The Bristol Rovers History Group. |
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No 314. (Chic) Charles Cairney. 1953-55.
Born, 21.9.1926, Blantyre. Died, 25.3.1995, Airdrie. 5’ 8”; 10 st 4 lbs. Début: 5.9.53 v Brentford. Career: His Majesty’s Forces; 1947 Cambuslang Rovers; 14.5.49 Celtic [1,0]; 27.7.50 Orient [4,0]; August 1951 Barry Town; 8.7.53 Bristol Rovers [14,1]; August 1955 Headington United; October 1955 Worcester City; 24.10.57 East Stirlingshire [3,0] (to 1958). On the back of 66 Southern League games for Barry and a goal against Hereford United in February 1953, Chic Cairney signed for Rovers in the summer of 1953. Barry Town side had been South Wales Senior Amateur Cup winners in 1952-53 and Cairney, who had played in Celtic’s 2-2 draw at home to Raith Rovers in October 1949, had also made his Orient début in Rovers’ 2-1 victory at Eastville in November 1950. A crowd of 28, 736 at Eastville in September 1953 saw Cairney open the scoring in a 2-2 draw with West Ham, Barrie Meyer scoring Rovers’ second goal. After leaving Rovers, he made two appearances in a month at Headington, playing against Guildford City and Cheltenham Town, and scored twice in 52 Southern League matches with Worcester City. He may be the Charles Cairney who married Enid Hick in 1955. |
No 154. Joseph William Herbert Calvert. 1931-32.
Born, 3.2.1907, Bullcroft, Yorkshire. Died, 23.12.1999, Leicester. 6’ ½”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 29.8.31 v Bournemouth. Career: Bullcroft Colliery; Owston Park Rangers; August 1930 Frickley Colliery; 8.5.31 Bristol Rovers [42,0]; 11.5.32 Leicester City (£1,250) [72,0]; 28.1.48 Watford [5,0]; July 1948 Brush Sports (Loughborough). Dependable Joe Calvert was Rovers’ ever-present in the 1931-32 season, “ a good, steady keeper, brilliant on occasion”, as the local press described him. Signed by Dick Pudan, the Rovers director and former full-back, from under the noses of several top division clubs, Calvert recovered from conceding eight goals at Torquay to make an outstanding penalty save at Cardiff over Easter 1932. Despite injuries – three times breaking his collar bone and also dislocating his shoulder and elbow -, he made five appearances for Leicester in their Division Two championship campaign of 1936-37, represented Northampton Town and Leicester in wartime football and appeared for Watford after World War Two, these games including a 5-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace. Leicester’s oldest League player ever where, after his fortieth birthday, he played alongside a young Don Revie (1927-89), he is also Watford’s second oldest in their League history. Wartime service saw him in India and Burma, representing the Armed Forces XI in 1944 in New Delhi, Calcutta, Imphal, Chittagong and Ranchi and he later helped Brush Sports secure the Leicestershire Senior Cup in May 1949. He was the youngest of five children born to Thomas Daniel Calvert (1873-1909) and Isabella Ledgard (1877-1947), who worked as a railway office cleaner and brought her young family up at 115 Wellington Row, York after Joe’s father’s early death; Isabella later married in 1913 Arthur Richardson (18851-1931). A coalminer by profession, he married Jessie Leeson (1909-2000) in 1930, believed to be the daughter of Charles Leeson (1875-1949) and Fanny Elizabeth Hancock (1880-1953), and they had three children, Joyce, Roy and Rita; Joe Calvert lived in Leicester until his death at the age of ninety-two, having been married for almost seventy years. |
No 653. Martin George Cameron. 2000-02.
Born, 16.6.1978, Dunfermline. 6’ 2”; 12 st 12 lbs. Début: 12.8.00 v Bournemouth. Career: Craigmillar Thistle; 11.1.97 Alloa Athletic [60+27,38]; 14.6.00 Bristol Rovers (trial); 30.6.00 Bristol Rovers (£100,000) [16+23,6]; 1.2.02 Partick Thistle (loan) [6+2,1]; 19.7.02 St Mirren [28,12]; 1.7.03 Northampton Town (trial); 9.7.03 Gretna (free) [24+2,17]; 12.8.05 Forfar Athletic (free) [19+4,4]; 24.2.06 Shamrock Rovers (loan); 24.7.06 Penicuik Athletic (free); 13.5.09 Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic; 2010 Tranent Juniors (to 2014). Scoring a 21st-minute header from Darren Way’s cross on Rovers’ Irish tour, in a 1-0 win against Galway United in July 2000, strong Scottish striker Martin Cameron also scored in Bob Bloomer’s testimonial before making his League bow as a half-time substitute for Robbie Pethick. He struggled with tendonitis and stomach ulcers before, having scored in the League Cup at Plymouth, he suffered ankle ligament damage when on as a late substitute during the 6-2 win at Brentford. Cameron could not be accused of not giving of his best and he gave Rovers sterling service, although he was unable to prevent the club’s relegation to Division Three in the spring of 2001. In November 2000 he was sent off five minutes from time, along with Norwich City’s Cédric Anselin, in a reserve fixture and he was that season stranded in Scotland during the fuel crisis after his car had been damaged in a car wash. Martin Cameron had, in fact, given up football at the age of sixteen to become a butcher, but was tempted back by Alloa’s manager, whose cousin was in charge of the butchery where he worked. An eleven-minute first-half hat-trick helped Alloa win 4-0 at East Fife in February 1999 and he scored twice and added a penalty in the ensuing shoot-out in the 1999 Challenge Cup Final. He had top-scored at Alloa in the successive promotion years of 1998-99 and 1999-2000 as his side reached Division One, promoted behind champions Clyde, and won the 2000 Challenge Cup Final 5-4 on penalties, after drawing 2-2 with Inverness Caledonian Thistle. After a St Mirren début in a 2-0 home defeat against St Johnstone, Cameron scored four goals against East Stirling and a second-half hat-trick as divisional leaders Falkirk, three goals ahead at the interval, were pegged back to 4-4. Partick were runaway Division One champions in 2001-02, his goal coming against Clyde, and Gretna finished second in Division Three in 2003-04, Cameron scoring a hat-trick in the 3-1 victory over Albion Rovers that August. He was sent off in Forfar’s Scottish Cup-tie against Threave Rovers in December 2005 and later played five games for Shamrock Rovers and scored seventeen times with Penicuik, before working in Edinburgh at House of Fraser. |
No 725. Stuart Pearson Campell. 2004-12.
Born, 9.12.1977, Corby. 5’ 10”; 10 st 8 lbs. Début: 7.8.04 v Mansfield Town. Career: Corby Town; September 1992 Leicester City (professional, 4.7.96) [12+15,0]; 23.3.00 Birmingham City (loan) [0+2,0]; 15.9.00 Grimsby Town (loan); 30.5.01 Grimsby Town (£200,000) [154+1, 12]; 24.6.04 Bristol Rovers (free) (caretaker manager, 7.3.11) [268+20,2]; 27.12.11 Tampa Bay Rowdies (assistant manager, 5.2.14; head coach, 26.8.15) [38+3,0]. Fewer individuals have better encapsulated the spirit of Bristol Rovers than Stuart Campbell, who captained the side to promotion in 2006-07 and briefly held the managerial reins. A right-sided defensive midfielder, who scored rare but important goals, Campbell was born in Corby of Scottish heritage and played 11(+4) times for Scotland Under-21s, his first appearance coming as a substitute in the 1-1 draw with Finland in April 1998. One Daventry Cup-tie for Corby against Cranfield, and a goal in a 7-0 win, constituted his career prior to Filbert Street. During his time with Leicester, the Foxes won two League Cup Finals, but he did not appear in either game, although he played at Old Trafford, Highbury, Anfield and Elland Road, his Premier League bow coming seven minutes from time as a substitute in the November 1996 defeat away to Manchester United. He was in the side that lost 3-1 at Grimsby in the League Cup in October 1997, but conversely played in the 1-0 victory at Old Trafford in January 1998. After a deadline day loan to Birmingham, Campbell played in Grimsby’s 8-1 defeat at Hartlepool in September 2003, put the Mariners 4-2 ahead after 36 minutes of their astonishing 6-5 win against Burnley in October 2002 and suffered relegation to Division Two in 2002-03. Despite a double hernia in the spring of 2005, Stuart Campbell became a fixture in Rovers’ midfield, holding together a side which began to threaten success and, in 2006-07, finally delivered. Having scored Rovers’ opening goal in a 3-2 win at Rushden in January 2006 and a last-minute winner at home to Peterborough in February 2007, as well as receiving a red card at Accrington, he masterminded a late surge in the spring of 2007 which took Rovers into the League Two play-offs. It was here that his spectacular long-range strike from thirty yards at Lincoln helped ease Rovers to a Wembley final; having captained the side at the Millennium Stadium in April 2007, in a 3-2 defeat against Doncaster Rovers in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final, he led the side out at Wembley against Shrewsbury Town the following month for a 3-1 play-off final victory which sealed the club’s return to third-tier English football. Supporters’ Club Player of the Year in 2007-08, when he captained Rovers in only their third ever FA Cup quarter-final, and Player of the Year in 2008-09, Campbell was runner-up to Rickie Lambert in 2009-10 before winning the award again in 2010-11, when his best efforts as player and as a temporary caretaker manager proved insufficient to prevent Rovers’ relegation back down to League Two. Following a long career with Rovers, Campbell took his wife and young family to a new chapter in the States and retired from playing in 2013. From 2022 he was a director of Nike Sports camps in the States, based in Tampa. |
No 810. Mustapha Soon Caryol. 2011-12.
Born, 4.9.1988, Banjul, Gambia. 5’ 10”; 11 st 11 lbs. Début: 6.8.11 v AFC Wimbledon. Career: Swindon Town; 2006 Macclesfield Town (free); 23.7.07 MKI Dons (free); 21.10.07 Crawley Town (loan); 13.7.08 Torquay United (free) [11+9,6]; 17.9.09 Kettering Town (loan); 20.5.10 Lincoln City (free) [24+9,3]; 17.6.11 Bristol Rovers (free) [24+6,4]; 1.8.12 Middlesbrough (£300,000) [36+14,11]; 26.3.15 Brighton (loan) [4+1,0]; 27.8.15 Huddersfield Town (loan) [9+6,3]; 8.1.16 Leeds United (loan) [6+6,1]; 31.8.16 Nottingham Forest (free) [15+19,2]; 31.1.18 Ipswich Town (free) [5+3,1]; 4.8.18 Apollon Limasol (free) [3+11,2]; 19.6.19 Denizlispor (trial); 2.7.19 Adana Demírspor (free; released, 23.9.20) [8,1]; 2.8.21 Gillingham (trial); 4.9.21 Gillingham (free) [16+6,1] (released, 9.5.22); 12.9.22 Burton Albion (free). Working under Paul Ince at both Macclesfield and MK Dons, exciting winger Mustapha Carayol made two cup appearances for the latter and scored in a friendly against Bedford Town, but did not make his League bow until he worked under Paul Buckle at Torquay. After 31(+12) Conference games and two goals at Crawley, his 14(+16) appearances in the same division, alongside Wayne Carlisle and Scott Bevan, helped Torquay towards promotion back into the Football League in the summer of 2009 and he scored as a substitute in his first League game, a 5-3 defeat at Dagenham and Redbridge in August 2009. Following 4(+1) Conference games at Kettering, he also scored on his Lincoln début, against Rotherham United, but Carayol and team-mate Jamie Clapham, another Rovers name, could not prevent the Imps from relinquishing their League status in the summer of 2011. Having scored the winning goal in the penalty shoot-out which knocked Watford out of the League Cup in August 2011, Carayol could not hold down a regular place in Rovers’ side, although he claimed a hat-trick when the reserves drew 4-4 with Brentford reserves. His dramatic strike in the 7-1 demolition of Burton Albion in April 2012 was, though, named Rovers’ best goal of the 2011-12 campaign. Moving up to the Championship, Muzzy Carayol scored a late goal on his home début, as Boro defeated Ipswich Town 2-0 and added further goals against Nottingham Forest and Barnsley; the following campaign his two goals as a substitute earned Boro a 2-0 January 2014 victory at Blackpool. However, a knee injury prevented him from appearing at all in Middlesbrough’s exciting promotion push during the 2014-15 campaign; as Boro reached the play-offs only to lose to Norwich City, Carayol went out on loan as a means to regaining his match fitness. Having scored in both Huddersfield’s fixtures against relegation-haunted Bolton Wanderers in 2015-16, he spent the second half of the season at Elland Road, scoring at Brentford, whilst Boro were promoted to the Premier League in his absence. His goal against Reading in April 2017 set up a tense final day of the campaign, on which Forest’s League One status was confirmed. His solitary goal with Ipswich came away to Preston North End. Returning from football in Cyprus and Turkey, Carayol scored in Gillingham’s 2-1 victory over Morecambe in August 2021 but a Gills side also featuring Max Ehmer, Aaron Chapman and David Tutonda was relegated from League One that campaign. Carayol’s heritage is Gambian, his paternal grandfather, also Mustapha Carayol, being chairman of the independent electoral commission in Banjul, whilst his mother’s family came from Senegal. Club form earned an international call-up for Gambia against Uganda in a 1-1 draw in June 2015 and he scored an outstanding first international goal during the March 2016 fixture against Mauritania; he was to score twice in four full internationals. |
No 684. Wayne Thomas Carlisle. 2001-04.
Born, 9.9.1979, Lisburn. 5’ 7”; 10 st. Début: 30.3.02 v Plymouth Argyle. Career: 18.9.96 Crystal Palace (professional, 1.8.97) [29+17,3]; 12.10.01 Swindon Town (loan) [10+1,2]; 28.3.02 Bristol Rovers (loan); 1.7.02 Bristol Rovers (free) [62+9,14]; 9.6.04 Orient (free) [27+13,3]; 17.1.06 Exeter City (free); 29.5.08 Torquay United (free) [25+11,2]; 7.3.11 Truro City; August 2011 Ivybridge College (Director of Football); 13.3.14 Truro City (assistant manager); 1.9.16 Ivybridge Community College; 28.11.16 Exeter City (coach; 11.3.17 Head of Coaching; 12.8.19 assistant manager); 3.10.22 Rotherham United (assistant manager). Northern Irishman Wayne Carlisle notably scored both goals when Rovers defeated the team with which he shares a name 2-0. His last-minute penalty at Scunthorpe in August 2002 past his former Palace team-mate Tom Evans earned Rovers a 2-2 draw and his twenty-yard free-kick after 75 minutes against Darlington in April 2003 gave Rovers a 2-1 victory which essentially preserved the club’s Football League status. The holder of nine caps for Northern Ireland at Under-21 level, which included a goal after just three minutes against Bulgaria in June 2001, in a match in which Ciarán Toner also played, Carlisle joined Rovers after scoring for Swindon against Wycombe Wanderers and Bury whilst playing alongside Giuliano Grazioli. Despite having picked up only two yellow cards with Palace, where he appeared in a League Cup-tie at Anfield, he was sent off on his Rovers début, after a second bookable offence just 62 minutes in. Until Joe Martin’s red card at Shrewsbury in September 2018, he had been the only Rovers player sent off on his first League appearance for the club. Nonetheless, Carlisle soon became a crowd favourite with the Pirates but, having won a cap for Northern Ireland B against Scotland in Glasgow in May 2003, missed the second half of the following season through injury. After playing for Orient against Rovers, a brief career at Exeter comprised 4(+2) Conference games and one goal against York City, suffering a broken ankle after fourteen minutes of a March 2006 fixture with Tamworth, although he recovered to play in the Conference play-offs against Torquay in May 2008. Before the calendar month was out he was at Plainmoor, where his Wembley cross led to Tim Sills’ goal as Cambridge were defeated 2-0 in May 2009 and Torquay regained their League status. Alongside Paul Buckle, Scott Bevan and Mustapha Carayol at Plainmoor, Carlisle played in 34(+3) Conference games and scored eight times before reappearing in the Football League and he later appeared three times for Truro City, before helping guide Exeter City to the League Two play-offs in 2016-17 and to promotion to League One in 2021-22. Married to Emma and with a son George, Wayne Carlisle followed manager Matt Taylor from Exeter to Rotherham. |
No 519. Darren John Carr. 1985-88.
Born, 4.9.1968, Speedwell, Bristol. 6’ 2”; 13 st. Début: 3.5.86 v Gillingham. Career: Watford; Bristol Rovers (professional, 20.8.86) [26+4,0]; 30.10.87 Newport County (loan) [9,0]; 10.3.88 Sheffield United (£7,000) [12+1,1]; 18.9.90 Crewe Alexandra (loan); 20.12.90 Crewe Alexandra (£35,000) [96+8,5]; 21.7.93 Chesterfield (£30,000) [84+2,4]; 7.8.98 Gillingham (£75,000) [22+8,2]; 12.7.99 Brighton (£25,000) [18+3,0]; 30.11.00 Rotherham United (loan) [1,0]; 5.1.01 Lincoln City (loan) [3,0]; 19.2.01 Carlisle United (loan) [10,0]; 20.10.01 Dover Athletic (loan); 25.1.02 Rushden and Diamonds (free) [1,0]; 5.7.02 Bath City (trial). Eleven clubs in the same number of years, over 300 League appearances, two FA Cup semi-final matches, four play-offs, four relegations and four promotions indicates Darren Carr’s career had its fair share of excitement. As a youngster, this strong tackler with good positional sense cut his teeth with Rovers, both at Eastville and following the move to Twerton Park, as a struggling Rovers side crashed 5-0 at Mansfield and 6-1 at Blackpool. Thereafter, he suffered relegation and two successive promotions with Sheffield United, breaking his collar-bone whilst at Bramall Lane and playing against Rovers in the 1-1 draw in Bath in January 1989. He also scored the opening goal on the same ground, when Crewe knocked Rovers out of the FA Cup 2-0 in January 1991, and helped Alexandra to two sets of play-offs, before enjoying arguably the pinnacle of his long career at Chesterfield. The Spireites reached the play-off final in 1995 and Carr appeared at Wembley as Bury were defeated 2-0 to secure promotion to Division Two. Controversially sent off after an innocuous-looking challenge at Swindon in his only appearance of 1995-96, he was to enjoy even greater success through the spring of 1997. Unfancied Chesterfield reached the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time in their history, Carr’s header hitting the bar during the 1-0 victory over Forest in the fifth round, but he missed the game after being one of five men sent off in a furious game at Plymouth. Astonishingly, though, the Derbyshire side won the quarter-final and Carr appeared as a substitute for Chris Perkins in the final six minutes, as well as extra-time, as Chesterfield drew 3-3 with Middlesbrough in a semi-final which they could well have won, in addition to playing in the replay which was lost 3-0. Gillingham, against whom he had been sent off in March 1998, was his next port of call and, despite conceding an own goal on his début against Walsall and then being sent off against Wycombe, Carr helped the Gills reach the play-offs, where they lost to Manchester City. Sent off at Hull, he helped Brighton secure the Division Three title in 2000-01 before a series of brief loan spells included 1(+1) games at Dover. His solitary game for Rotherham was a 3-2 victory against Millwall over Christmas 2000 whilst his sole match with Rushden was their 5-1 defeat at Hartlepool in January 2002. Latterly in the property development business, Darren Carr married his childhood sweetheart Stephanie and they live in Warmley with their two daughters. |
No 261. Lance Lanyon Carr. 1946-47.
