New Year’s Day 2000 to score a League goal for The Gas. The Football League Trophy game against Wimbledon saw Rovers, following a change in the rules, use five substitutes in a match for the first time. Veteran James Coppinger scored Doncaster Rovers’ goal at The Mem in the spring to become the oldest player to score against The Gas in the Football League and only the second man to do so after his fortieth birthday.
Goals proved to be a real issue, with the club inching past the record low 21 goals at home of the 1980-81 campaign. Tellingly, Rovers and Northampton Town scored fewest goals in the division and both were relegated. Marauding full-back Leahy was top scorer but the side floundered when Jaakkola, Nicholson and Rodman were out injured. Full-back Tareiq Holmes-Dennis had also been forced to announce his premature retirement with long-term injuries. Up front, Ayunga played with real passion, yet his only two League goals came in a ten-minute first-half burst at home to Pompey in the spring. Critically, Rovers picked up just eight points in the ten games against their principal relegation rivals, losing at home to each of Swindon, Wigan and Rochdale after New Year. Fourteen home League games were lost, a club record surpassing the eleven in both 1946-47 and 1980-81, and twenty-eight League defeats exceeded the previous club record set in 1992-93. Having suffered only three relegations in the entire twentieth century, Rovers had now been relegated for the fourth time in the twenty-first century. Whilst several unwanted club records tumbled, the run of five successive home defeats in 1946-47 remained intact. Rovers were sad to hear of the passing of the club’s former Chief Executive Gordon Bennett on 18th September 2020 at the age of seventy-four and of experienced central defender Graham Day, who died on 8th February 2021 aged sixty-seven.
Positively, the Rovers story continues unabated despite the global pandemic, with the club staving off the threat of financial ruin. Much of this stemmed from club president Wael Al-Qadi’s decision to capitalise over £18 million in loans owed by Rovers to his company Dwane Sports and write off £2 million in interest, to leave the club “substantively debt-free”, vowing to cover losses incurred during the global coronavirus pandemic. Of 42,679 deaths nationally attributable to coronavirus by mid-October 2020, some 256 had died in Bristol and the number of pandemic-related deaths in the city had risen to 468 by the start of April 2021. On a more positive note, Alex Rodman won the League One Player in the Community Award, a national achievement for his work in education during the crisis, and the club’s Community Trust was declared regional winners for their work within the community. Yet, perhaps against all odds in a sea of sadness, confusion and concern, Bristol Rovers Football Club, albeit now in a lower division and under a new manager, lived to see another day.
This is the Bristol Rovers story. It is one of triumphs and disasters, of brushes with glory and of eternal years of optimism. The phoenix will rise once again from the ashes. The Pirates have sailed all too often into troubled waters and the choppy seas of the Conference were no exception, but all must hope that calmer straits lie ahead and that the good ship Bristol Rovers can steer an even course through the oceans of time to come.
