Richard Walker

Richard Walker spoke about his difficult exit from Bristol Rovers in an exclusive interview..by Sam Frost, Bristol Rovers reporter (12.06.2020)

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Richard Walker celebrates with James Hunt, Lewis Haldane, Aaron lescott and Sammy Igoe

Richard Walker gave so much to Bristol Rovers, but now is the time for the club to give back to him.

One of the heroes of the 2007 promotion winning campaign, the former Pirates striker gifted Gasheads memories that will last a lifetime.

Two brilliant goals beneath the Wembley arch in the League Two play-off final, plus 59 others across 175 appearances, have secured his place in Rovers history.

But the way his final season in the blue and white quarters was managed, and the classlessness of his exile before being ushered out of the Mem’s back door “leaves a bitter taste” for the modest Brummie, now 42 and living in Devon.

After forging an unlikely, yet menacing, strike partnership with Rickie Lambert and firing the Gas into League One Walker fell out of favour with head coach Paul Trollope and his right-hand man Lennie Lawrence.

It’s football. That happens. Players move on.

But the way Trollope and Lawrence brushed Walker under the carpet in 2008 upon refusing a loan move to Hereford, without affording him even a chance to wave goodbye to Gasheads and the Mem, was poor form.

“Trolls and Lennie then made me train with the youth team, I couldn’t train with the first team,”

“Don’t get me wrong, I hadn’t fallen out with Trolls or Lennie really, and I think I did get an apology from Trolls saying making me train with the kids was out of order.

“I never got a chance to say goodbye to the fans, which was disappointing. Even the last game of the season me and Chris Carruthers were not in the match squad and we were at the game, but we weren’t allowed to walk on the pitch for the lap of honour.

“Even that would have been nice in our suits, but we got told it was for the lads in the squad. That was the gutting thing really, I never got to thank the fans for their support or say goodbye after what we’d been through as a club.

“It doesn’t darken my time at Rovers because I had a great time, it was fantastic but that final bit leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.”

Walker has not been back to the Mem for a Rovers game since, but when normality resumes and crowds can return to stadiums next season, the club must invite the Wembley hero to be a guest at the Mem.

He should be given the chance to walk on to the pitch to lap up the adulation from Gasheads that he should have received 12 years ago.

This was the mistake of a previous regime, but Rovers should make it up to a legend of the club’s modern history.

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Rickie Lambert and Richard Walker