Born, 18.2.1910, Johannesburg, South Africa. Died, 28.4.1983, Greenwich. 5’ 9”; 12 st. Début: 31.8.46 v Reading. Career: Johannesburg Calies; Boksburg FC; 11.9.33 Liverpool [31,8]; 9.10.36 Newport County; August 1937 South Liverpool; 15.7.38 Newport County [64,14]; 30.7.46 Bristol Rovers [42,8]; 17.7.47 Merthyr Tydfil (free). The son of a professional athlete, Lance Carr was a reasonable cricketer, an excellent boxer and an even better outside-left. Leaving his native South Africa in 1933, he became one of the first from his continent to appear in the Football League and, keeping himself incredibly fit whilst working for the British Aeroplane Company at Filton during the war, was an ever-present in his season at Eastville despite being in his late thirties. Creating the first two goals as Liverpool defeated Everton 6-0 on his début, he scored his first League goal in his third match, a 7-2 victory over Grimsby Town. Having helped Newport secure the Third Division (South) championship in 1938-39, his hat-trick after 15, 24 and 72 minutes easing County to a 6-4 victory over Swindon Town in December 1938, he represented Bristol City, Swindon and Aldershot in wartime football and represented BAC against the RAF at Eastville in the Cosham Hospital Cup in December 1940. One wartime appearance for Newport in March 1940 included a late goal as County defeated Rovers 5-3 at Eastville. Carr remains the sixth oldest débutant in Rovers’ League history and only five men have scored a League goal for the club at a more advanced age. He scored for Rovers at Norwich and Exeter as well as in six home fixtures, the final goal coming in the 6-1 trouncing of Orient at Eastville on Easter Monday 1947. Later a London businessman as well as a professional gambler, Lance Carr married Olive Fairclough in Liverpool in 1937 and their three children, Loraine, Adele and Lance junior, were all born in Bristol during the war. |
No 739. Christopher Paul Carruthers. 2004-08.
Born, 19.8.1983, Kettering. 5’ 10”; 12 st 3 lbs. Début: 26.3.05 v Northampton Town. Career: Raunds Manor School; Harborough Town; 1996 Northampton Town (professional, 1.8.00) [52+22,1]; 19.11.04 Hornchurch (loan); 21.1.05 Kettering Town (loan); 24.3.05 Bristol Rovers (loan); 1.6.05 Bristol Rovers (free) [87+13,1]; 1.7.08 Oxford United (free); 28.8.09 Crawley Town (loan); 28.9.09 York City (loan); 6.1.10 York City (free); 2.8.11 Gateshead (free); 15.7.12 Hereford United (trial); 20.7.12 Hereford United (free); 22.6.13 Corby Town (free); 7.7.14 Brackley Town (free); 9.6.15 Corby Town (free); 13.11.15 Kettering Town (free; retired, 12.9.16). Prior to his Rovers début, left-back Chris Carruthers, the holder of eleven caps for England Under-20, had played extensively for Northampton, his only goal coming six minutes from time, a long-range fourth in a 4-1 win against Wycombe in April 2002. The red-booted defender replaced Craig Disley after 79 minutes of Rovers’ first away win in seven months and set about achieving with Rovers what he had already accomplished in Northamptonshire. From his début at home to Port Vale in April 2001, the Cobblers had lost his first five matches but, appearing alongside James Hunt and Jamie Forrester, he played twice against Rovers and his form earned international honours. He was England Under-20’s left-back at the 2003 Toulon tournament, where he marked Cristiano Ronaldo, and in the 2003 FIFA World Youth championships. He had also played in three Conference South games on loan at Hornchurch and in one Conference North game for Kettering at home to Altrincham. Carruthers’ only League goal for Rovers proved the match-winner at Grimsby in December 2005, a venomous free-kick past future Rovers keeper Steve Mildenhall ten minutes from time, and he went on to play at the Millennium Stadium in April 2007, when Rovers lost in extra-time to Doncaster Rovers in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final, and at Wembley the following month, as Rovers capped an extraordinary late-season run with a 3-1 play-off final victory over Shrewsbury Town to seal promotion to League Two. Carruthers subsequently appeared extensively in Conference football, playing 32(+3) times for Oxford, scoring once in six games at Crawley and adding four goals in 39(+6) appearances at York, before 19(+2) games for Gateshead included red cards in December 2011 against Tamworth in the FA Cup and at Darlington in the Conference. He later added one goal, a 49th-minute strike in a 4-2 victory over Ebbsfleet United in August 2012, in 18(+3) Conference matches with Hereford United and scored Corby’s goal against Dover Athletic in the FA Cup first-round in November 2013 before appearing in 27 Conference North games without scoring for Brackley Town and fourteen in the same division with Corby Town, whilst commencing work as an accounts controller with the builders’ merchants Travis Perkins. He was signed for Kettering by the former Rovers keeper Marcus Law and played in 31 Southern League fixtures alongside René Howe for the Poppies, despite being sent off ten minutes from time in the 4-3 victory at Cirencester Town in March 2016. He has run his own property service since 2010 and also works for Travis Perkins as a Finance Manager. |
No 259. Robert Carte. 1938-39.
Born, 11.10.1913, Doncaster. Died, July 1986, Gainsborough. 5’ 11”; 12 st 7 lbs. Début: 10.4.39 v Luton Town. Career: Conanby St Andrew’s; August 1934 Denaby United; April 1935 Gainsborough Trinity; December 1937 Luton Town [6,0]; 16.3.39 Bristol Rovers [2,0]; June 1939 Gainsborough Trinity. Once a miner in the South Yorkshire coalfield, Robert Carte formed an impressive full-back partnership with Wilf Smith in Rovers’ reserve side, and his performance against Tunbridge Wells Rangers in particular earned him a brief first-team call-up. Prior to this, his first League appearance had come in Luton’s 4-3 victory at Bury in February 1938, in which Joe Payne (1914-75) scored a hat-trick. A wartime guest with Bradford Park Avenue, Darlington, Luton Town and, in March 1941, Doncaster Rovers, Carte was still on Trinity’s books in 1946. The second of four sons to Robert Carte (1874-1946) and Nellie Royle Shuttleworth (1881-1946), he married in the summer of 1936 Phyllis Leaning (1915-77), the daughter of Ernest Leaning (1994-1964) and Lily Wilkinson (1892-1966) of East Retford, and their daughter Margaret was born in Gainsborough the following year. |
No 356. Brian Carter. 1961-62.
Born, 17.11.1938, Weymouth. Died, 21.7.2019, Weymouth. 5’ 6½”; 10 st 2 lbs. Début: 19.8.61 v Liverpool. Career: Weymouth Grammar School; 30.6.55 Weymouth (professional, November 1955); 23.1.56 Portsmouth (£2,500) [45,0]; 30.6.61 Bristol Rovers (£1,500) [4,0]; 10.3.62 Bath City; 16.5.67 Bridgwater Town; 6.7.68 Trowbridge Town (trial); 15.5.69 Welton Rovers (player-manager); 17.8.70 Bridgwater Town; 27.2.71 Shepton Mallet; 13.5.72 Avon Bradford (player-manager); 14.7.76 Melksham Town; July 1977 Clandown. Rovers lost all four League games in which young right-half Brian Carter appeared. The son of Edward Carter and Eileen Bird, who was the daughter of Albert Bird and Florence Knight, he had earlier been a member of the Pompey side defeated 5-4 by Rovers at Fratton Park in February 1960. He married Josephine Child in 1959. Scoring his first goal for Bath City in their 2-1 Southern League defeat against Romford in September 1964, he made his Bridgwater début in a home defeat in a friendly against Torquay United in May 1967. Carter had been part of the Bath side which took Bolton Wanderers to an FA Cup replay in January 1964, this side being coached by the future Rovers manager Malcolm Allison (1927-2010) and including former Rovers player Tony Gough and Manchester City’s 1968 title-winning captain Tony Book. His career temporarily halted after damaging a knee on holiday in Corfu, Carter recovered from surgery to sign for Clandown in 1977. By then living in Bradford-on-Avon, he worked for forty years as a partner in a company of quarry produce merchants with headquarters in Bristol and the Mendips. Latterly living with dementia at a Weymouth home, Gracewell, Brian Carter died at the age of eighty. |
No 491. Roy William Carter. 1982-83.
Born, 19.2.1954, Torpoint. 6’ ½”; 10 st 12 lbs. Début: 1.1.83 v Cardiff City. Career: Torpoint Athletic; 11.8.73 Falmouth Town; 1974 Plymouth Argyle (trial); 15.8.75 Hereford United (free) [64+7,9]; 7.12.77 Swindon Town (£22,000) [193+7,34]; 8.10.82 Torquay United (free) [27,8]; 29.12.82 Bristol Rovers (loan) [4,1]; 23.9.83 Newport County (£15,000) [150+2,21]; June 1987 Exeter City (free) [37+4,2]; 1988 Saltash United; 1989 Bodmin Town (player-coach, August 1992); September 1993 Torpoint Athletic (player-assistant manager). Les Bradd and Roy Carter made their Rovers débuts in the televised New Year’s Day defeat at Ninian Park, the talented midfielder progressing to score the opening goal as Brentford were defeated 2-0 at Eastville two weeks later. The younger child of Henry Carter and Christine Nodder, who was in turn the middle daughter of a Cornish couple, William Ernest Nodder (1872-1941) and Ethel Irwin (1883-1943), Roy Carter came from Crafthole, near Torpoint and scored 39 goals in two seasons with Falmouth. Helping his side to secure the title of the South-West League as well as the Cornwall Senior Cup and Pratten Cup in 1973-74, he also worked as an apprentice shipwright and captained the Devonport Dockyard Apprentice XI which won the televised 1974 National Youth Clubs’ Cup Final at Wembley. Following a Swindon début against Carlisle United in December 1977, he was an ever-present in 1978-79 and appointed club captain, leading the Robins to the semi-finals of the League Cup in 1980. He was in Swindon’s team for both League clashes with Rovers during the 1981-82 campaign, scoring a penalty as Rovers crashed 5-2 in Wiltshire that March, and later appeared in all the final seven League meetings between Rovers and Newport, missing a penalty in County’s 3-0 victory in September 1985. Having captained Saltash United to the Western League title in 1988-89, he led Bodmin to the 1990-91 South-West League championship, the only time that club has won the title, his final game being their 3-0 win at his former club Falmouth Town in May 1993. Married to Wendy and with a daughter, Vicky, and son, Andrew, Roy Carter worked for many years as a golf professional at Torpoint driving range and lived in Crafthole. |
No 515. Timothy Douglas Carter. 1985-98.
Born, 5.10.1967, Bristol. Died, 19.6.2008, Stretford. 6’ 2”; 13 st 11 lbs. Début: 28.12.85 v Reading. Career: 1984 Bristol Rovers (professional, 8.10.85) [47,0]; 14.12.87 Newport County (loan) [1,0]; 24.12.87 Sunderland (£50,000) [37,0]; 18.3.88 Carlisle United (loan) [4,0]; 15.9.88 Bristol City (loan) [3,0]; 21.11.91 Birmingham City (loan) [2,0]; 13.8.93 Hartlepool United (free) [18,0]; 3.1.94 Millwall (loan); 24.3.94 Millwall (free); 4.8.95 Blackpool (loan); 18.8.95 Oxford United (free) [4,0]; 6.12.95 Millwall (free) [62,0]; 13.7.98 Halifax Town (free) [9+1,0]; 12.6.03 Sunderland (first-team goalkeeping coach); October 2007 Estonia (goalkeeping coach). On New Year’s Day 1987, as Rovers’ goal took a battering from Bristol City’s potent attack, young goalkeeper Tim Carter was forced to leave the field injured. Returning heroically, he managed to keep out a string of raids, before Gary Smart’s stunning late goal gave Rovers a hugely unexpected victory. Carter, who had won three England Youth caps, was a reliable, impressive keeper, who played regularly for Rovers in the 1986-87 season before losing his place to Nigel Martyn and enjoying string of loan spells. His sole appearance for Newport came in the 3-0 defeat at Rochdale in December 1987. He was in the Hartlepool side which drew 1-1 at Twerton Park in November 1993 and the Oxford side which lost to Rovers in September 1995, as well as Millwall’s team for both fixtures against Rovers in 1996-97, when he was an ever-present. Popular at Sunderland, his playing spell at Roker Park was marred by his arrest in Ottery St Mary after an incident following the Black Cats’ League Cup game at Exeter in November 1989. Both Carter and his Luton counterpart Jürgen Sommer were sent off in a reserve fixture in April 1995, but the real drama occurred when he returned for a second spell with Millwall. Top of the table, the Lions travelled to Roker Park three days after Carter’s signing to play his former club; Kasey Keller was in goal, as Sunderland defeated Millwall 6-0, Craig Russell scoring four times, and the season’s end astonishingly saw the Lions relegated whilst Sunderland were champions. An unused substitute in Halifax’s first game on their brief return to the Football League in 1998, Carter later coached in Tallinn. Sadly, having apparently committed suicide by hanging, his body was discovered by a passer-by in bushes in Highfield Close, Stretford months after his fortieth birthday. |
No 737. Brian Dominic Cash. 2004-05.
Born, 24.11.1982, Dublin. 5’ 9”; 12 st. Début: 3.1.05 v Northampton Town. Career: Nottingham Forest (professional, 1.8.99) [0+7,0]; 16.10.02 Swansea City (loan) [5,0]; 20.8.04 Rochdale (loan) [6,0]; 24.12.04 Bristol Rovers [0+1,0]; 18.1.05 Heart of Midlothian (loan); 14.2.05 Derry City (free); 2006 Sligo Rovers; 4.1.10 St Patrick’s Athletic; 3.3.11 Galway United (released, 1.7.11). Appearing for Rovers as a late substitute, Dubliner Brian Cash found himself substituted by Elliott Ward in the final minute; he had been on the field just eleven minutes and stormed off the pitch, provoking manager Ian Atkins to insist: “I am paid to win football matches, not look after players’ egos”. Away from Rovers Cash, who had won caps for the Republic of Ireland from Under-16 level through to three Under-21 appearances, made his Forest début in a 3-1 win at Stockport in February 2002, as a substitute eight minutes from time for Andy Reid. A Rochdale team-mate of Paul Tait, he was in the Swansea side that lost embarrassingly 2-1 at Stevenage in the LDV Vans Trophy in October 2002 and did not make the first-team at Hearts. After three goals in 74 games for Sligo, he appeared 26 times with St Pat’s, scoring against Dundalk in the FAI Cup Final in 2010, before ending his career with thirteen appearances for Galway United. He now runs the Dublin Fit Club in Crumlin with Pat Jennings junior, a former Derry City team-mate whose father is the celebrated Northern Ireland international. |
No 494. (Ray) Alec Ray Cashley. 1983-85.
Born, 23.10.1951, Bristol. 5’ 11”; 12 st 12 lbs. Début: 26.12.83 v Oxford United. Career: Bristol City (professional, September 1970) [227,1]; 8.1.81 Hereford United (loan) [20,0]; July 1982 Clevedon Town; 16.8.82 Bristol Rovers (free) [53,0]; 22.7.85 Trowbridge Town (free); 11.10.85 Chester [9,0]; 1986 Bury (loan); 1987 Bristol City (trial); 1987 East Worle; 1988 Weston-super-Mare (later in charge of fund-raising). When Rovers played Bristol City in the Gloucestershire Cup Final in September 1982, the Robins’ former stalwart keeper Ray Cashley made a surprise appearance in goal. Following a long career at Ashton Gate, he had played for Clevedon against Newport and been offered a two-month contract with the South Walian club; turning them down, he joined Rovers. It took eighteen months for Cashley to make the League side but, that achieved, he appeared in over fifty League games for the Pirates before helping Chester gain promotion from Division Four and becoming lotteries manager at Weston. The younger son of Eric Cashley and Florence Hassell, she being the eldest of five children to Thomas Hassell (1897-1969) and Martha Mona Hawkins (1904-91), Ray Cashley was hugely popular with Bristol City. He played in five League encounters against Rovers, as well as twice playing for Rovers against the Robins, and he was an ever-present as City gained promotion to Division One in 1975-76, returning to top-flight football for the first time since 1911. A tough-tackling left-back with City’s youth set-up, he had gone in goal during an injury crisis and made his début between the sticks when the Robins played Southampton in an FA Cup-tie in January 1970. He even scored in a League fixture in September 1973, City’s second goal as they defeated Hull City 3-1, as his long punt downfield in a prevailing strong wind sailed past his opposite number Jeff Wealands. In July 2016, he saved a penalty from the former Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIlroy, as Weston-super-Mare Legends defeated Manchester United Legends 6-5. A testimonial game was arranged for July 2022 between a Bristol City XI and a Weston-super-Mare XI. Married to Cheryl Tripp with a son and a daughter, Ray Cashley lives in Whitchurch. |
No 530. Peter Cawley. 1986-87 and 1989-90.
Born, 15.9.1965, Walton-on-Thames. 6’ 4”; 13 st. Début: 28.2.87 v Notts County. Career: Woking; August 1985 Chertsey Town; 22.1.87 Wimbledon (£5,000) [1,0]; 26.2.87 Bristol Rovers (loan); 1987 Koparit, Finland (loan) [8,1]; 14.12.88 Fulham (loan) [3+2,0]; 31.7.89 Bristol Rovers [10+3,0]; 6.7.90 Southend United (free) [6+1,1]; 22.11.90 Exeter City (free) [7,0]; 8.11.91 Barnet (free) [3,0]; March 1992 Basingstoke Town (loan); 9.10.92 Colchester United [178+2,8]; June 1998 Wotton United (free); November 1998 Braintree Town; 1999 Stanway Rovers; 2002 Wycombe Wanderers (reserve team manager, to 15.11.04). Following a positive loan spell, central defender Peter Cawley was with Rovers through the Third Division championship campaign of 1989-90. Although he started one game and came on twice as a substitute, the tall, powerful defender was an unused substitute in 21 League encounters. He had earlier played for Chertsey against Wimbledon as part of a transfer fee which took him to Plough Lane in time to make his club début in the Charity Shield in front of a crowd of 54,000 alongside Rovers names in Rob Turner, John Scales and Andy Clement. Rare goals included one in Jackie Pitt’s testimonial game for Wimbledon against Rovers in August 1988 and one the previous year for Rovers reserves against Fulham reserves, before his first League goal materialised in Southend’s 4-1 defeat at Wigan Athletic in October 1990. Loan spells and brief stints were epitomised by the fact that he played just 45 minutes at Basingstoke, but a 1992 move to Colchester changed all that and Cawley’s career really took off. On three occasions Colchester reached play-off finals, losing 3-2 on aggregate to Plymouth in 1996, drawing 0-0 with Carlisle at Wembley in 1997, Cawley captaining his side and then suffering the agony of seeing Tony Caig save his penalty in the shoot-out such that Carlisle won 4-3, and finally gaining promotion in 1998, although Cawley missed the final. Red cards at Orient in September 1996 and at home to Lincoln in November 1997 notwithstanding, he gave great service at Layer Road and, having been part of Wycombe’s backroom staff as they suffered relegation to Division Three in 2003-04, working alongside his former Wimbledon team-mate Lawrie Sanchez, Peter Cawley now works as a taxi driver in London. His son Jack played for Heybridge Swifts. |
No 285. Frederick William Chadwick. 1947-48.
Born, 8.11.1913, Manchester. Died, 18.9.1987, Bristol. 5’ 10”; 11 st. Début: 13.9.47 v Brighton. Career: British Dyes; May 1935 Wolverhampton Wanderers; September 1936 Newport County [40,18]; June 1938 Ipswich Town [40,18]; 1946 West Ham United (amateur); 1947 Nottingham Forest (trial); 22.7.47 Bristol Rovers (free) [6,1]; 28.8.48 Street (released, 9.5.49). Wolves through the 1930s produced an astonishing number of young players, many of whom did not play at Molineux but furthered their careers elsewhere. Fred Chadwick, the eldest of eight children born to Frederick Chadwick senior (1891-1953) and Florence McKnight (1893-1954), had hit 72 goals in Division One of the Manchester Senior League with British Dyes and was to register two League hat-tricks at Newport before being top scorer in Ipswich’s first League season. A goal at Reading on his Ipswich début preceded a goalless draw with Rovers in his second appearance and he later missed a penalty against Swindon in March 1939 which would have given him a hat-trick. Wartime service in Singapore saw Chadwick taken prisoner of war by the Japanese, who used him as part of their labour force on the Siam railway. Earlier in the war, he had guested for Orient, Southend and Norwich, for whom he scored four goals against both Spurs and Aldershot as well as six times in the Canaries’ astonishing 18-0 victory over Brighton on Christmas Day 1940. Having represented both Newport and Ipswich in the League against Rovers and with identical league records at those two clubs, he scored the Pirates’ third goal in a 4-1 victory on his Rovers début before joining Street, against whom he had scored four goals for Ipswich in an FA Cup-tie before the war. His free-scoring run at Street included a goal at Eastville in a 3-3 draw with Rovers Colts in February 1949 and six goals against Soundwell in a Western League fixture that May. Fred Chadwick married Nancy Doreen Wood (1920-2006) in the spring of 1939 and they were happily married for almost fifty years, producing five children. |
No 621. Trevor Michael Challis. 1998-2003.
