Bristol Rovers FC History
2006-07 Season
6th in League Two, promoted via the play offs.
League Cup: 1st round; Luton Town h. lost 5-3 on penalties.
FA Cup: 4th round; Derby County a. 0-1
JP Trophy: Runners Up, lost 3-2 to Doncaster Rovers aet.
Highlight:
3-1 win over Shrewsbury Town in the play off final, 26/5/07
Low Spot:
4-1 defeat at Peterborough United, 5/8/06
Good:
Steve Elliott
This solid defender chipped in with 5 goals but it was his quality at the back that really served Rovers well over a long season. Good all round ability and a fine reader of the game Elliott was the cornerstone of a superb defensive effort from the Pirates.
Steve Phillips
Well served by the defence in front of him but when a keeper manages 30 clean sheets during a season he must be doing something right. Hugely dependable.
In Brief:
The club actually endured an awful start to the season before rallying to end up promoted through the play offs. There were 3 defeats in the first 4 games and only 9 points collected from the opening 10 fixtures, leaving the club 21st.
Then form picked up dramatically although as this saw the club involved in two fine cup runs it seemed somewhat unlikely that the ground lost in the league would be made up.
Having beaten their great rivals Bristol City to reach the final of the Johnstone Paints Trophy and then lost a cracking final to Doncaster the club went on a wonderful run which saw 17 points collected from the last 7 games which was enough to sneak them into the play offs.
As the form team in the play offs' the Pirates confidence was obvious as Lincoln City were swept aside in the semi finals before they recovered from the setback of an early goal against to see off Shrewsbury at Wembley to clinch promotion, Richard Walker providing the new stadium with two high class finishes.
The club look equipped to establish themselves at the next level and possibly push forward again
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Bristol Rovers Football Club, nicknamed the Pirates and affectionately known by their fans as the Gas, was formed in the Eastville area of the city in 1883.
The club was originally known as the Black Arabs with the name evolving from Eastville Rovers to Bristol Rovers in 1898.
The club settled at the Eastville Stadium in 1897 and became founder members of Division Three South in 1920.
It was not until 1953 that the club managed promotion to the Second Division, remaining there for nine years thanks chiefly to the prolific goalscoring of Geoff Bradford and Alfie Biggs.
Bradford in particular was a hero to the Rovers fans and his performances for the club earned him an England cap in 1955. He would end his career with a record 242 goals for Rovers, his only club.
The club reached the sixth round of the FA Cup in both 1951 and 1958 although perhaps their greatest moment in the competition came in 1956 with a 4-0 demolition of Man United's Busby Babes in the third round.
Since relegation to divsion three in 1962 the club has spent its' time rotating between divisions in the middle reaches of the football league until falling into the fourth tier in 2001, a status the club has been unable to improve on since.
The club has suffered many trials and tribulations in the past twenty years, notably having to ground share at Bath City's Twerton Park for ten years before taking up residence at the city's rugby union Memorial Stadium.
Like many other teams this period has also seen the club threatened with extinction due to financial difficulties but at least they now appear to be on a sounder footing.
Throughout this time, however, the club has continued to find a wealth of individual talent from Gary Mabbutt and Nigel Martyn to the recent conveyor belt of forward talent which includes Marcus Stewart, Barry Hayles, Jamie Cureton, Jason Roberts, Nathan Ellington and now Junior Agogo.
Perhaps Agogo is the man to tidy up one of the clubs existing records. The most goals scored in a game by a Rover currently stands at four, a feat that eleven different players have managed.
Perhaps Junior might go nap before he too joins the exodus.
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