Born, 23.10.1975, Paddington. 5’ 8”; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 8.8.98 v Burnley. Career: 1988 Arsenal (schoolboy); 1990 Queen’s Park Rangers (professional, 23.10.93) [12+1,0]; 12.7.98 Bristol Rovers (free) [137+8,1]; 16.7.03 Exeter City (trial); 28.7.03 Colchester United (trial); 2.8.03 Telford United; 25.3.04 Shrewsbury Town (free) [38,0]; 18.6.05 Weymouth (free); 27.6.08 Eastleigh (free); Bristol City (Under-13 coach). A team-mate in West London of Ian Holloway and Gary Penrice as well as England internationals Les Ferdinand and Ray Wilkins (1956-2018), full-back Trevor Challis attended the FA School of Excellence at Lilleshall and, having won twelve England Under-16 caps, won two caps with the Under-18 side alongside David Beckham at the May 1996 Toulon tournament. He made his League début against Coventry City in November 1994 but was kept out of the game for some time after breaking a leg and damaging his knee in a collision with Rob Newman at Carrow Road in September 1996. At the end of his long rehabilitation, Challis joined Rovers, for whom he was sent off three times in his first twelve months. First, he was one of four players dismissed in the goalless draw at Gillingham, then a last-minute offence at Northampton led to an early exit, before a second yellow card five minutes from time prematurely ended his appearance in a 1-0 victory over Burnley in August 1999. A tough defensive player, Challis scored one goal, a nineteenth-minute strike which gave victory over Wigan Athletic in March 2000 as Rovers moved to the top of the table, only to win just one of the last ten games and miss out on the play-offs; worse was to follow, as the club tumbled into the basement division in the spring of 2001. Joining Telford along with the Jamaican international Fitzroy Simpson, he played alongside John Taylor and Anwar U’ddin, appearing in 33 Conference games. At Shrewsbury, where Kevin Street and Scott Howie were team-mates, he scored the decisive penalty which took the Shrews back into the Football League in May 2004, as they defeated Aldershot in a shoot-out after the final had been drawn. To 7(+1) Conference games could be added his League haul, before he played sixty times at Weymouth and 35 with Eastleigh. In Weymouth’s side which drew 1-1 with Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup in November 2006, he was also sent off against both Yeading and Northwich Victoria. Trevor Challis has coached Bristol City Under-13s and run holiday football sessions at Clifton College. |
No 5. George Harry Chance. 1920-24.
Born, 25.12.1896, Mears Coppice, Worcestershire. Died, 11.7.1952, Quarry Bank, Staffordshire. 5’ 7”; 10 st 6 lbs. Début: 28.8.20 v Millwall. Career: Lye Church School; Dudley Wood Victoria; Cradley Heath St Luke’s; 25.8.14 Brierley Hill Alliance; 1.2.15 Stourbridge; 7.5.20 Bristol Rovers (£350) [80,11]; June 1924 Gillingham (£100) [40,4]; 27.4.25 Millwall (£650) [175,22]; June 1930 Brierley Hill Alliance. Described contemporarily as an “elusive outside-right”, George Chance appeared in Rovers’ first Football League fixture, gave four years’ service to the club and, with Wilkie Phillips, ended up as the shortest wing pairing then operating in the four divisions of the Football League. A former professional athlete and a keen sea-fisher, he served the club he had faced in his Rovers début for five campaigns, winning a Division Three (South) championship medal as well as the London Challenge Cup in 1927-28. His seasons at Millwall included an appearance in the side which won 6-1 at Eastville in December 1927. He scored both Gillingham’s goals in a 2-0 win against Brighton in January 1925. His club form, consistent and dependable, earned him representative honours when the Professionals of the South defeated the Amateurs of the South 6-3 in November 1927. The youngest of four children to a Worcestershire clay hewer Joseph Chance and his wife Margaret Freeman, the middle daughter of Samuel Freeman and Mahalah Clark (1824-1886), he was brought up in Stourbridge Road, Lye, Worcestershire; he married his cousin Constance Chance in 1922 and they had a son Ronald. Rejecting an offer to sign for Bristol City in 1932, George Chance subsequently ran The Thorns Inn in Quarry Bank for many years. After George’s death, his widow Constance (1902-78) married again to Horace Bridgens (1896-1971), the widower of Caroline Perks (1894-1952). |
No 320. Raymond Edward John Chandler. 1953-55.
Born, 14.8.1931, Bath. 5’ 10”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 16.4.54 v Oldham Athletic. Career: Peasedown Miners’ Welfare; Bristol City (amateur); 26.6.53 Bristol Rovers [12,0]; 16.6.56 Swindon Town [35,0]; 1959 Cambridge United; Wisbech Town; Bridgwater Town; Paulton Rovers; Welton Rovers; Odd Down. On Rovers’ books during the club’s first two seasons in second-tier English football, local goalkeeper Ray Chandler had represented the Somerset Football Association. A namesake of the novelist (1888-1959), his first and last games for Swindon were both against Queen’s Park Rangers at Loftus Road, the fixtures coming in September 1956 and April 1959, although he made no League appearances whatsoever during the 1957-58 campaign. The eldest of seven children to Edmund Chandler and Violet Curtis, Ray Chandler married Sheila Clifford in Bath in 1955 and they had two sons, Stephen and Jeffrey, as well as a daughter, Julie. |
No 574. Justin Andrew Channing. 1992-96.
Born, 19.11.1968, Reading. 5’ 11”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 24.10.92 v Birmingham City. Career: Little Heath School, Tilehurst; 1985 Queen’s Park Rangers (professional, 27.8.86) [42+13,5]; 24.10.92 Bristol Rovers (loan); 7.1.93 Bristol Rovers (£250,000) [121+9,10]; 5.7.96 Orient [69+5,5]; July 1998 Slough Town; January 1999 Purfleet; 5.11.99 Harlow Town (to January 2000). Perhaps the best goal of the 1992-93 relegation season was defensive midfielder Justin Channing’s strike in the impressive 4-0 victory over Bristol City in December 1992. The former England Youth and Under-20 player incredibly scored long-range goals in the twenty-fifth minute of three consecutive games at this stage. With Rovers back in third-tier football, Channing remained at Twerton Park and was rewarded with a League hat-trick as Barnet were defeated 5-2 in March 1994 and he also played at Wembley in May 1995, as Rovers lost a play-off final 2-1 to Huddersfield Town. The following campaign, he made a substitute appearance in the demoralising FA Cup defeat at Hitchin and was debited in some sources as conceding two own goals in the 3-2 defeat at Wrexham in February 1996, deflecting Barry Hunter’s header, remarkably in the 25th minute, and Peter Ward’s cross ten minutes after half-time into his own net. Previously at Loftus Road with Ian Holloway, Gary Penrice and Dennis Bailey, Channing made his League bow in a 1-0 top-flight defeat at Luton in November 1986 and his long-range goal against Southampton at the Dell in September 1992 was featured on BBC’s “Match of the Day”. A team-mate of Paul Raynor and Jason Harris at Orient, he played in the club’s record-equalling 8-0 League win against Doncaster Rovers in December 1997 before scoring once in eleven Ryman Premier League fixtures alongside Lee Archer and Paul Hardyman at Slough. Having made his Harlow début in a 4-4 draw at home to Gray’s Athletic, Channing’s career was ended by damaged knee ligaments six minutes after half-time of a 2-1 Ryman League defeat at Basingstoke in January 2000. A keen golfer, he has hit a hole-in-one on four occasions; he worked in the duty-free shop on Dover to Calais cross-channel ferries and, married to Angela and with a daughter Mica, now runs his own decorating service in Kent. |
No 489. Michael Roger Channon. 1982-83.
Born, 28.11.1948, Orcheston, Wiltshire. 6’ ½”; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 19.10.82 v Millwall. Career: Orcheston; Shrewton United; March 1964 Southampton (professional, December 1965); 1974 Durban City (loan); 25.7.77 Manchester City (£300,000) [71+1,24]; 1978 Cape Town City (loan); 11.9.79 Southampton (£200,000) [507+3,185]; 1981 Newcastle KB United (loan); 1981 Gosnells City (loan); 17.5.82 Caroline Hills, Hong Kong; 1.9.82 Newcastle United (free) [4,1]; 17.10.82 Bristol Rovers (free) [4+5,0]; 22.12.82 Norwich City (free) [84+4,16]; 1983 Durban City (loan); 1985 Miramar Rangers; 7.8.85 Portsmouth (free) [34,6]; 1986 Finn Harps; Shrewton United (President). With his familiar grin, his trademark windmill goal-scoring celebration and his warm-hearted nature, Mick Channon was not just one of the great goal-scoring strikers but also one of the most endearing characters of a certain period in English footballing history. A phenomenal record at Southampton earned him the popular vote, even if other players were producing the goods at better-known clubs. Despite remaining at unfashionable Saints, Channon won 46 full caps for England between 1972 and 1977, twice playing as captain and added 21 goals, in addition to his nine Under-23 games and representing the Football League. The enthusiastic striker scored twice in games against Austria, Northern Ireland, Italy and Luxembourg and, with the nation missing out on international qualification for several years, is the England player with most caps never to have appeared in a major tournament. He scored for Southampton reserves aged fifteen, scored on his League début against Bristol City and accumulated a tally which represents the Saints’ aggregate League record. His four League hat-tricks for the Saints included all the goals as Rovers crashed 3-0 at The Dell in February 1975. In May 1976 Southampton in uncharacteristic yellow and blue reached the FA Cup Final against hot favourites Manchester United where, “against all logic and prediction, the unexpected happened” (Geoffrey Green, The Times); after eighty-three minutes, Channon, “the tireless hunter” fed Jim McCalliog, whose twenty-yard lob released Bobby Stokes to score the only goal of the game. Nine years later, Channon was in the Norwich side which defeated his former club Southampton in the League Cup Final, although they were relegated the same season. Eight goals for Saints and two for Manchester City in European football included one in City’s UEFA Cup quarter-final against Borussia Mönchengladbach in March 1979. He added a brace against each of Norwich, Middlesbrough and Coventry for Manchester City in top-flight football and remains, with 167 goals to his name, the player to have scored the highest tally of top-flight goals in English football without ever completing a League hat-trick. Featured twice in the Rothman’s Golden Boot XI, Channon added to his earlier hat-trick against Rovers with two goals in the final seven minutes to defeat Rovers over Christmas 1976 and his signing in the autumn of 1982 was a feature of a season in which the Pirates also signed World Cup winner Alan Ball. Channon, though, was largely kept out of a youthful, efficient Rovers side and on three separate occasions Rovers already led by four clear goals when the demoralised opposition saw a younger player make way for the guile and wisdom of Channon. Having enjoyed spells in South Africa, Australia – three goals in four games at Newcastle and one in his solitary appearance for Gosnells - and Hong Kong, the veteran striker was sent off for Norwich against Queen’s Park Rangers in October 1983 and appeared in one League of Ireland Cup game at Finn Harps. His son Mickey junior played for Thame United and Cheadle Town. The younger son of Horse Artillery serviceman Jack Channon and Betty Dickenson, and married twice, to Jane (Dorothy Madcroft) and to Jill, with two children from each marriage and three grandchildren, Mick Channon was an enthusiastic and hilarious television pundit at the 1986 World Cup before taking up horse-racing full-time at the age of thirty-eight. He has created an entirely successful second career for himself, totalling 123 winners in flat races in 2002 alone, winning races in Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy and Canada and, having earlier bought Saxon Gate at Upper Lambourn, training 130 horses by 2006 at the Queen’s former stables at West Ilsley. A motorway crash in August 2008, which claimed the life of his friend Tim Corby, left Channon with a broken jaw but, undeterred, he has continued to work and a hospitality suite at St Mary’s Stadium has been named in honour of Southampton’s greatest goal-scorer. |
No 867. Aaron James Chapman. 2015-16.
Born, 29.9.1990, Rotherham. 6’ 8”; 14 st 7 lbs. Début: 15.8.15 v Yeovil Town. Career: Goole Town; Parkgate: 2011 Norwich City (trial); 1.7.12 Belper Town; 17.5.13 Chesterfield (free); 10.2.14 Chester FC (loan); 23.9.14 Accrington Stanley (loan); 14.8.15 Bristol Rovers (loan) [5,0]; 17.6.16 Accrington Stanley (free) [59+1,0]; 20.5.18 Peterborough United (free) [32,0]; 14.12.19 Tranmere Rovers (loan) [6,0]; 12.10.20 Motherwell (free) [4+2,0]; 7.7.21 Gillingham (free) [18,0]; 23.5.22 Stevenage (free). Giant goalkeeper Aaron Chapman was the first loan signing brought in to solve the goalkeeping situation during Rovers’ opening season back in the Football League fold. The tallest man to represent the club, he conceded just four goals in five League outings and was popular with the club’s supporters. Long after his return to Chesterfield, Rovers secured promotion that campaign from League Two. Having appeared for Belper Town in all 46 Northern Premier League matches of their 2012-13 campaign, the young shot-stopper’s sole experience at Chesterfield had been a substitute appearance in a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy encounter with Scunthorpe United in September 2014; as a consequence, he played sixteen times for Conference side Chester and conceded two goals in three League fixtures with Stanley, his stay there being cut short by an injury to his left foot. A large presence in goal, daunting to opposition strikers, he was described as “a highly-rated young goalkeeper” by Rovers’ manager Darrell Clarke. He came on as substitute in a League Cup-tie against Bradford City in August 2016, scoring a penalty in the shoot-out as Stanley were victorious, and played in the third round of that season’s FA Cup, as Stanley won 2-1 at home to former winners Luton Town. Stanley were the surprise champions of League Two in 2017-18 and he played alongside Mustapha Carayol, Max Ehmer and David Tutonda in the Gillingham side relegated from League One in 2021-22. Both Chapman and Dan Sweeney, brother of the former Rovers defender Ryan Sweeney, were in the Stevenage side which knocked Reading, two divisions above them, out of the League Cup in August 2022, before beating Jonson Clarke-Harris’ Peterborpough side in the next round. |
No 63. George William Charlesworth. 1924-26.
Born, 29.11.1901, Bristol. Died, 19.8.1965, Barton Hill, Bristol. 5’ 10”; 12 st. Début: 11.10.24 v Newport County. Career: Dings Villa; St Silas; Richmond Athletic; St Luke’s; 1919 Barton Hill Sports; 3.5.21 Bristol Rovers (professional, 2.11.25) [20,2]; 29.8.24 Bath City (loan); 24.9.24 Hanham Athletic (loan); 20.5.26 Queen’s Park Rangers [23,3]; 11.7.27 Kettering Town; 14.3.29 Crystal Palace [21,8] (released, 27.4.33). 1946-48 Beaufort FC. Tall and strong, George Charlesworth was a local boy who broke into Rovers’ side and scored at Exeter City in a 1-1 draw on Easter Monday 1925 and in a 2-2 draw with Newport County the following September. It was Charlesworth who tempted the young future England full-back and captain Eddie Hapgood (1908-73) away from Rovers to Kettering in 1927. Having represented them against Arsenal in the “Hapgood guarantee” match of 1927, Charlesworth scored 22 goals in 66 Southern League matches for Kettering Town, thirteen of these goals helping his side secure the title of that league in 1928-29, managing 105 games and forty goals for the club in all competitions. He also scored in both QPR’s League fixtures against Southend United during the 1926-27 campaign. In four seasons at Palace, he scored a hat-trick against Torquay United in April 1930 and, as is so often the case, scored against his former club when Palace beat Rovers 5-0 in January 1932. A Southern League (East) champion with Palace reserves in 1928, he helped Beaufort win the Bristol and Clifton League in 1947-48. The youngest of seven children to a boot-maker George William Charlesworth (1866-1937) and his wife Laura Amanda “Manda” Burrough (1866-1933), he was brought up at 34 Beaufort Road, Barton Hill. George Charlesworth, who married Rosina Tapscott (1897-1981) in Bristol in 1933, ran a fish and chip shop in Barton Hill for many years. |
No 612. James Richard Clapham. 1996-97.
Born, 7.12.1975, Lincoln. 5’ 9”; 10 st 11 lbs. Début: 5.4.97 v Stockport County. Career: Sheffield Wednesday (schoolboy); 1992 Tottenham Hotspur (professional, 1.7.94) [0+1,0]; 29.1.97 Orient (loan) [6,0]; 27.3.97 Bristol Rovers (loan) [4+1,0]; 9.1.98 Ipswich Town (loan); 12.3.98 Ipswich Town (£300,000) [187+20,8]; 8.1.03 Birmingham City (£1,500,000) [69+15,1]; 22.7.06 Wolverhampton Wanderers (trial); 2.8.06 Wolverhampton Wanderers (free) [21+5,0]; 17.8.07 Leeds United (free) [12+1,0]; 31.1.08 Leicester City (free) [11,0]; 21.7.08 Southend United (trial); 19.9.08 Notts County (free) [57+13,3]; 18.7.10 Lincoln City (free) [21+4,1]; 1.8.11 Kettering Town (trial); 22.8.11 Kettering Town; 21.9.11 Lincoln City (youth coach); October 2011 Middlesbrough (youth team coach; senior Professional Development coach, 29.6.12); 1.6.15 Coventry City (coach); 30.9.16 Barnsley (first-team coach); 6.2.18 Leeds United (first-team coach); 1.6.18 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Professional Development coach); 17.5.21 Loughborough University (head football coach). Dependable left-sided midfielder Jamie Clapham, the son of Graham Clapham of Shrewsbury and Chester and the grandson of Lincoln City’s Bert Wilkinson, enjoyed many years of Football League experience. On his Rovers début he conceded the penalty three minutes from time, from which Kevin Cooper scored the only goal of the game, and he started in the 1-0 win against Millwall three days later, rooming with Brian Gayle. A member of the reserve side at Gerry Francis’ Spurs, he came on as substitute for Andy Sinton in the May 1997 Premier League fixture against Coventry City before his career took off at Portman Road. Ipswich reached the play-offs in successive years in the search for top-flight football, Clapham’s own goal paving the way for a 2-0 aggregate defeat against Charlton Athletic in 1997-98, although he made amends by scoring the fourth as Ipswich won 6-0 at Swindon in April 1999 to secure a play-off place once again. Finally, having converted the penalty against Bolton which enabled his side to make the final, Clapham’s cross led to the former Rovers striker Marcus Stewart’s goal at Wembley in May 2000 as Ipswich defeated Barnsley 4-2 to gain promotion to the Premier League, a position they held for two seasons. A flurry of Premier League goals and the experience of UEFA Cup football in 2001-02 preceded a spell at Birmingham alongside World Cup winner Christophe Dugarry, Clapham’s only goal coming in the 2-2 draw with Manchester United in December 2005. Playing under Ian Holloway, he experienced relegation in 2007-08 with Leicester before playing for Leeds against Rovers in League One that same season. Notts County were League Two champions in 2009-10 and he played in their 2-0 FA Cup victory away to top-flight Wigan Athletic in February 2010, before appearing in Lincoln’s team that lost 3-0 at Aldershot on the final day of the 2010-11 season to forfeit their Football League status. His only League goal for Lincoln had come in a 2-1 win against Macclesfield Town, although he also scored in the 4-3 FA Cup defeat at home to Hereford United. Jamie Clapham then appeared in 2(+1) Conference matches with Kettering and now lives near Middlesbrough. In April 2022 the Loughborough University side he coached reached the FA Vase semi-finals, where they lost 4-0 to Littlehampton Town. |
No 542. (Billy) William Raymond Clark. 1987-97.
Born, 19.5.1967, Christchurch, Dorset. 6’; 12 st 3 lbs CD Début: 17.10.87 v Chester City Career: Dexters; Southampton (trial); Portsmouth (trial); Swindon Town (trial); 25.9.84 Bournemouth [4,0]; 14.8.86 Poole Town (loan); 16.10.87 Bristol Rovers (loan); 21.1.88 Bristol Rovers [253+13,12]; 1990 Bath City (loan); 21.8.97 Peterborough United (trial) [1,0]; 14.9.97 Cheltenham Town (loan); 31.10.97 Exeter City (free) [39+2,3]; 19.6.99 Forest Green Rovers (free); 7.6.01 Newport County (free); 26.5.03 Weston-super-Mare (free); 4.6.05 Clevedon Town (player-coach; caretaker manager, 10.10.05); 10.10.07 Bristol Rovers (Under-18 coach); 29.6.09 Bath City (Academy coach, to 3.3.22). Reliable and dependable, central defender Billy Clark was an essential ingredient in the Rovers story for a decade. Having waited patiently to gain a regular place in Rovers’ side, the popular defender found injuries and the consistent form of others, notably Geoff Twentyman and Steve Yates, prevented him from making more of an impact. A regular for a year, he scored against Brighton in May 1988 before not starting a League game between October 1988 and March 1991. During this period of time, though, he scored against Fulham in the play-offs in May 1989 and featured as a substitute as Rovers secured the Third Division title in 1989-90. Popularly known as “The Judge”, because of the enormity of games spent on the bench, 64 League games by the summer of 1994 alone, Clark reclaimed his place in the side after conceding an own goal to Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough over Easter 1991. He was sent off against Aston Villa in the FA Cup in January 1993 and in a 2-0 defeat at Reading on Easter Saturday 1994, as well as fracturing a cheekbone, but emerged by 1994 as a more all-round player and appeared more regularly in Rovers’ side. A brace of goals in a 4-2 home victory over Wrexham in September 1994 kick-started a relative goal-scoring spree, with his six goals that season including a last-minute winner against Orient in April 1995. After playing at Wembley as Rovers lost to Huddersfield Town in the 1995 play-off final, he added Rovers’ first goal of the 1995-96 campaign and he was sent off after just nine minutes of the match with Chesterfield in January 1997. Prior to joining Rovers, Clark had made his Bournemouth début against Newport County in May 1985 before playing sixteen times for Poole Town and, after turning out for Peterborough against Wycombe Wanderers, he hit the crossbar with an acrobatic volley on his Exeter début at Hull in November 1997. A Rovers testimonial game in July 1998, featuring Les Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and John Hartson ended in West Ham defeating Rovers 2-0, Ian Wright scoring his first two goals for his new club, and Clark subsequently played in two FA Cup-ties for Exeter against the Pirates. With Forest Green, he played alongside David Mehew as Cheltenham Town were defeated 2-1 in the Gloucestershire Senior Challenge Cup Final of July 2000 and he scored the winning goal against Rushden and Diamonds in the Conference, as well as appearing in the FA Vase Final at Villa Park in May 2001, Forest Green losing 1-0 to Canvey Island. The FA Cup in 2003-04 saw Clark register an early goal to help defeat Farnborough Town 1-0 and head another goal in a 4-1 loss at Northampton Town. He made three appearances with Bath City, scored six times in 75 games at Forest Green and appeared in ten games for Weston-super-Mare. Son of Robert Clark and Eileen Hensor and married to Nikki and with a son Bailey, Billy Clark lives in Warmley and scored in a Rovers shirt again in May 2012, when Rovers Legends beat Bristol City Legends 7-6. In thirteen years working for Bath City, he nurtuired five young players who went on to represent England Colleges and thrtee who signed for Bristol City, as well as leading the team to victory in the South West League Cup in 2019; he left to become Head of Coaching and Football Development at St Brendan’s College. |
No 413. Allen Frederick Clarke. 1971-72.
Born, 2.12.1952, Crayford. 5’ 11”; 10 st 7 lbs. Début: 25.9.71 v Notts County. Career: Charlton Athletic (professional, July 1971) [2,0]; 9.9.71 Bristol Rovers (loan) [1,0]; 21.2.73 Exeter City [16,0]; 1974 Dartford; Slade Green. Loan signing Allen Clarke replaced the injured Dick Sheppard in goal for an astonishing game at Meadow Lane. Trailing by two goals at half-time, through a Don Masson penalty and a Phil Roberts own goal, Rovers rallied late on to record a 3-2 victory. He also played in Charlton’s 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday the following month, before conceding a forty-sixth-minute own goal in the 3-2 win at Hull a few days later. The eldest of three children to Frederick Clarke and Jean Palmer, who had married in 1950, Allen Clarke underwent a cartilage operation before enjoying an extended run in the side at Exeter. His name is written Allan in some sources. |
No 451. Gary Clarke. 1978-80.
Born, 6.11.1960, Boston, Lincolnshire. 5’ 8”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 7.10.78 v Blackburn Rovers. Career: Hengrove School; Bristol Boys; 1975 Bristol Rovers (schoolboy); 1976 Bristol City (schoolboy); July 1977 Bristol Rovers (professional, 6.11.78) [6+5,0]; May 1980 Bath City. Brought up in Horfield, winger Gary Clarke had played alongside his twin brother Craig at Ashton Gate and scored after just 27 minutes against Bristol City, in an Anglo-Scottish Cup-tie in August 1978. Prior to that he had made his first appearance on the left-wing against Everton in a pre-season friendly and his first senior start against Cardiff City in the Anglo-Scottish Cup. A substitute appearance in the League Cup against Hereford United preceded his brief Football League career, after which he moved to Twerton Park. |
No 860. James Clarke. 2015-18.
Born, 17.11.1989, Aylesbury. 6’; 13 st 3 lbs. Début: 8.8.15 v Northampton Town. Career: 23.11.07 Oxford United; 27.2.09 Oxford City (free); 14.8.12 Salisbury City (free); 30.6.14 Woking (free); 11.6.15 Bristol Rovers (free) [102+10,2]; 30.5.19 Walsall (free) [57+1,5]; 25.6.21 Newport County (free) [33+2,1]. With Rovers' return to the Football League assured, manager Darrell Clarke's first signing was strong central defender James Clarke. The twenty-five-year-old had appeared against Rovers in January 2015 in the Gas' goalless draw at Woking and had earlier worked under his near-namesake at Salisbury City. An Oxford United debut had come in the 2-0 victory at Kidderminster in the Conference in November 2007 and he had been sent off after 71 minutes of a 3-0 defeat against Burton Albion in March 2008 and, appearing alongside Lewis Haldane and Chris Carruthers, six minutes before half-time of an opening-day defeat at Barrow five months later. Clarke had played 25(+7) times in the Conference for United before 151 games with their neighbours had included promotion from the Southern League to the Nationwide North in 2011. Thereafter, 75(+1) appearances for Salisbury, this tally starting with a 2-1 victory over AFC Hornchurch in August 2012, his side gaining promotion to the Conference in 2012-13, where he appeared in 36(+1) matches during 2013-14, had preceded 28(+2) games in the same division with Woking, helping the side to twelve clean sheets. Clarke made an auspicious start to the 2015-16 campaign with Rovers, producing a string of eye-catching defensive displays, particularly when used at centre-back. Although still based in Buckinghamshire, he pledged his allegiance to Rovers’ unexpected promotion push in 2015-16. As the campaign gained momentum, he continued to play a key rôle as the side secured a dramatic final-day promotion to League One on goal difference. A first Rovers goal duly appeared, as both Rovers’ full-backs scored in the opening twenty minutes of a 2-1 win at Wycombe in August 2018. Clarke remained at Rovers sufficiently long to play a major part in a key moment of the 2018-19 campaign; having dropped to bottom of the table during the course of the December 2018 encounter at home to Fleetwood Town, managerless Rovers ended their final game before Christmas just one point inside the relegation zone after Clarke, appearing unmarked at the far post, struck a left-foot shot home four minutes into stoppage time to secure a critical 2-1 victory. With the season over, Clarke rejoined manager Darrell Clarke at Walsall where, as captain, he scored on his first League appearance as the Saddlers won 1-0 at Northampton Town in August 2019. He subsequently captained his Walsall side to victory over Rovers via a penalty shoot-out at The Mem in September 2020 before playing alongside Ed Upson in the Newport side demolished 8-0 at home by Southampton in a League Cup-tie in August 2021. The following month he scored a very late winning goal against Walsall. He was also in the side, with Joe Day, Timmy Abraham and double-goalscorer Dom Telford, which defeated Rovers 3-1 at The Mem in October 2021, but missed the return fixture after being sent off against Forest Green Rovers in March 2022. |
No 970. Leon Clarke. 2021-22.
Born, 10.2.1985, Birmingham. 6’ 2”; 14 st 1 lb. Début: 4.9.21 v Crawley Town. Career: Wolverhampton Wanderers (1.7.03 professional); 25.3.04 Kidderminster Harriers (loan) [3+1,0]; 31.1.06 QPR (loan); 23.3.06 Plymouth Argyle (loan) [5,0]; 15.1.07 Sheffield Wednesday (£300,000) [43+40,18]; 1.3.07 Oldham Athletic (loan) [5,3]; 31.8.07 Southend United (loan) [16,8]; 2.10.10 QPR (free) [3+11,0]; 28.1.11 Preston North End (loan) [5+1,1]; 19.8.11 Swindon Town (free) [2,0]; 31.8.11 Chesterfield (loan) [14,9]; 1.1.12 Charlton Athletic (free) [1+6,0]; 16.3.12 Crawley Town (loan) [4,1]; 7.9.12 Scunthorpe United (loan) [14+1,11]; 24.12.12 Coventry City (trial); 1.1.13 Coventry City (loan); 7.1.13 Coventry City (free) [33+2,23]; 30.1.14 Wolverhampton Wanderers (£750,000) [41+62,16]; 2.2.15 Wigan Athletic (loan); 2.6.15 Bury (free) [32,15]; 27.7.16 Sheffield United (free) [59+29,29]; 30.1.19 Wigan Athletic (loan) [18+7,4]; 24.9.20 Shrewsbury Town (free) [6+4,1]; 31.7.21 Gloucester City (trial); 31.8.21 Bristol Rovers (free) [2+9,2] (released, 19.5.22). Used as a half-time substitute, Leon Clarke headed home Antony Evans’ cross with his second touch for The Gas to seal a 1-0 victory over Crawley Town on his first appearance. However, this positive start was followed by a hamstring injury which ruled him out of the side. Tall, strong and a proven goalscorer, Clarke arrived at Rovers towards the end of a career in which The Gas were the twentieth club for whom he appeared in the Football League and he helped the Pirates to promotion to League One, being on the field as a substitute as the extraordinary 7-0 final-day home victory over Scunthorpe United drew to a close. He enjoyed success all across the country, including a series of successful spells near his west Midlands home. “He’s powerful, he’s strong, he’s got the pace, he has got all the attributes”, reported Brian Laws. His mother is Paulette; his father, Darel Clarke (the son of Lewis Clarke and Freda Bishop), from whom he was estranged, died aged fifty in January 2016, following an attack in the beer garden at The Boat pub in Wednesfield. Leon Clarke made his first appearance for Wolves in a League Cup-tie against Darlington in September 2003 and, before that season was out, he had appeared in the Football League, playing alongside Craig Hinton in the Kidderminster side which drew 1-1 at Lincoln City in March 2004. Through his long career he was to win League One twice, with Wolves in 2013-14 and Sheffield United in 2016-17, was a runner-up in the Championship with the Blades in 2018-19, was divisional Player of the Month in April 2017 and November 2017 and also made the divisional Team of the Year in both 2012-13 and 2017-18. Clarke scored in five consecutive League matches in the autumn of 2007 with Southend, in September 2012 with Scunthorpe and in April 2017 whilst with Sheffield United. In addition, he scored a hat-trick in Chesterfield’s 4-1 victory over Carlisle United in September 2013; he then scored four second-half goals in November 2017, as Sheffield United defeated Hull City 4-1, the first Blades player for thirty-four years to score as many goals in one game, and followed this up with a hat-trick in the next home match, a 5-4 defeat at the hands of Fulham, for whom Ryan Sessegnon also scored three times. It was not always so positive, though; Wednesday were relegated on the final day of the 2009-10 campaign, having drawn 2-2 with Palace when a win would have ensured survival, with Clarke substituted, having broken a toe kicking advertising hoardings after scoring. He was also offloaded by Swindon after an altercation with Claudio Donatelli, the Robins’ fitness coach. Two of his three goals for Oldham came in the final four minutes of a 2-2 draw at Brentford in March 2007, a game in which former Rovers players Jo Kuffour and Michael Leary were both playing, and he scored his goal for Preston in a draw at Watford and his Crawley strike in a 2-1 win at Bradford City, playing as a team-mate of Michel Kuipers. John Sheridan took him on loan at both Chesterfield and Oldham before, playing alongside Oli Norburn, his solitary goal for Shrewsbury was a last-minute headed winner from a Josh Vela cross at Wimbledon in October 2020. Perhaps controversially, he had once scored for Bury, when he was allowed to walk the ball slowly into the goal, after Doncaster’s Harry Forrester had inadvertently volleyed an unchallenged drop-ball into the Shakers’ net. However, Clarke’s two-and-a-half years at Sheffield United proved perhaps the zenith of his career. “I rate him very highly”, announced Neil Warnock. During the 2017-18 season he scored a career-best nineteen League goals, including a highly-charged brace against his former club in the cauldron of a Steel City derby of September 2017. He remained at Bramall Lane sufficiently long to make his Premier League bow at the age of thirty-four, appearing against champions-elect Liverpool in 2019. He was sent off for Sheffield United at Barnsley in August 2017, as he had been for Southend at Nottingham Forest in November 2007. Prior to his arrival at the Memorial Stadium, Leon Clarke had scored a last-minute equaliser for Southend against Rovers in October 2007 before appearing against Rovers again with Shrewsbury, during the 2020-21 campaign, during which Rovers tumbled out of League One into the fourth tier of English football. |
No 806. Oliver Anthony Clarke. 2010-18.
Born, 29.6.1992, Bristol. 5’ 11”; 11 st 11 lbs. Début: 7.5.11 v Colchester United. Career: 2009 Bristol Rovers (professional, 1.4.10) [201+34,20]; 10.9.10 Gloucester City (loan); 24.12.10 Mangotsfield United (loan); 1.4.12 Clevedon Town (loan); 1.7.20 Mansfield Town (free) [51+8,7]. Thirty-five players were used by relegated Rovers in the 2010-11 League season, the final one being Ollie Clarke from Portishead, who replaced Harry Pell two minutes from time at Colchester on the final day of the campaign. With 16(+1) games and five goals under his belt for the Under-18 side, he had played in the reserve game against Cheltenham Town three weeks earlier and had enjoyed three games on loan at Gloucester, as well as scoring three times in fifteen appearances with Mangotsfield. Having missed virtually all of the 2011-12 season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, before making five appearances for Clevedon, right-footed Clarke played the final ten minutes, replacing Joe Anyinsah, in the League Cup-tie at Ipswich in August 2012. He made his second League appearance at Wimbledon, when he came on as substitute for Eliot Richards nineteen minutes from the end of the October 2012 fixture, and played the final seventy-five minutes at Bradford at the close of the season after Dan Woodards had left the field injured. The final home fixture of 2012-13 saw Clarke’s first full start, Rovers losing 1-0 to Accrington Stanley through Lee Molyneux’s stunning thirty-yard free-kick after just sixty-nine seconds. Clarke scored when a Rovers Youth side defeated London Youth 3-0 in March 2013, but missed the start of the following campaign with a hamstring injury. Becoming a regular in Rovers’ midfield in the autumn of 2013, he came close to his first goal for the club when his shot was cleared off the line by Burton Albion’s captain Ian Sharps that November, but registered Rovers’ opening goal against Portsmouth the following month, his right-foot half-volley from the edge of the box giving the Pirates the lead five minutes before half-time. However, Rovers dropped out of the Football League at the end of that campaign. A goal of breath-taking brilliance earned Rovers a draw at Eastleigh at the tail end of September 2014, only for Clarke to pick up two yellow cards in stoppage time to become the second Rovers player dismissed in the match; he was also sent off at Southend United on the final day of the 2017-18 campaign. During 2014-15, Rovers pushed hard for an immediate return to the Football League, he appeared in 16(+12) Conference matches and scored four goals as the Gas finished one point behind champions Barnet; he was an unused substitute for the Wembley play-off final in May 2015 as Rovers dramatically secured promotion back to League football. Incredibly, the side went from strength to strength, gaining successive promotions in May 2016 to reach League One, Ollie Clarke appearing in more than half of the games that season and scoring key goals in the spring victories over Wimbledon and Newport County. Touted by many as Rovers’ best player in 2016-17, Clarke’s increased importance to the side was highlighted by several crucial goals, including one after just thirty seconds as Chesterfield were defeated at The Mem in March 2017 and he was named both Supporters’ Club and President’s Club Player of the Year that campaign as well as Players’ Player of the Year for 2018-19, when he finished as the club’s second highest goalscorer. He was sent off towards the end of Rovers’victory away to Ipswich Town in December 2019, manager Graham Coughlan’s final match with the club and Clarke subsequently rejoined Coughlan at Mansfield. Clarke scored a first-minute goal at Port Vale in January 2021 but, having played against Rovers alongside John-Jo O’Toole in the 2021-22 campaign, was one of two Stags players sent off in a 2-1 home defeat against Harrogate that September and scored twice in a 3-1 victory over Scunthorpe United two months later, as the Stags made the League Two play-offs; Clarke was an unused substitute at Wembley as they lost 3-0 to Port Vale. |
No 687. Ryan James Clarke. 2001-05.
Born, 30.4.1982, Bristol. 6’ 1”; 12 st 3 lbs. Début: 20.4.02 v Rochdale. Career: Stoke Lane; 1993 Bristol City; 1998 Bristol Rovers (professional, 26.4.02) [22+1,0]; 13.10.04 Southend United (loan) [1,0]; 13.11.04 Kidderminster Harriers (loan); 27.7.05 Forest Green Rovers (loan); 27.6.06 Torquay United (trial); 26.7.06 Salisbury City (free); 28.11.08 Northwich Victoria (loan); 9.1.09 Northwich Victoria (free); 26.5.09 Oxford United [185+1,0]; 1.7.15 Northampton Town (free); 21.6.16 AFC Wimbledon (free) [7,0]; 21.9.16 Eastleigh (free); 25.6.17 Torquay United (free); 8.7.18 Bath City (free; 27.5.22 goalkeeping coach). Saving a penalty on his début for Rovers, Southend and Kidderminster,had, by mid-December 2004, played in ten League matches for three different clubs under eleven managers. After 38 matches as an unused substitute, following training at La Manga with the England Under-18 squad in January 2001, the tall Bristolian made his League début for the final fourteen minutes at Rochdale on the final day of the 2002-03 season, replacing ever-present Scott Howie and saving a late penalty, although it was subsequently re-taken and scored by Alan McLoughlin. On loan at Southend, he teamed up with his former Rovers colleague Adam Barrett and saved a début penalty at home to Swansea before repeating the feat in Harriers’ FA Cup-tie away to Port Vale. Six Conference games for Kidderminster were followed by 42 with Forest Green, where he was sent off just fifteen minutes into the 3-0 home defeat against Woking in October 2005 before helping secure Conference status on the final day of the season. To forty-one Conference games for Salisbury, including a red card against Farnborough in March 2007 could be added a man-of-the-match performance in the 1-1 home FA Cup draw with Nottingham Forest in December 2006, before 22(+1) games with Northwich included a red card in the 5-2 defeat at Droylsden in February 2010. Despite an own goal in the final, ever-present Ryan Clarke helped Oxford secure promotion back to the Football League through the play-offs in 2009-10 and, having played in Rovers’ demoralising 6-1 League Cup defeat at Oxford in August 2010, has since opposed Rovers several times as Oxford have re-established themselves in League Two. He missed a considerable portion of the 2012-13 season after undergoing double shoulder surgery and later played alongside Will Hoskins at Oxford. Although he did not play during the 2015-16 season, three of his clubs, Northampton, Oxford and Rovers all enjoyed automatic promotion from League Two that campaign and he joined the fourth promoted side that summer. Just weeks after the death of his father, Ernie Clarke, he starred as non-league Eastleigh drew at home to Swindon Town in a televised FA Cup-tie in November 2016, before shocking their League One opponents in the replay; he featured in eleven Conference matches with the Spitfires and ten with relegated Torquay United. In July 2018 he saved two second-half penalties as Bath City defeated a Rovers youth side 6-1 at Twerton Park in a pre-season friendly and played in 42 Conference South matches that campaign as the Romans made the Conference South play-offs. Still a regular at Twerton Park in 2020-21, he had appeared in eleven National League South matches when the 2020-21 season was curtailed amidst the coronavirus pandemic and, by the summer of 2022, had played 128 times for the Romans. |
959. Trevor Thomas Clarke. 2021-
Born, 26.3.1998, Dublin. 5’ 6”; 10 st 4 lbs. Début: 7.8.21 v Mansfield Town, Career: Crumlin United; 2012 St Kevin’s Boys; 2013 Middlesbrough; 1.9.15 Shamrock Rovers (free; professional, January 2016) [64+16,5]; 29.7.19 Rotherham United (free) [5+12,0]; 9.7.21 Bristol Rovers (free) [6+2,0]. Emanating from St Kevin’s Boys, where Cian Bolger and Josh Barrett had started their career, Irish full-back Trevor Clarke joined Rovers following relegation to League Two in 2021. Armed with “a sweet left foot and a high energy game”, according to Irish international websites, he has represented the republic of Ireland at Under-15 through to Under-21 level. Twelve games for the Under-17 side had incorporated five goals two of them in a 5-0 victory over Gibraltar in Athlone in September 2014, as well as the disappointment of breaking a bone in his foot during a match against Italy at the 2015 UEFA Under-17 finals. The first of seven Under-19 caps came against Ukraine in Limerick and he started one Under-21 game, a 3-0 victory over Luxembourg at Shamrock Rovers’ Tallaght Stadium in March 2019. It was little wonder that Trevor Clarke’s family appeared on Irish television show, “Ireland’s Fittest Family”, for his father Trevor played for Neilstown Rangers, his mother Joanne enjoyed college football in the United States and his brother Darren was with Longford Town. Trevor junior made his breakthrough with Shamrock, first playing as a last-minute substitute against Wexford Youth at the Tallaght in March 2016 and enjoying three successful years with the club. He played in six Europa League matches, helped Shamrock to runners-up positions in the League Cup in 2017 and League in 2020, becoming PFAI Young Player of the Year in 2017, the season he made the divisional team of the year, and attracting interest in 2017 from Southampton, Sheffield United and Barnsley. He was also sent off in 1-0 defeats against Bray Wanderers in October 2017 and Bohemians in April 2019. A move to Yorkshire saw limited appearances with Rotherham, being an unused substitute when Rovers lost 3-0 in January 2020 and being with the Millers through promotion to the Championship and relegation the following campaign. He did, however, score on his first appearance, the winning goal in a Football League Trophy game with Doncaster Rovers, having overcome a knee injury suffered in a pre-season friendly with Newcastle United on the day he signed for the Millers. His Rovers career, though, started with a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a groin injury suffred on his club début, after which he was sent off in the final moments of a 1-1 draw at Colchester United in October 2021, shortly after joining the match as a late substitute. Despite these setbacks, Clarke returned to the side stronger ahead of the late season promotion push and started the final game, as Rovers demolished Scunthorpe United 7-0 to claim promotion to League One. However, having played in Rovers’ opening-day defeat against Forest Green Rovers the next season, Clarke was informed that his services at the club were no longer required; he reacted to this setback by forcing his way back into the side, scoring with a vicious twenty-yard drive past Joe Whitworth, as Rovers defeated Crystal Palace Under-21 2-0 in the Football League Trophy in October 2022. |
No 918. Jonson Clarke-Harris. 2018-2020.
Born, 21.7.1994, Leicester. F 6’; 11 st 3 lbs. Début: 2.2.19 v Southend United. Career: Beaumont Town; Judgemeadow; 1.7.10 Coventry City; 8.5.12 Blackburn Rovers (trial); 23.7.12 Peterborough United (free); 12.10.12 Southend United (loan) [0+3,0]; 23.2.13 Bury (loan) [4+8,4]; 15.5.13 Oldham Athletic (free) [28+17,7]; 1.9.14 Rotherham United (£350,000) [27+44,9]; 16.1.15 MK Dons (loan) [2+3,0]; 12.3.15 Doncaster Rovers (loan) [2+6,1]; 31.1.18 Coventry City (loan); 1.7.18 Coventry City (free) [30+14,8]; 31.1.19 Bristol Rovers (free) [38+4,24]; 27.8.20 Peterborough United (£1,250,000) [77+9,43]. Shortly before midnight on Transfer Deadline Day, Rovers announced the signing of striker Jonson Clarke-Harris, once Rotherham’s club record signing. As the Gas lay second from the foot of the table, goals were needed if the side was to preserve its hard-earned League One status and it was goals which the young striker provided. He made his first appearance for the club as a fifty-ninth-minute substitute for goalscorer Gavin Reilly, as Rovers won 2-1 at Southend to pull out of the relegation zone. At Fratton Park in the next away fixture, he converted one penalty before missing a second in a 1-1 draw. The young Midlander then hit a hat-trick, two with his left foot and one with his right, as Rovers, with two goals in each half, destroyed Blackpool 4-0 at The Mem in March 2019, part of a run of six goals in five League matches which effectively secured Rovers’ survival from relegation and earned the young striker the Football League Player of the Month award for that month. With five games to go, Rovers faced bottom-of-the-table Bradford City at The Mem, knowing a win would virtually secure League One football and Clarke-Harris, with his second goal of the game, knocked home the winning goal three minutes into stoppage time. Clarke-Harris had once become Coventry’s youngest ever player, when he appeared in an August 2010 League Cup-tie at Craig Stanley’s Morecambe just twenty days after his sixteenth birthday, and it was from Coventry that he joined Rovers almost a decade later. After a goal in his solitary appearance for Blackburn reserves, the striker played for Southend on loan against Rotherham, Morecambe and Aldershot before a loan spell at Bury included two goals against Yeovil Town on his final appearance. Oldham’s Young Player of the Season in 2013-14, he claimed his first goal for the club with a twenty-five-yard free-kick against Notts County and commanded an impressive transfer fee after scoring in three consecutive fixtures in December 2013. He was sent off, just twenty minutes after coming on as a substitute, twelve minutes from the end of Oldham’s 3-1 home defeat against Preston North End in March 2014. An impressive start at Rotherham saw Clarke-Harris claim his first goal with a long-range strike as local rivals Leeds United were defeated 2-1 and he hit two goals as Bristol City crashed 3-0 in November 2015, but his spell in Yorkshire was punctuated by a string of loan deals and the fact that he missed much of the 2016-17 campaign with a cruciate ligament injury. MK Dons were promoted in 2014-15 and his only Doncaster goal came against his former and future club Coventry. After making a brief substitute appearance at the Mem in December 2017, as Rovers beat Rotherham 2-1, he helped Coventry secure promotion to League One in the spring of 2018. Even after a 6-2 home defeat to Yeovil Town on Easter Monday, the Sky Blues triumphed in the play-off final; before a crowd of 50,196, they defeated Exeter City 3-1, Clarke-Harris appearing as a substitute for the final thirty-nine minutes on the Wembley turf. Subsequently, he was in the Coventry side which conceded three goals in the opening 23 minutes at The Mem, as Rovers triumphed 3-1 in a League One fixture in September 2018 and he played alongside Tom Davies and Abu Ogogo for the Sky Blues. After leaving Rovers, he played alongside Ryan Broom at Posh, scoring a hat-trick in the opening twenty-two minutes of the 4-1 victory at home to Rochdale in December 2020 and another in the March 2021 7-0 demolition of Accrington Stanley, making his way into the PFA divisional team of the season. Posh gained promotion from League One in 2020-21 with a dramatic stoppage-time penalty, having trailed by three goals to Lincoln City, Clarke-Harris calmly converting the spot-kick for his thirty-first League goal of the campaign, making him the divisional top scorer. The following campaign, he appeared as a late substitute as Rovers lost 2-1 to Peterborough in the third round of the FA Cup in January 2022. Despite Posh’s relegation to League One, Clarke-Harris was called up to the Jamaica squad ahead of their match against Catalunya at the Montilivi Stadium in Girona in May 2022; he won his first cap in a 6-0 defeat, the former Everton and Watford striker Gerard Deulofeu scoring a first-half hat-trick. |
No 886. Jake Liam Clarke-Salter. 2016-17.
Born, 22.9.1997, Carshalton. 6’ 2”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 27.9.16 v Sheffield United. Career: 2006 Chelsea; 2007 Sutton United; 2008 Chelsea (professional, 22.4.16) [0+1,0]; 31.8.16 Bristol Rovers (loan) [9+2,1]; 8.1.18 Sunderland (loan) [8+3,0]; 2.7.18 Vitesse Arnhem (loan) [28,1]; 24.7.19 Birmingham City (loan); 16.10.20 Birmingham City (loan) [28+1,1]; 13.8.21 Coventry City (loan) [27+2,0]; 15.6.22 Queen’s Park Rangers (free). Just a week after Rovers had met Chelsea in a League Cup-tie, Jake Clarke-Salter and Charlie Colkett arrived at The Mem on long-term loan deals. Right-footed defender Clarke-Salter had a brief Premier League appearance to his name, having replaced Spanish international Pedro in a 4-0 victory at relegated Aston Villa in April 2016. He had risen through the ranks at Stamford Bridge, playing for the Under-18 side from December 2013, winning three FA Youth Cups, a feat not seen since the Busby Babes of the 1950s and two UEFA Youth League titles, before eventually captaining the side. Part of Chelsea’s 2015 tour to the United States, he won eight caps for England at Under-18 level and five at Under-19. During the 2016-17 season he cemented his place in the Under-20 side, conceding a penalty in the final as England defeated Venezuela 1-0 in South Korea in June 2017 to become world champions at this age level. Initially injured, he made his first Rovers appearance in front of a crowd of over 19,000 at Bramall Lane. Thereafter, his defensive prowess proved a useful weapon in Rovers’ armoury until, having scored for the club at Oldham, he suffered a dislocated elbow in the heavy home defeat against Charlton Athletic in November 2016. He was sent off for Sunderland against Middlesbrough and Preston North End in the spring of 2018. A further red card followed for Arnhem against Basel in the Europa League in August 2018, the month he scored his only goal of the season, during a 5-1 victory over Groningen; Vitesse lost to Utrecht in the Europa League play-off at the end of that season. His only Birmingham goal was an equaliser at home to Millwall in November 2019. |
No 832. David Thomas Clarkson. 2012-14.
Born, 10.9.1985, Bellshill. 5’ 10”; 11 st 9 lbs. Début: 18.8.12 v Oxford United. Career: Motherwell (professional, 1.7.02); 29.6.09 Bristol City (£800,000) [27+36,11]; 15.9.11 Brentford (loan) [4,1]; 27.7.12 Bristol Rovers [58+11,12]; 5.7.14 Motherwell (trial); 8.9.14 Dundee (free) [18+5,8]; 25.6.15 Motherwell (free) [165+61,49]; 27.1.16 St Mirren (loan); 19.5.16 St Mirren (free) [19+9,2]; 16.1.18 Motherwell (Head of Academy). Few football fans remained unmoved as the tragic scenes unfurled during Motherwell’s game with Dundee United over Christmas 2007. Phil O’Donnell, the club’s long-serving captain, collapsed and died of heart failure on the pitch, whilst his nephew, David Clarkson, stood by helpless. Clarkson was to finish the traumatic 2007-08 season as the club’s Player of the Year, emulating his late uncle when called up for a Scottish cap in May 2008. In true fairy-book manner, he scored the only goal, five minutes from time, past Petr Čech, as the Czech Republic was beaten 1-0. With one B cap to his name, the striker also won a second full cap against Argentina in November 2008. Clarkson stems from a footballing family, his cousins Stephen O’Donnell and Brian Dempsie both having also played in the Scottish Premier League and he gave great service to Motherwell for many years. A début against Aberdeen in December 2002, a goal after just nine minutes against Partick Thistle the following month and a hat-trick against Dundee United in January 2004 were offset by red cards picked up against Inverness, Kilmarnock and Celtic. A solid penalty-taker who played under Mark McGhee north of the border, he had travelled south in 2009 only to spend much of his time at Ashton Gate on the bench. A début goal for City at Preston, two more at Deepdale the following campaign and a forty-foot lobbed goal at Leicester were highlights of his stay, although his only goal of the 2011-12 season was for Brentford, where he bizarrely scored for both sides in a ten-minute spell at Carlisle in October 2011. Re-joining McGhee at the Memorial Stadium, Clarkson scored his first Rovers goal in the 2-2 draw with Aldershot Town in September 2012, firing into the top left corner of the net from outside the penalty area, before a potentially productive campaign was cut short by an ankle injury. The following campaign was kick-started by a brace of goals in the opening 32 minutes, as Rovers defeated York City 3-2, but he subsequently lost his place in the side for receiving a straight red card for a foul on Josh Scowen after just twenty-five minutes of the home defeat against Wycombe Wanderers that October. When the sides met again, at Adams Park at the tail end of April 2014, it was believed the side which lost would effectively suffer relegation to the Conference; amidst the tension of the occasion, Clarkson arrived at the far post fourteen minutes from time to steer home a loose ball, “probably the most important goal I’ve ever scored”, and earn Rovers a critical 2-1 victory, just their second away win in the League all season. This, though, proved to be the last goal Rovers scored for a year in the Football League for, in meekly submitting to a single-goal defeat at home to Mansfield Town seven days later whilst both Wycombe and Northampton won their fixtures, Rovers were relegated to Conference football after ninety-four years as members of the Football League. Clarkson returned north of the border and scored in each of his first seven Scottish League games with Dundee, teaming up with Paul Heffernan, before joining up with McGhee again for seven substitute appearances at Motherwell. He scored in Motherwell’s 4-3 defeat at Raith Rovers in the Scottish Championship in March 2016 and in a 2-2 draw at Dumbarton in February 2017, before his 2016-17 campaign was cut short by an anterior cruciate ligament injury, sustained in training, which required surgery; he missed the Scottish Challenge Cup Final that March, which was lost to Dundee United. |
No 534. Andrew David Clement. 1986-87.
Born, 12.11.1967, Cardiff. 5’ 8”; 11 st. Début: 11.3.87 v Walsall. Career: Wimbledon (professional, 14.11.85) [14+12,0]; 5.3.87 Bristol Rovers (loan) [5+1,0]; 31.12.87 Newport County (loan) [5,1]; 1990 Woking; 30.3.91 Plymouth Argyle (free) [28+14,0]; 1992 Woking (free); 6.8.94 Slough Town; 25.3.97 Yeovil Town; 20.12.97 Staines Town (assistant manager); July 2001 Bisley Sports (manager); September 2003 Molesey (coach); July 2004 Kingstonian (coach); 13.7.05 Bisley Sports (manager); 29.5.07 Farnborough (manager); 20.4.11 Eversley (joint manager; 14.6.13 manager). Welsh youth international Andy Clement appeared at Wembley as a substitute in Wimbledon’s Charity Shield game against Liverpool in August 1988, played in Newport’s final League season and played in both Plymouth’s games against Rovers during 1991-92. In addition, he had spent a month on loan towards the end of Rovers’ first season at Twerton Park, his time at the club including one win, when Kenny Hibbitt’s goal helped defeat Wigan Athletic 1-0, and scored as Newport County defeated Darlington 2-1 in January 1988. After scoring twice in 23(+1) Conference games for Woking in 1992-93, he captained the side the following campaign, overcoming the disappointment of a red card against Altrincham that March to appear in the May 1994 FA Vase Final at Wembley, when Woking beat Runcorn 2-1. Promoted to the Conference with both Slough Town in 1994-95 and Yeovil Town two years later, Clement scored three goals in 47(+2) Conference games for the former, but did not appear in that league with the Glovers. He later led Bisley to the Hellenic League Division One East title in 2006-07, losing only two games all season and, having scored a total of 121 goals, boasting a plus-99 goal difference. Manager of a gym until 2014, he now owns a gym in Bisley and works in Ascot as a personal trainer. |
No 94. Joseph Clennell. 1926-27.
Born, 19.2.1889, New Silksworth, Co Durham. Died, 28.2.1965, Blackpool. 5’ 5½”; 11 st 5 lbs. Début: 4.9.26 v Norwich City. Career: Seaham White Star; Silksworth United; Seaham Harbour; 9.5.10 Blackpool [32,20]; 14.4.11 Blackburn Rovers (£900) [26,12]; 23.1.14 Everton (£1,500) [68,31]; October 1921 Cardiff City (£3,500) [118,36]; February 1925 Stoke City [34,9]; 3.9.26 Bristol Rovers (£100) [19,5]; October 1927 Rochdale [13,2]; 1928 Ebbw Vale; August 1928 Barry Town (player-manager); July 1929 Bangor (player-coach); 1930 Belfast Distillery (manager); April 1931 Great Harwood (manager); 1934 Accrington Stanley (coach). Northampton Town were on the end of a 5-2 defeat at Eastville in February 1927, on the day the veterans Willie Culley and Joe Clennell scored all five goals between them. Clennell, who scored twice that day, had a long line of success behind him, including League titles with both Blackburn Rovers and Everton, starting with 33 goals in a season with Seaham Harbour and over 100 Football League goals. A Welsh Cup winner in both 1922 and 1923, he had also played in the 1919 Victory Shield, in which his Everton side lost to Nottingham Forest. Clennell, though, had also suffered his fair share of injuries, a damaged cartilage suffered at Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of the 1912-13 season keeping him out of Blackburn’s side until the following March and he had cartilage removed from both knees. His 24 Central League goals for Blackburn reserves in 1913-14 included five at home to Crewe Alexandra in September 1913. A “brilliant schemer, fine shot and one of the most zealous players known”, he helped Blackburn to the English title in 1911-12 and 1913-14, also playing in the 1912 Charity Shield and, having signed for Everton at 6.30 one evening, his fifteen goals in 36 matches eased the Toffees to the 1914-15 League title. Personal honours came too, as Clennell scored once for the English League in the 2-2 draw with the Irish League in November 1919. Missing almost the entire 1920-21 season through injury, he nonetheless became Rovers’ fifth oldest League débutant and third oldest League goal-scorer, then still had time to score a hat-trick for Rochdale in an 8-2 FA Cup win against Crook Town in November 1927, just weeks before his thirty-ninth birthday. His League goals for Dale came in a 3-0 home victory over Barrow in December 1927 and a 6-3 loss at Nelson the following month. The middle of three children of Thomas Clennell (1859-1895) and his wife Mary who, widowed at twenty-seven, re-married James Smith in 1898, he married Catherine Turner in Fylde in 1914 and they had a son Frederick. Joe Clennell died in a car accident at the age of seventy-six. |
No 770. Charles David Clough. 2007-12.
Born, 4.9.1990, Taunton. 6’ 1”; 11 st. Début: 26.4.08 v Brighton. Career: Bristol Rovers (professional, 16.5.07) [1+2,0]; 4.8.08 Mangotsfield United (loan); 13.8.09 Chippenham Town (loan); 28.9.10 Newport County (loan); 28.1.11 Weymouth (loan); 28.2.11 Bath City (loan); 9.3.12 AFC Telford (loan); 17.7.12 Dorchester Town (trial); 13.8.12 Dorchester Town (free); 12.9.13 Sutton United (free); 6.1.15 Forest Green Rovers (free); 23.1.17 Barnet (free) [47+8,1]; 20.6.18 Sutton United (free); 16.12.18 DPMM (Brunei) [29,11]; 9.12.21 Nakhon Ratchasima (free) [11+1,1]. Red-haired midfielder Charlie Clough, a 68th-minute substitute at Brighton, was with Rovers for the 2010-11 relegation season in which he played in 3(+1) reserve team games. A son of Peter Clough and Louise Duddridge, who married in Taunton in 1987 (his brother James played for Taunton Town). he played on loan in ten games each for Mangotsfield and Chippenham and two for Newport, scoring once in five matches with Weymouth. He added goals against Cambridge United, Gateshead and Grimsby Town in his 19(+4) Conference games with Bath, but was sent off in the first-half of the 1-1 draw with Luton Town in September 2011. Commuting regularly to see his Spanish girlfriend, who was based in Manchester, he hit the post during Dorchester’s shock FA Cup victory over Plymouth Argyle in November 2012, then conceded an own goal the following month, the only goal in a home defeat against Sutton United, as well as being sent off against Tonbridge Angels. Clough was to score ten goals in 37 Conference South fixtures with Dorchester in 2012-13, but left with the Magpies propping up the table after just four games of the following campaign. He was sent off during Sutton’s 2-1 victory at Farnborough in March 2014 and added seven goals in 50(+1) Conference South appearances as captain and Player of the Year in 2014-15, United losing to Dover Athletic in the divisional play-offs. The following campaign he was joined in Sutton’s side by Jo Kuffour and Jamie White, two former Rovers strikers, and scored five goals in a further 22 Conference South matches, including two in the final five minutes of a 3-2 defeat at Weston-super-Mare in January 2015, before joining Forest Green Rovers. His first-half header in the 1-1 draw with Braintree in March 2015 was Forest Green’s 1,000th goal in the Conference and his side reached the Conference play-offs, where they lost to Rovers over two legs. In November 2015 he was in the side which won 2-1 at League side AFC Wimbledon in an FA Cup first round shock and, alongside 65(+8) Conference games and seven goals, he was part of the Forest Green side which again reached the Conference play-offs in 2016, losing 3-1 to Grimsby Town at Wembley. He also played in the high-scoring Conference double-header against Torquay United over New Year 2017, Rovers losing 4-3 at Plainmoor before drawing 5-5 at home, and scored for Barnet at Blackpool in February 2017 before conceding an own goal at Chesterfield later that year. Barnet lost their Football League status in the spring of 2018 and he scored twice in 22 Conference matches with Sutton before rejoining manager Adrian Pennock in Brunei, where he helped his side secure the Singapore Premier League title. Subsequently, he played in the Thai League, being sent off against Prachuap in January 2022 and scoring the only goal of the game against Ratchaburi three months later. |
No 834. Martin Seanan Clucas. 2012-14.
Born, 8.11.1992, Dungannon, County Tyrone. 5’ 10”; 11 st 8 lbs. Début: 21.8.12 v Barnet. Career: 2007 Dungannon Swifts; 1.7.09 Preston North End (professional, 30.4.11) [0+1,0]; 22.3.12 Burton Albion (loan) [1+1,0]; 5.7.12 Bristol Rovers (free) [25+11,0]; 14.8.14 Linfield (free) [3+9,0]; 23.2.15 Derry City (free) [10+2,1] (to 15.7.15); 17.7.15 Newcastle Jets (trial); 29.6.16 Dungannon Swifts (free) [101+16,10]; 28.1.20 Glentoran (free) [37+14,3]. A former Gaelic footballer and a Liverpool supporter, blond-haired Seanan Clucas arrived at the Memorial Stadium with a total of 69 minutes of League football behind him, plus one full match with Dungannon Swifts. That said, he had five Northern Ireland caps at Under-17 level, four more at Under-19 and six for the Under-21 side, a figure extended in September 2012 when he missed Rovers’ game at home to Aldershot to represent his country against Macedonia. In all, he represented the Under-21 side on ten occasions. A firm-tackling “combative presence in the heart of midfield”, he had captained North End’s youth side in 2011-12, scoring three times in eleven matches and appearing once for the reserves. He played in three League Cup ties for Preston and appeared as a final-minute substitute for Iain Hume at Chesterfield in August 2011. Clucas was never in a winning Rovers team under Mark McGhee, but appeared in the victory over Plymouth on New Year’s Day 2013, John Ward’s first home game in his second spell at Rovers’ helm. However, the draw at Morecambe the following month saw Clucas pick up a cruciate ligament injury which ruled him out until the 2013-14 campaign. His comeback during the autumn of 2013 included a fifteenth-minute goal, when set up by Ellis Harrison, in the reserves’ 3-1 victory over Cirencester Town, but he could not prevent Rovers losing their Football League status as the season concluded. He scored for Derry City in a 1-1 draw with Sligo Rovers in May 2015 before moving temporarily to Australia and was later sent off playing for Swifts at Coleraine in February 2017. Later he conceded an own goal in the 4-0 home defeat to Linfield in August 2017 but helped Swifts to secure the League Cup Final in February 2018, with a 3-1 victory over Ballymena United, against which he club he also scored twice for Glentoran in April 2021. With Glentoran, he played in the 2021 County Antrim Shield Final, which was lost to Jeff Hughes’ Larne. |
No 507. Allan Charles Cockram. 1985-86.
Born, 8.10.1963, Kensington. 5’ 7”; 10 st. Début: 31.8.85 v Derby County. Career: Tottenham Hotspur (professional, January 1981) [2,0]; May 1985 coaching in California; 4.7.85 Bristol Rovers (trial); 8.8.85 Bristol Rovers (free) [1,0]; coaching in California; December 1985 Farnborough Town; February 1986 Crystal Palace (trial); January 1987 St Albans City; 22.3.88 Brentford [66+24,14]; August 1991 Brighton (trial); August 1991 Woking (trial); August 1991 Charleroi (trial); 3.9.91 Reading (trial); 4.9.91 Reading (free) [2+4,1]; January 1992 Farnborough Town; March 1992 Woking (free); August 1992 St Albans City (player-manager, 28.1.94); 11.4.96 Chertsey Town (manager, to 12.1.97). Long-haired winger Allan Cockram, the son of a Bristol City player of the same name, who had married in 1952 Joan Tyson, the daughter of Charles Tyson and Dorothy Holmes, played once in Rovers’ final campaign at Eastville. In addition to helping Brentford to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1988-89, he twice played at Griffin Park against Rovers in the League and scored a penalty in the shoot-out after the Bees and Pirates had drawn a February 1990 Leyland Daf Cup-tie. The young winger also made one Diadora League appearance for Woking, as well as playing in the Loctite Cup Final of May 1992, which was lost 2-0 to Sutton United. He later scored Reading’s goal in a 1-1 draw at Wigan Athletic in October 1991; he also scored in his solitary appearance for Charleroi reserves in Belgium. Captain, commercial manager and Player of the Year in 1987-88 at St Albans, he racked up over 200 appearances before, as a manager whose side had lost only fourteen games of the 61 he was in charge, substituting himself in an East Anglian Cup-tie against Soham in April 1996, removing his shirt as he left the field and resigning from the club. Subsequently retiring from football after his Chertsey side had lost eleven games in succession in the ICIS Premier League, Allan Cockram later worked as a telephone engineer, catalogue deliverer, chauffeur and on the stock market before becoming a fire-fighter, based in West London. |
No 346. Philip Raymond Coggins. 1960-61.
Born, 20.7.1940, Bristol. 5’ 6½”; 9 st 9 lbs. Début: 10.9.60 v Scunthorpe United. Career: Southville School; Redcliffe School; Dorset House Boys’ Club; October 1958 Bristol City [4,0]; July 1960 Bristol Rovers [4,0]; 4.7.61 Wellington Town (free); September 1962 Taunton Town; Trowbridge Town; Glastonbury. An apprentice electrician, who played for Dorset House in the Bristol and District Federation of Boys’ Clubs Cup Final at Ashton Gate prior to joining Bristol City, Phil Coggins enjoyed a brief career with both professional sides in the city of his birth. Earning the princely sum of £9 a week, he made his début for City in the drawn 1959 Gloucestershire Cup Final and his League bow in a 3-1 win at Stoke in October 1959. Once City were relegated to Division Three in the spring of 1960, he moved to Eastville, replacing George Petherbridge in four League fixtures and winning a penalty at Derby in his final game, Struggling with a knee injury, he worked in the maintenance department at Broadmead Radio for five years, then enjoyed 25 years until his retirement as a craftsman’s assistant amongst the garage staff at Wills’ factory. Phil Coggins and his wife Brenda have a daughter and three grandchildren and live in Bedminster Down. |
No 764. Daniel Richard Coles. 2007-11.
Born, 30.10.1981, Bristol. 6’ 1”; 12 st 8 lbs. Début: 3.11.07 v Bournemouth. Career: Stoke Lane; Bristol City (professional, 1.8.99) [141+7,6]; 26.7.05 Hull City (£200,000) [26+5,0]; 1.10.07 Hartlepool United (loan) [3,0]; 1.11.07 Bristol Rovers (loan); 8.1.08 Bristol Rovers (free) [102,3]; 11.6.11 Exeter City (free) [111+3,8]; 5.8.14 Forest Green Rovers (free; retired, 2.9.15). Geoff Bradford and Danny Coles, the only two players to have scored for Rovers in an FA Cup quarter-final, were both Bristol-born. Unlike the forward who played for England, central defender Coles proved to be a solid defensive player who gave sterling service to both professional sides in Bristol. A City début as a substitute for Matt Hill in the 2-0 home defeat against Oxford United in April 2000 preceded his nomination as Young Player of the Year at Ashton Gate in 2002-03. Playing alongside Steve Phillips and Lee Matthews in City’s side which defeated Rovers in the Football League Trophy in January 2002, Coles was sent off four times in City’s colours, but also helped his side reach the League One play-off final in 2004 which was lost 1-0 to Brighton. He also played at the Millennium Stadium in April 2003, as City defeated Carlisle United 2-0 in the LDV Vans Final. Moving to Long Riston, a knee injury, coupled with a red card against Leicester on Boxing Day 2006, abbreviated his career at Hull, whilst one of Coles’ three games on loan at Hartlepool was against Rovers. Despite a yellow card accrued on his début, Danny Coles proved to be an excellent defender in a Rovers side which had recently returned to League One football. His career again curtailed by a knee operation following an accidental collision against Orient in the autumn of 2008, Coles was sent off for Rovers at Carlisle, after earlier hitting the crossbar, Oldham and Brighton and scored at Stockport as well as at home to Orient and Port Vale. More importantly perhaps, he scored at Fulham in the FA Cup, as Rovers marched towards their third ever quarter-final appearance, then scrambled the ball home from a left-wing corner after thirty-one minutes against West Brom in March 2008, although this quarter-final tie was lost 5-1. Sent off in Exeter’s defeats at Colchester on New Year’s Eve 2011 and at Bury in April 2014 as well as in Forest Green’s game at Altrincham on Valentine’s Day 2015, Coles broke vertebrae in his back in a training collision with Artur Krysiak and was side-lined for months, although he was in the Grecians’ side defeated by Rovers at St James’ Park in September 2012 and in Horfield in March 2013; he also scored a fifty-eighth-minute goal against Rovers on the opening day of the 2013-14 campaign, the final one of Rovers’ ninety-four-year Football League stay. He was in the Forest Green side which drew 1-1 with Rovers in a televised Conference match in August 2014 and scored the winning goal with a glancing header at The Mem that October. That season, Forest Green reached the Conference play-offs, only to lose over two legs to Rovers, Coles playing in the second game, a 2-0 defeat at The Mem. Forced to retire with a knee injury, he joined Volenti, a sports management firm. Danny Coles’ wife Jordaine gave birth to their first child, a daughter Phoenix, in April 2010. |
No 883. Charlie Colkett. 2016-17.
Born, 4.9.1996, London. 5’ 10”; 10 st 8 lbs. Début: 10.9.16 v Rochdale. Career: Chelsea (professional, 22.4.16); 31.8.16 Bristol Rovers (loan) [8+7,3]; 11.1.17 Swindon Town (loan) [19,1]; 6.7.17 Vitesse Arnhem (loan) [1+5,0]; 21.7.18 Shrewsbury Town (loan) [1,0]; 25.1.19 Östersunds FK (free) [51+13,1]; 5.7.21 Doncaster Rovers (trial); 10.1.22 Cheltenham Town (trial); 18.1.22 Cheltenham Town (free) [4+5,0]; 14.6.22 Crewe Alexandra (free). Alongside Jake Clarke-Salter, left-footed midfielder Charlie Colkett was one of two Chelsea youngsters to join Rovers on Transfer Deadline Day as the side sought to establish itself in League One in 2016-17, following back-to-back promotions. He replaced fellow débutant Hiram Boateng ten minutes from the end of the home fixture with Rochdale in September 2016 and scored with an excellent left-foot drive in the dying moments of the 1-1 draw at Bradford City later that month. He then struck Rovers’ injury-time winner away to high-flying Northampton Town and also scored in the 2-0 victory at Oldham Athletic. Despite having no League experience to his name, Colkett had made the substitutes’ bench for a Premier League encounter with Swansea City. In addition, he had helped Chelsea secure the FA Youth Cup in both 2014 and 2015 as well as winning two UEFA Youth League titles, serving as captain in the 2016 final against Paris St Germain. With eight appearances and one goal in the Youth League and eleven matches under his belt in the Barclays’ Under-21 Premier League, he also represented England at various age levels, winning six caps at Under-16, seven caps and a goal at Under-17, one match at Under-18 and five games and a goal at Under-19; he had represented the England Under-20 side on one occasion, scoring the second goal in a 4-3 victory in France in November 2015. He returned to The Mem in late January 2017 in the Swindon side which faced Rovers in a League One encounter. Despite a goal that March against divisional champions Sheffield United, Colkett suffered relegation to League Two with the Robins in the spring of 2017. After playing 74 minutes in League One with Shrewsbury, Colkett furthered his career in Sweden, scoring against Falkenberg in April 2019. |
No 589. Andrew Alfred Collett. 1994-99.
Born, 28.10.1973, Stockton, Cleveland. 5’ 11”; 12 st. Début: 22.10.94 v Brighton. Career: 1990 Middlesbrough (professional, 6.3.92) [2,0]; 18.10.94 Bristol Rovers (loan); 23.3.95 Bristol Rovers (£10,000) [107,0]; January 1999 Orient (loan); 1.3.99 Rushden and Diamonds; 6.8.99 Darlington (free) [129,0] (goalkeeping coach, 2003-06, 17.1.08); 26.5.09 Oldham Athletic (goalkeeping coach); 2012 Hartlepool United (goalkeeping coach); 26.6.13 York City (goalkeeping coach, to 7.5.15); 25.6.17 Gateshead (goalkeeping coach); 18.7.17 York City (goalkeeping coach); 23.6.18 Darlington (goalkeeping coach). Player of the Season at both Rovers and Darlington, Andy Collett was certainly popular and commanded authority around his penalty-area. The son of a demolition worker, he played for Rovers either side of his twenty-first birthday, before signing permanently on transfer deadline day in March 1995, and being an unused substitute when Rovers played at Wembley in a play-off final that May. He had made his Premier League bow in May 1993 against Sheffield Wednesday, as a teenager, but the bulk of his career was spent in lower-league football. Collett will be remembered for a bizarre goal conceded to George Parris, six minutes after half-time of a 2-0 defeat in October 1995, when the Brighton man waited behind him and tackled Collett, who was about to take a goal-kick before rounding him to score. He was also in goal when Rovers lost embarrassingly at Hitchin Town in the FA Cup the following month, the non-league side scoring twice in the opening nine minutes. Following four Conference matches at Rushden, Collett was equally popular at Darlington, for whom he played at Wembley in a play-off final in May 2000, losing 1-0 to Peterborough United. One especially outstanding save deprived striker Alvin Bubb of a final-minute equaliser as Rovers lost 1-0 at Darlington in August 2001. Recovering from a punctured lung and a shoulder injury, Collett then was injured in a friendly against Gretna and turned to coaching, where he shared duties with another former Rovers keeper in Lee Jones. Married to Kerry, his daughter Lily was born in 2002 and son Henry in 2006. |
No 966. Aaron Collins. 2021-
Born, 27.5.1997, Newport. 5' 10"; 11 st 9 lbs. Début: 14.8.21 v Stevenage. Career: Newport County (July 2014 professional); 14.1.15 Merthyr Town (loan); 22.1.16 Wolverhampton Wanderers (free); 31.8.16 Notts County (loan) [3+15,2]; 23.3.17 Tranmere Rovers (loan); 29.11.17 Maidstone United (loan); 3.1.18 Newport County (loan) [14+16,2]; 7.6.18 Colchester United (loan) [1+6,0]; 9.2.19 Morecambe (free) [11+4,8]; 18.6.19 Forest Green Rovers (free) [50+22,14]; 25.6.21 Bristol Rovers (free) [36+9,16]. As Rovers pushed for an unlikely promotion place in the spring of 2022, a victory at Rochdale on the penultimate day was essential; Rovers trailed 2-0 and 3-1 before Aaron Collins contributed a poacher’s hat-trick, the final two goals coming at the close of an enthralling game to earn a 4-3 win. A week later and the sharp-shooter scored twice in a dramatic second-half as Rovers added five swift goals to defeat Scunthorpe United 7-0 and secure promotion from League Two. With sixteen League goals, he was the club’s top scorer, his broad smile and enthusiastic persona adding a vital dimension to the changing-room atmosphere of a successful team. Having made his first appearance for Newport County in a Football League Trophy tie with Swindon Town in September 2014, Collins played for several clubs prior to joining Rovers. In addition, he had won a cap with the Welsh Under-19 side, playing against Germany in April 2015, the month he made his League bow against Dagenham and Redbridge. That year, working at MacDonald's in Malpas, he made one substitute appearance on loan at Merthyr, playing in a Southern League game at Clevedon Town which was won 2-1 through goals from former Rovers players Ryan Green and Kayne McLaggon. Newport rejected two bids from Burnley and instead he joined Wolves, from where he was sent out on loan. At Notts County he scored a last-minute equaliser against Grimsby Town in his first game and was then sent off during a 2-1 win at Portsmouth in October 2016. In the Conference, he played 1(+1) games with Tranmere, scoring a last-minute goal in the 9-0 thumping of Solihull Moors, and scored in a 1-1 draw with Aldershot in December 2017 in his 3(+1) matches for Maidstone. After a first game for Colchester in a goalless draw with his former club, Notts County, he enjoyed greater success at Forest Green. Collins scored twice against Oldham Athletic in May 2021 and followed this up with a goal in the League Two play-offs that month, Forest Green defeating his former club Newport 4-3 but losing 5-4 on aggregate. He was also sent off during a 6-0 defeat at Walsall in the Football League Trophy in November 2019. His younger brother Lewis played in the Football League with Newport County. Having struggled early in his Rovers career for a goal, his first strike was certainly worth waiting for, a fantastic long-range effort with his weaker foot, as Rovers recovered from 3-1 down to defeat higher-tier Oxford United 4-3 after extra time at The Mem in an FA Cup replay. This wonder-goal appeared to trigger a sharp upturn in form and Collins’ goals began to flow; his performance in the home victory over Sutton United in February 2022 was viewed by many as quite outstanding. When Rovers defeated Harrogate Town 3-0 at The Mem the following month, he scored two exceptional goals, the first a long-range strike and the second an audacious chip, a sign of what Rovers’ supporters were to expect as the season drew to an extraordianary conclusion. Collins started his first League One campaign, 2022-23, like a house on fire, scoring freely, including two goals on both occasions Rovers were to build up a 4-0 half-time lead away from home, at Burton Albion and at Cheltenham Town, his goalscoring drawing interest from the Welsh international selectors ahead of the autumn 2022 World Cup Finals in Qatar. |
No 349. George Cornelius Collins. 1960-61.
Born, 6.8.1935, Barry. Died, 1983, Merthyr. 6’; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 15.10.60 v Lincoln City. Career: Tredomen; 1957 Ton Pentre; 9.6.60 Bristol Rovers [2,1]; August 1961 Hereford United; 3.11.61 Cheltenham Town. Tall centre-forward George Collins, a former miner with over 200 goals to his name in three seasons at Ton Pentre, played in Rovers’ League Cup-tie against Reading in October 1960 before adding a goal on his League début. Thereafter, unable to claim a place in the side, he scored three goals in three Southern League games at Hereford, where he was described as “a hard player”, before joining Cheltenham. The eldest child of David Collins and Frances Richards, he married Patricia Williams in 1957 and they had two daughters, Joan and Dorothy. |
No 112. William Alfred Compton. 1928-29.
Born, 5.4.1896, Bedminster. Died, 29.2.1976, Bournemouth. 5’ 7”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 21.8.28 v Swindon Town. Career: South Street School; Victoria Albion; Gloucester Regiment; Bristol Motor Works; 8.12.19 Bristol City; 13.7.20 Douglas; April 1921 Bristol City [14,0]; July 1924 Exeter City [151,39]; 24.5.28 Bristol Rovers [21,4]; August 1929 Bath City (to1931). There was a time when the Comptons were as big a footballing dynasty as any in the Bristol area. Thomas Compton, the son of Thomas and Sarah Compton of Cathay, Redcliffe, married Rosina Jacobs in 1895 and the family lived at 3 Dean Lane, Bedminster and later in Bridgwater Road, Bishopsworth. Whilst the younger son Tom was with Bristol Boys and his two sons, Terry and Michael were both on Rovers’ books immediately after World War Two, older brother Billy Compton appeared in almost 200 Football League matches. He also played for Exeter City in their famous 5-1 win away to Ajax on their Dutch tour of March 1925 and scored twice when they defeated Coventry City 8-1 in Division Three (South) in December 1926. Having played against Rovers for City in the Gloucestershire Cup Final and having scored for Exeter City against Rovers in the League in September 1925, Compton was to spend a season at Eastville, scoring against Coventry City in his final appearance. A team-mate at Twerton Park of Joe Walter, Albert Rotherham and Ernie Sambidge, all Rovers players in their time, he top-scored for Bath City with 29 goals as they secured the 1929-30 Southern League championship and added two more the following campaign in a 10-0 win against Paulton Rovers in September 1930. Billy Compton, who ran a business in Bristol from the 1930s, married Emily Backwell in the autumn of 1917 and their son Jack was born in 1923. |
No 976. James Connolly. 2022-
Born, 2.11.2001, Liverpool. 6’; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 22.1.22 v Swindon Town. Career: Blackburn Rovers; 30.6.21 Cardiff City; 8.1.22 Bristol Rovers (loan); 24.6.22 Bristol Rovers (£150,000) [24,1]. Bereft of defenders through a combination of mid-season transfers and rising Covid-19 cases within the camp, Rovers signed defender James Connolly on the morning of the FA Cup-tie at Peterborough in January 2022 and he played the entire match. Having come through the ranks at Blackburn, Connolly had featured in 0(+4) Premier League 2 matches whilst at Ewood Park, as well as appearing in 34(+6) matches for their Under-18 side, scoring four goals. He first appeared in a 6-1 home defeat to Liverpool’s Under-18 side in January 2018 and all his goals had come in April 2019, two first-half strikes in a 3-0 win over Wolves preceding goals in victories over North-East rivals Sunderland and Newcastle United. Equally capable at right-back or centre-back, and captain of the Cardiff Under-23 side, he arrived at The Mem with rave reviews. James Connolly did not let the side down, producing a string of impressive performances as Rovers stormed up the table from a lowly position to become genuime promotion candidates and he scored from close range to put Rovers 2-1 ahead in the six-pointer at Vale Park on Easter Monday 2022, Rovers defeating Darrell Clarke’s Port Vale side 3-1. On the final day of an extraordinary campaign, The Gas thumped Scunthorpe United 7-0 to earn promotion to League One on goals scored, Connolly playing that day and hearing later that month of his call-up to the Wales Under-21 squad; he started in the match against Gibraltar. After signing for Rovers permanently, Connolly scored in the victory at Burton Albion but was soon ruled out with a long-term injury. |
No 278. John Albert Cook. 1946-47.
Born, 27.6.1929, Iron Acton. 5’ 9”; 10 st. Début: 7.12.46 v Brighton. Career: Coalpit Heath; 6.5.46 Bristol Rovers (trial); 14.9.46 Bristol Rovers (amateur) [2,0]; 12.8.52 Bridgwater Town (professional; retired, 15.2.53). When Rovers lost an FA Cup-tie 3-1 at non-league Merthyr in November 1946, the Pirates handed a début to seventeen-year-old amateur inside-forward John Cook. He had made his reserve début against Brentford reserves earlier that month and later found his Rovers career interrupted by National Service, when he was stationed in Aldershot. Wartime service had seen him represent Southern Command and play alongside professionals such as Chelsea’s Bobby Smith, Bob Stokoe of Newcastle United and the Walsall pairing of Derek Pace and Bill Guttridge. Cook’s playing career was ended abruptly when his leg was broken in two places during Bridgwater’s 4-0 victory over Dorchester Town in a Western League fixture in February 1953. He later worked for fifteen years at Parnell’s in Fishponds as a production manager, then as an engineer at the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Having lived since 1992 in Coalpit Heath, he and his wife moved in 2015 to Babbacombe, Torquay, to be nearer relatives. He was the third of four children to Thomas Cook and Gladys Emily Eastment (1904-61), who had married in 1924; one of his elder twin sisters, Hazel, married in 1944 his Rovers team-mate Cliff Baker, whilst his brother Joe had played amateur football in the Midlands. |
No 161. Thomas Edwin Reed Cook. 1931-33.
Born, 5.2.1901, Cuckfield, West Sussex. Died, 12.1.1950, Brighton. 5’ 8”; 10 st 6 lbs. Début: 10.10.31 v Swindon Town. Career: York Place School; Brighton Municipal School; Royal Cuckfield; September 1921 Brighton [190,113]; 1929-30 cricket coaching in Cape Town, South Africa; 30.9.30 Northfleet: 6.10.31 Bristol Rovers [43,20] (retired, 1933); March 1935 cricket coach at United Services Club, Portsmouth; 4.9.37 cricket coaching in South Africa; 4.6.47-November 1947 Brighton (manager). Creating the opening goal after eleven minutes, Tommy Cook excelled as England defeated Wales 2-1 in February 1925. “He exhibited splendid control over the ball”, purred one reporter, whilst he “always positioned himself admirably and he shot with great power”. It was to prove Cook’s sole international cap, one achieved as a result of his astonishing club form at Brighton, where he remains the all-time record League goal-scorer. His long career at the Goldstone Ground, with a remarkable goal return, included six League matches against Rovers, his three goals coming as a pair in the 7-0 win against Rovers in January 1927 and one more in the 5-0 victory in April 1928. Doubling up as a talented cricketer, Cook scored 20,198 runs and took eighty wickets for Sussex in 459 first-class matches, once scoring 2,000 runs in a season – 2,132 at an average of 54.66 in 1934 to be exact – and his three double hundreds included a score of 278 against Hampshire at Hove in 1930. He had an England trial at Old Trafford in 1932. Sussex were runners-up in both 1933 and 1934, partly as a result of Cook’s prolific batting, “his quiet modesty [enhancing] his popularity as a cricketer” (Paul Weaver). Tommy Cook arrived at Eastville in the autumn of 1931 as a replacement for Arthur Attwood, who was to play for Brighton and, having scored twice on his reserve team début at Taunton, was easily Rovers’ top scorer in the Football League in 1931-32. However, a broken collarbone sustained at Cardiff in January 1933 ended his playing career. The younger of two sons to a confectioner Alf Cook and his wife Eliza Reed of 30 South Street, Cuckfield, he was born at home. In January 1917 he had been fined five shillings at Haywards Heath assizes for riding a bicycle without lights. Cook married Ivy Pratt in 1925 and they had a son Roger and re-married Gwendoline Smith in 1931. In 1937 he emigrated to South Africa to run the Prince Alfred Hotel at Simonstown, near Cape Town. Stressful wartime service in two world wars, the First World War having been spent in the Royal Navy and then Cook having sustained serious injuries in 1943 as a Corporal with the South African Air Force, added to the break-up of his second marriage, finally took their toll and, having once been the sole survivor of a plane crash, Tommy Cook took his own life at the age of forty-nine. He was resident at the time at Oakroyd, Broad Street, Cuckfield. From March 2004 until October 2015 Brighton and Hove named one of their local buses (YN04GJK) in his honour. |
No 421. Jeffery Coombes. 1972-75.
Born, 1.4.1954, Rhondda. 5’ 9”; 11 st. Début: 2.12.72 v Scunthorpe United. Career: Bristol Rovers (professional, 8.4.72) [10+1,1]; 1975 Ton Pentre (to 1981). Welsh Schoolboy international Jeff Coombes made his Rovers bow at the age of eighteen, as a half-time substitute in a 5-1 victory, played once in the 1973-74 promotion season and scored when Rovers won 4-3 in an exciting game at Oldham in Division Two in December 1974. His goal, ninety seconds after half-time, gave Rovers the lead, it being the first of seven second-half goals which succeeded a goalless first forty-five minutes. On the books of Ton Pentre for many years, he still lives in South Wales. Jeff Coombes is the elder of two children to John Coombes and Eileen Warry, his mother being the younger daughter of Eliel Warry and Annie Abbott and the grand-daughter of George Warry (1858-1924) and Elizabeth Emma Young (1854-1928). |
No 166. Ernest Howard Coombes. 1931-32.
Born, 21.12.1912, Writhlington, Somerset. Died, 1.4.2008. Taunton. 5’ 10”; 12 st 4 lbs. Début: 6.2.32 v Brighton. Career: Writhlington; 21.2.31 Coleford Athletic; 4.9.31 Bristol Rovers (professional, 11.9.31) [1,0]; 10.5.32 Bristol City; January 1933 Bath City (professional, 9.3.33); 29.11.33 Blackburn Rovers [6,0]; June 1934 Bath City; August 1935 Cheltenham Town (to 1936). Of all Bristol Rovers players through the years, only two are known to have lived to an older age than Ernie Coombs, whose sole League game for Rovers was a 4-0 home defeat in which the former Rover Arthur Attwood and future Pirate Jack Eyres both scored. The youngest child of Albert Leslie Coombs and Louisa Parfitt, who married in 1889, Ernie lived for many years at 163 Green Parlour, Writhlington and played local cricket for Wembdon. He had helped his first club finish as runners-up in the Frome and District Junior League in 1930-31 before scoring four times in just five matches at Coleford Athletic, his début coming against Poole Town. Although his Rovers career was restricted, he played often for the reserves, being reported as performing very well in the 3-1 defeat at Ebbw Vale in the spring of 1931. Never breaking into the side at Ashton Gate, he was also never on the winning side at Ewood Park. His Blackburn reserves début had come at Old Trafford in December 1933, where he scored twice and hit the bar in a 4-2 defeat, being described in the Northern Telegraph as “so excellent”. A brace on his Bath City début, this time in a 4-4 draw with Yeovil and Petters United, helped him to 25 goals in three months before a knee injury in a Western League game at Swindon ended his season. Nonetheless, Coombs scored fifteen times for Cheltenham in the 1935-36 season, his five Southern League goals including a hat-trick in a 5-3 win at Barry Town and ten FA Cup strikes including three against Paulton Rovers and six in an 8-2 win against Purton Albion in October 1935. A police officer for thirty years, starting with a posting in Yeovil in October 1935, Ernie Coombs outlived his wife Dorothy and, having lived at 33 Willoughby Road, Bridgwater for many years, died at the age of ninety-five in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, survived by his three sons, Mike, Dudley and Rod, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren. |
No 145. John Henry Cooper. 1930-32.
Born, 22.10.1904, Smethwick. Died, 1964, Bristol. 6’ 1”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 8.9.30 v Exeter City. Career: Upper Ettingshall; January 1928 Birmingham; 1928 Smethwick Co-Operative Society; June 1929 Walsall [3,0]; 5.7.30 Bristol Rovers (£10) [22,0]; November 1932 Stafford Rangers; 17.3.33 C and B Smith’s; 1945 Bristol Rovers (coach; 12.9.47 Colts trainer). Right-half Jack Cooper was a tall, dominant defensive player who gave Rovers loyal service as a player and as a coach into the 1950s. He had earlier played for Walsall against Newport County and Torquay United in November 1929 and against Watford in March 1930. His career was ended by a broken leg, aggravating an injury sustained when with Rovers reserves at Ebbw Vale in January 1932, he made a brief playing comeback with Stafford Rangers in a more attacking rôle, scoring five times in seven games from his début in a 3-3 draw at Wellington Town in November 1932. Jack Cooper, the eldest of three sons at the time of the 1911 census to a “nut cutter” John and Mary Cooper of 23 Lime Street, Smethwick, married Dorothy “Dolly” Harding (1907-1986) and they had a son Royston, born in 1928, who joined Rovers as a goalkeeper from Weston-super-Mare in December 1950; Dolly was a season ticket holder at Eastville until the early 1980s. They lived for many years at 32 Mivart Street, Easton with Dolly’s mother Amy Louise Harding (1888-1971) and her stepfather Daniel Barfoot (1879-1960). |
No 460. (Terry) Terence Cooper. 1979-82.
Born, 12.7.1944, Brotherton, near Castleford. Died, 31.7.21, Tenerife. 5’ 7½”; 10 st 9 lbs. Début: 18.8.79 v Queen’s Park Rangers. Career: Wath Wanderers; Wolverhampton Wanderers (trial); 1960 Ferrybridge Amateurs; May 1961 Leeds United (professional, July 1962) [240+10,7]; 13.3.75 Middlesbrough (£50,000) [105,1]; 19.7.78 Bristol City (£20,000); 7.8.79 Bristol Rovers (player-coach; player-manager, 24.4.80-20.10.81) [53+6,0]; 11.11.81 Doncaster Rovers [20,0]; 20.5.82 Bristol City (player-manager until 15.3.88) [49+22,1]; October 1984 Bristol County Sports; Bristol Coin FC; 9.5.88 Exeter City (manager); 9.8.91 Birmingham City (manager); 30.1.94 Exeter City (manager); 11.7.96 Southampton (coach, to May 2007). In his day, Terry Cooper was considered arguably the best left-back in the world; a success at Bristol City, he offered Rovers sterling service for two years as a player and was manager for eighteen months. The younger son of John Cooper and Agnes Charlesworth, Terry Cooper turned up one day at Elland Road with his boots in a paper bag and asked for a trial. Over the next fourteen years, he won a wide range of club honours, earned twenty full caps for England and played at the 1970 World Cup Finals; there, he marked Jairzinho in the epic game with Brazil in Guadalajara, allowing his illustrious opponent to outwit him just once to cross for Pelé to power down the header from which Gordon Banks (1937-2019) produced the oft-repeated “save of the century”. His Leeds début came in the game against Swansea in April 1964 in which promotion to Division One was secured and Cooper made his name as the club established itself over the next decade as one of the finest club sides English football has seen. Overseen by Don Revie (1927-89), players such as Jack Charlton (1935-2020), Allan Clarke, Norman Hunter (1943-2020) and Peter Lorimer (1946-2021) cemented their reputation at Elland Road. Rare goal-scorers though left-backs generally are, Cooper scored the only goal of the game with a volley from a corner in the ill-tempered League Cup Final of 1968 against Arsenal and he won a League winner’s medal as Leeds stormed to the title in 1969. Passed fit shortly before the game, with stitches in a cut shin, Cooper cleared Tommy Gemmell’s late effort off the line in a pulsating European Cup semi-final in April 1970, only for Leeds to lose on aggregate to Celtic. The same calendar month saw “one of the most punishing finals in modern history” (Geoffrey Green, The Times), as Chelsea equalised four minutes from the end of the Wembley FA Cup Final against Leeds and then won a replay after extra time at Old Trafford, although Cooper was certainly in his element as “there was some vicious tackling. Boadicea might have been on parade with the knives on her chariot wheels. There were moments when the football was as raw as uncooked meat” (Geoffrey Green). Tough as nails at left-back, Cooper was sent off away to Hannover 96 in a UEFA Cup-tie in February 1969. Leeds were on fire; Cooper played in a club record 10-0 win against hapless Norwegian side Lyn Oslo in September 1969 and even scored when Spora Luxembourg were defeated 7-0; United won the UEFA Cup Final in 1968 against Ferencváros, having lost the previous year’s final to Dinamo Zagreb; the trophy was secured again in 1971, when Juventus were defeated over two legs; and Cooper, who had been part of the England side which could not retain the World Cup, losing to West Germany in an epic quarter-final in Mexico in 1970, was named in the Rothman’s Golden Boot XI in three consecutive seasons. However, a broken leg suffered at Stoke in April 1972 was to rule him out of the side sufficiently that he missed the 1973 FA Cup Final, missed out on a medal as Leeds were again champions in 1974 and effectively ended his career. After spells at several clubs including Rovers, where he was a regular as player-manager in the 1980-81 relegation campaign and partnered Vaughan Jones at full-back, Cooper was sent off in Doncaster’s 5-0 defeat at Lincoln in March 1982 and, scoring his solitary Bristol City goal in a 3-0 win over Halifax Town in February 1983, made his farewell League appearance at the age of forty for City against York in October 1984. Britain’s first player-director, he was Manager of the Month for the basement division in December 1983 and took the Robins to promotion as well as victory in the 1986 Freight Rover Trophy Final at Wembley. He led Exeter to the Fourth Division title in 1989-90 before resigning through ill health with The Grecians at the foot of Division Three. Cooper married Rosemary Houlton in 1967 and they had a son, followed by daughters Alison and Rachel. He signed his son Mark for the three City sides of Bristol, Exeter and Birmingham, Mark later turning his hand to football management, and Terry later coached at Southampton under Graeme Souness. Mark’s son Charlie Cooper played in Forest Green Rovers’ inaugural Football League season, 2017-18. Retiring from football in 2007, Terry Cooper moved to Tenerife, where he died at the age of seventy-seven. |
No 697. Adrian Coote. 2002-03.
Born, 30.9.1978, Great Yarmouth. 6’ 2”; 12 st. Début: 26.10.02 v Orient. Career: Norwich City (professional, 3.7.97) [20+34,3]; 22.9.00 Roda JC (loan) [1,1]; 21.12.01 Colchester United (£50,000) [12+23,4]; 24.20.02 Bristol Rovers (loan exchange with Justin Richards) [4+1,1]; 30.10.03 Wivenhoe Town (free); 7.12.04 Dereham Town; 6.6.05 Wroxham (free); June 2006 Gorleston; December 2006 Acles Rangers (loan); August 2007 Dereham Town; September 2007 Gorleston; August 2009 Carpathians. Brave, no-nonsense centre-forward Adrian Coote scored with a looping header on his Rovers début from Wayne Carlisle’s 53rd-minute right-wing cross, and had a “goal” disallowed against Southend United. Kept out of the Norwich side by the consistent form of Iwan Roberts, he picked up just four yellow cards in his time at Carrow Road, broke his nose in a fleeting goal-scoring visit to Holland and had scored twice, after coming on as substitute for the future Rovers striker Scott McGleish, when Colchester won 3-1 at Bury in April 2002. Bizarrely, he had joined Colchester whilst wearing a gorilla suit, as the phone call had arrived during Norwich’s club Christmas party. He played for Rovers in the LDV Vans Trophy against Exeter City before making the League side, but his spell with the Pirates spelled the end of his League career. Yet, despite starting fewer than forty League matches, Adrian Coote, with twelve Under-21 caps and four goals to his name, as well as one Northern Ireland “B” cap, played on six occasions for Northern Ireland, his début coming in the April 1999 1-1 draw with Canada and the other five caps coming from the bench. His mother’s cousin, Bryan Hamilton, who had signed him for Norwich, had been manager of that country a year earlier. Coote scored on his Wroxham début in an 8-0 friendly win against Long Melford in July 2005 and added twelve goals in 26 games for Dereham, 17 in 29 matches with Wroxham and six goals in six fixtures with Carpathians. Now living in Mattishall with his partner Gemma, he worked as a sales advisor for the insurance company Aviva and from 2012 with Brighthouse, a retail chain specialising in household and electrical goods, enjoyed Sunday League football with Rampart Signs and made a brief appearance in 2009 on the television show “Countdown”. |
No 113. Michael Docherty Cosgrove. 1928-30.
Born, 20.5.1901, Dundee. Died, December 1972, Erie, New York State, USA. 6’; 12 st. Début: 21.8.28 v Swindon Town. Career: Dundee North End; January 1920 Dundee Hibernian; May 1921 Tottenham Hotspur; 15.2.23 Celtic; May 1923 Brooklyn Wanderers; 7.11.24 Barnsley (trial); 6.12.24 Aberdeen [65,5]; 10.5.28 Bristol Rovers [57,6] (to 1930). One of David McLean’s early signings for Rovers, Jack Cosgrove had an impressive track record at Aberdeen. Having made his Scottish League début against Raith Rovers, he scored in both his first two matches and accompanied the side on their 1927 South Africa tour – contemporary sailing records show him as resident at that time at 36 Church Street, Dundee. He and Tom Pirie, another future Rovers player, were in the Aberdeen side defeated 2-1 by Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Tynecastle in March 1926, in which “Cosgrove was the leading half-back in a line that did much effective spoiling” (The Scotsman). In August 1927 he added a spectacular goal which “was obtained with a fine shot over his head with his back to the Rangers’ uprights, the ball dropping just under the crossbar” as Rangers came away from Pittodrie with a 3-2 win. No first-team games at Spurs or Celtic and nine goals in 24 matches for American side Brooklyn Wanderers preceded his appointment as Rovers’ captain for 1928-29. Indeed, he had joined Celtic on the same day as Vale of Leven’s Tom Granger and both were due for débuts against Falkirk two days later – Granger played, but Cosgrove never did. His goal after 78 minutes put Rovers 4-3 up at home to Fulham in February 1929, in a match Rovers eventually secured 5-3 and he gave Rovers a twentieth-minute lead in the 1-1 draw with Luton Town a fortnight later. He also was debited with an own goal when Rovers played Northampton Town in December 1928, a farcically conceded effort at a very foggy Eastville. An excellent golfer, by now based at 2 Arbroath Road, Dundee, he entered the 1930 British Amateur Open at St Andrew’s and emigrated later that year. With his wife and daughter, he sailed on 1st August 1930 on the “Caledonia” for New York, becoming a naturalised US citizen in 1937 and living in Buffalo. A bank worker by profession, he regularly played golf at the Grand Island golf course. |
No 960. Paul Coutts. 2021-
Born, 22.7.1988, Aberdeen. 6’; 11 st 8 lbs. Début: 7.8.21 v Mansfield Town. Career: 1998 Aberdeen; July 2005 Cove Rangers (free); 10.6.08 Peterborough United (trial); 24.6.08 Peterborough United [47+6,0]; 21.1.10 Preston North End (free) [71+6,4]; 14.7.12 Derby County (£150,000) [47+12,2]; 23.1.15 Sheffield United [102+22,3]; 3.7.19 Fleetwood Town (free) [41+11,0]; 21.1.21 Salford City (loan) [14+5,0]; 26.5.21 Bristol Rovers (free) [35+4,0]. Having gained promotion from League One with Peterborough and from League One and the Championship with Sheffield United, accomplished, tough-tackling midfielder Paul Coutts re-joined his former manager Joey Barton at The Mem following Rovers’ relegation back to fourth-tier football. He brought with him an aggressive approach to midfield play, a degree of leadership and a vast array of Football League experience. This aggression was manifest on his first appearance in a Rovers shirt, captaining the side at Mansfield, and picking up a red card for an off-the-ball incident thirteen minutes from time. However, he developed into a pivotal figure at the heart of a side which reflected Barton’s footballing ethos, and scoring from a penalty at Peterborough United in the FA Cup in January 2022, although he did miss another on the stroke of half-time at home to Sutton United the following month. As Rovers surged up thre table through the spring of 2022, the captain put in a string of fine performances, none more so than in the Easter Monday six-pointer at Vale Park, when he epitomised his side’s spirit in coming back from a goal down to secure a vital victory over Port Vale, creating the opening goal for Elliot Anderson with a sublime through-ball. A red card at Rochdale in the penultimate game meant he missed the final-day drama at The Mem, as Rovers ran in five second-half goals to thump Scunthorpe United 7-0 and earn promotion back to League One on goals scored. For Rovers’ captain, this was the fourth promotion of his professional career. Holding the side together in League One, his 2022-23 campaign was then stalled by an ankle injury sustained in training prior to the October West Country “derby” with top-of-the-table Plymouth Argyle. Rejected as a youngster by Aberdeen for being apparently too small for professional football, Coutts viewed this as “a blessing in disguise” and worked in the oil industry, cleaning oil rig tools, “a good learning curve”, whilst making his way in Highland League football. He scored nine goals in 66 Highland League matches with Cove Rangers, helping his side to the title in 2007-08, the season he was named Player of the Year for the entire league. This experience enabled him to break into third-tier English football; having excelled in a pre-season friendly against a Liverpool XI, he made his Peterborough début in their 5-4 victory over Rovers. The young midfielder featured in the memorable 2-0 giant-killing victory over Newcastle United in the League Cup in September 2009 and in the League fixture with Cardiff that December, when Posh trailed 4-0 at half-time but rallied to earn a point. Having helped Posh gain promotion, he was relegated back to League One with Preston, where he was the first signing made by Darren Ferguson (earlier his manager at Peterborough) and where he was appointed club captain in December 2011. It was at Preston where he received the only red card of his career, in a 3-0 victory over Cardiff City in February 2010. One goal, against Colchester United in August 2011, was short-listed for the 2011 Football League Goal of the Year award. By this point, he had earned eight Scottish caps at Under-21 level, first appearing as a half-time substitute against Northern Ireland in November 2008, with his final game being a defeat against Iceland in October 2020. Coutts’ first game with Derby was an astonishing one; having led 3-0 at half-time, the Rams drew 5-5 in the League Cup with a Scunthorpe United side fielding Sam Slocombe in goal, losing to the lower-league side in a penalty shoot-out. This was followed by an assist against Sheffield Wednesday in his first league appearance in a Derby short. Having scored for Derby away to Middlesbrough and Leeds United, Coutts suffered a dislocated knee and eventually re-joined manager Nigel Clough at Sheffield United with the Blades, he played alongside future Rovers defender Bob Harris in the side which lost in the play-offs in 2015-16 but secured promotion to the Championship in 2016-17, during which season he contrived to score both home and away against Swindon Town. After a twelve-year absence, the Blades were promoted back to the top flight two years later, Coutts recovering from a broken tibia to savour this triumph, having also appeared in an astonishing play-off final the previous year in which United drew 5-5 with Swindon and lost 7-6 on aggregate. With the Blades in the third tier, he was in the side which almost secured a famous result at Old Trafford in the FA Cup in January 2016, losing only to a stoppage-time Wayne Rooney penalty. Premier League football, however, eluded him, and he played alongside future Rovers colleague Sam Finley at Joey Barton’s Fleetwood side, who reached the 2019-20 League One play-offs, only to lose to Wycombe Wanderers. A brief loan spell, during which he missed Salford’s victorious Football League Trophy Final appearance as he was cup-tied, saw Salford hold the final unbeaten home record in 2020-21, only losing to Lloyd Isgrove’s goal for Bolton Wanderers in their penultimate home game. Coutts arrived at The Mem having played against Rovers in seven League fixtures, two each for Posh and Sheffield United and three times for Fleetwood, including their 4-1 victory at The Mem in November 2020 (alongside Sam Finley and Jordan Rossiter) which proved the final game of Ben Garner’s tenure as manager. Despite two long-term injuries, seeing the 2013-14 campaign cut short by a dislocated knee and the 2017-18 season likewise by a broken right tibia suffered in a game against Burton Albion, Paul Coutts offered the vast experience which Rovers appeared to be crying out for. |
No 873. Paris Declan Cowan-Hall. 2015-16.
Born, 5.10.1990, Hillingdon. 5’ 7½”; 11 st 9 lbs. Début: 24.11.15 v Stevenage. Career: 2003 Rushden and Diamonds; 13.11.06 Manchester United (trial); 7.12.06 Chelsea (trial); 14.2.07 Chelsea (trial); 1.7.07 Portsmouth (free); 2.1.10 Grimsby Town (loan) [0+3,0]; 16.7.10 Burnley (trial); 30.7.10 Hull City (trial); 3.8.10 Brighton (trial); 25.8.10 Derby County (trial); 8.9.10 Oldham Athletic (trial); 14.10.10 Scunthorpe United (free) [0+1,0]; 21.2.11 Rushden and Diamonds (loan); 12.7.11 Gillingham (trial); 5.8.11 Newport County (trial); 12.8.11 Woking (free); 29.5.12 Plymouth Argyle (£10,000) [25+15,3]; 25.6.13 Wycombe Wanderers (free); 2.1.15 Millwall (£200,000) [0+8,0]; 23.11.15 Bristol Rovers (loan) [2+1,0]; 23.1.16 Wycombe Wanderers (loan); 29.6.16 Wycombe Wanderers (loan); 2.2.17 Wycombe Wanderers (free) [99+46,27]; 4.7.19 Colchester United (free, to 14.5.21) [4+14,0]. “He doesn’t stop running, he doesn’t stop challenging; he’s got great delivery from the right-hand side”, said Millwall manager Ian Holloway on his signing of quick wingman Paris Cowan-Hall. The London-born player had appeared for a wide range of sides prior to his arrival at The Mem on loan in November 2015. He set up Matty Taylor for a goal on his first appearance in a Rovers shirt, Rovers ending the campaign with promotion to League One. Early-career high-profile trials preceded a Portsmouth début against Vitória on the club’s 2009 pre-season tour of Portugal before a loan spell at Grimsby was cut short by the combination of tonsillitis, glandular fever and a hamstring injury. Having managed just seventeen minutes for Scunthorpe, as a substitute in the January 2011 home defeat to Watford, and 2(+1) Conference games plus a début goal for Rushden against Eastbourne Borough the following month, Cowan-Hall then scored on trial for Gillingham against Erith and Belvedere and Newport against Undy. Finding his feet at Woking, thirteen goals in 36 Conference South matches included a brace in both fixtures against Truro City as well as in the 4-3 win at Havant and Waterlooville in March 2012 and he was voted Player of the Month by The Cards in October and November 2011. Arriving at Plymouth, Cowan-Hall made an immediate impact in scoring in the League Cup against his former side, Portsmouth, and he appeared in both League fixtures against Rovers during the 2012-13 campaign; he also opposed Rovers in October 2013, in Wycombe’s colours. Played up-front alongside Jo Kuffour at Wycombe, he contributed the winning goal against Morecambe on his début, a brace as Torquay United were defeated 3-2 in October 2013 and goals in five consecutive League matches over Christmas 2014. Latterly out of favour at Millwall, his six appearances for the Lions in all competitions during the 2015-16 season had all come in home fixtures. After leaving Rovers, though, ankle ligament trouble was to rule him out of the last three months of the season. When Wycombe won at Hartlepool in League Two in March 2017, he came on as substitute, scored and was then sent off. He came on as a late substitute when Rovers won 5-1 at Adams Park in the Football League Trophy in August 2017, Wycombe being promoted to League One that season; and he opposed Rovers in League One in 2018-19. In August 2019 he came on as a late substitute as fourth-tier Colchester drew away to Premier League Crystal Palace and then beat them on penalties in a League Cup-tie; later in the tournament he scored one of the penalties in a shoot-out in which top-flight Spurs were famously defeated. |
No 416. Richard Edward Crabtree. 1971-72.
Born, 6.2.1955, Exeter. 5’ 7½”; 11 st 12 lbs. Début: 27.3.72 v Blackburn Rovers. Career: Devon Boys; Exeter City (schoolboy); 2.9.70 Bristol Rovers (professional, 8.2.73) [7,0]; November 1974 Doncaster Rovers (loan) [1,0]; 9.1.75 Northampton Town (loan); 8.8.75 Dawlish Town; 8.8.75 Torquay United (loan) [1,0]; August 1976 Minehead (loan); August 1979 Tiverton Town; August 1980 Dawlish Town; August 1981 Plymouth Argyle; July 1983 Exeter City [1,0]; August 1991 Exmouth Town; August 1994 Crediton (coach; player-coach from 15.9.95); 2004-05 Clyst Rovers. Of all the unusual claims to fame, goalkeeper Richard Crabtree remains the youngest Rovers player to play his final game for the club. Small and slight for a keeper, he replaced the injured Dick Sheppard for a run of fixtures shortly after his seventeenth birthday after being spotted by Norman Dodgin (1921-2000), the brother of Rovers’ manager Bill Dodgin. He also played as a half-time substitute in the pre-season friendly at Plymouth in August 1973. An England Boys trialist with a very good set of O-levels, he had a room in Lindsay Parsons’ mother’s house in Fishponds Road, and later enjoyed loan spells which brought games for Doncaster in a 5-2 defeat at Mansfield, Torquay at Workington, as well as for Exeter in the cauldron of a Devon derby at home to Plymouth. An extensive non-league career included finishing the 1976-77 season with Minehead runners-up to Wimbledon in the Southern League and, still coaching in the Exeter area where he worked from 1976 to 1990 in local government, he played for Clyst Rovers at the age of forty-nine, despite having had back surgery in February 1993. Keen at table tennis, he also represented South-West Schoolboys at basketball. From 1990 he worked for Carlsberg as area sales manager for Devon, before working for Sedgemoor Drinks Ltd. The third son of John Crabtree and Sylvia Carpenter, she being the third daughter of William Carpenter and Harriet Munkley, Richard Crabtree is married to Judith Watkins, the daughter of the former Rovers player Barry Watkins, Judith’s cousin marrying Rovers’ Bobby “Chico” Brown; Richard and Judith have a daughter Jessica and a son Joe. |
No 905. Tony Andrew Craig. 2017-18.
Born, 20.4.1985, Greenwich. 6’ 12 st 6 lbs. Début: 3.2.18 v Shrewsbury Town. Career: 2001 Millwall (professional, May 2003); 22.10.04 Wycombe Wanderers (loan) [14,0]; 27.6.07 Crystal Palace (free) [13,0]; 27.3.08 Millwall (loan); 11.7.08 Millwall (free); 24.11.11 Orient (loan) [4,0]; 13.7.12 Brentford [109+2,0]; 4.7.15 Millwall (free) [257+16,9]; 31.1.18 Bristol Rovers (free) [97,5]; 1.8.20 Crawley Town (free) [68+5,1]. Few could dispute the wealth of experience which the signing of Tony Craig brought to the Rovers side. A veteran of three spells at Millwall, the club he supports, he had played in no fewer than five League One play-off finals and had captained Millwall to promotion to the Championship in the spring of 2017. Rovers’ supporters knew of him, too, for he had played twice for Wycombe against the Gas as early as November 2004, once in the League and once on the Football League Trophy, he was in the Palace side which Rovers defeated in the League Cup in 2007 and his five League games for Millwall against Rovers between 2008 and 2017 included the Lions’ second goal as they won 4-3 at The Mem on the final day of the 2016-17 season. Craig had made his first League appearances in a 3-3 draw with Nottingham Forest in April 2003, playing the first 67 minutes before being replaced by the future Rovers defender Robbie Ryan, and scored his first goal, a strike against Coventry City, two weeks after his eighteenth birthday. Goals came at a premium, but he did claim his only goal of each season on the final days of both 2006-07 and 2007-08. He was in the Millwall sides which lost the 2009 League One play-off final 3-2 to Scunthorpe United and defeated Swindon Town 1-0 in the equivalent match twelve months later to seal promotion. Craig, though, broke a metatarsal a minute before half-time in the Swindon match, to add to a shoulder injury suffered in Palace’s game with Scunthorpe United, a fractured cheekbone and eye socket from the match with his former club Wycombe Wanderers in November 2009 and a foot injury suffered against Huddersfield Town in the spring of 2010; he was to break two bones in his hand against Gillingham in January 2014. Red cards followed him around too, picking up two in 2005-06 against Reading and Ipswich Town, sent off against his future Orient team-mates in August 2006 and at Peterborough on Boxing Day 2008, and dismissed against Carlisle United in August 2013 and after just sixteen minutes against Birmingham City in August 2014. However, Craig had built up a reputation as a dependable and reliable central defender and left-back, captaining Brentford, including an FA Cup-tie against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and returning to Millwall as club captain. Under his captaincy, Brentford reached the League One play-off final in 2013, only to lose to unfashionable Yeovil Town at Wembley and he was the Bees’ Player of the Year in 2013-14. Latterly, he had been at Wembley play-off finals in both his previous seasons prior to his arrival at the Mem. In 2016 he made his first senior start in seven months, and at just a few minutes’ notice after a team-mate was injured in the warm-up, Millwall losing to Barnsley, but in May 2017 he captained the Lions to a 1-0 victory over Bradford City and promotion back to second-tier football. He added a wealth of experience to Rovers’ back-line, never needed more than during the relegation fight of 2018-19. He headed an own goal when Rovers drew 2-2 at Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park in March 2019, but equally chipped in with some critical goals at the other end, proving a powerful force with his head from set pieces as well as a dominant and effective pivot at the heart of defence. In January 2020 he scored for both sides as Rovers drew 2-2 at home to Coventry City in an FA Cup third-round tie at the Memorial Stadium. Married to Jocelyn and with a daughter Scarlett, Tony Craig was given a testimonial match in July 2016, Millwall playing his former side Brentford. After leaving The Mem, he played alongside Tom Nichols and Sam Matthews at Crawley Town, featured in their dramatic 6-5 FA Cup win at Torquay United in November 2020 and played against Rovers twice during the 2021-22 campaign. He scored for Crawley at Bradford City in January 2022 and was in their side which knocked Rovers out of the League Cup in August of that year, before being sent off in the 2-0 home defeat against Wimbledon later that month. |
No 284. Harold Richard Cranfield. 1947-48.
Born, 25.12.1917, Chesterton. Died, December, 1990, King’s Lynn. 5’ 9”; 11 st. Début: 23.8.47 v Port Vale. Career: Cambridge Town; 25.12.37 Fulham (trial); 29.12.37 Fulham (free) [1,0]; 27.6.47 Bristol Rovers [24,2]; May 1948 Colchester United; 1949 King’s Lynn (to 1951). With a Christmas Day birthday, outside-right Harry Cranfield joined Fulham initially the day he turned twenty and, in addition to scoring thirteen times for their reserves, played for the Cottagers against Millwall in October 1946 after spending six years in the Army. The son of Harry Cranfield senior and Edith Watson, he had married Frances Peck in Cambridge in the autumn of 1939. After scoring a début goal for Rovers, he appeared in 24 consecutive League fixtures but, dropped after a 5-2 defeat against Queen’s Park Rangers, dropped into non-league football, appearing for Colchester in six Southern League games without scoring. |
No 68. Alexander Crichton. 1925-26.
Born, 12.6.1899, Bellshill, Scotland. Died? 5’ 10”; 11 st 10 lbs. Début: 29.8.25 v Charlton Athletic. Career: 1923 Blantyre Victoria; May 1924 Bradford Park Avenue; 11.6.25 Bristol Rovers [7,0] (to 1926). Scottish-born wing-half and Park Avenue reserve Alec Crichton appeared for Blues against Whites in Rovers’ pre-season trial game in August 1925, a 2-2 draw, and played in Rovers’ first five League games of the 1925-26 season. Thereafter, he does not feature in reserve team line-ups and may have returned north of the border. He was born at 55 Muirpark Cottages, Bellshill to an unmarried domestic servant, Catherine Crichton. |
No 218. George Henry Crisp. 1935-36.
Born, 30.6.1911, Pontypool. Died, 27.3.1982, Penrhiwceiber. 5’ 8”; 11 st. Début: 7.9.35 v Bristol City. Career: Melbourne Stars; November 1933 Llanelli; November 1933 Coventry City [8,0]; 31.7.35 Bristol Rovers [22,6]; 26.6.36 Newport County [10,1]; August 1937 Colchester United; July 1939 Nottingham Forest; June 1946 Merthyr Town (to 1947). Embarrassing as it was to be knocked out of the FA Cup in November 1946 by non-league Merthyr Town, Rovers had to accept that one of the Welsh side’s three goals came from George Crisp, an erstwhile Rovers forward. “Crisp, faced by towering defenders, did well and became very excited when he scored the third for Merthyr”, reported the Merthyr Express. Snapped up by Coventry after just two days with 1932-33 Welsh League champions Llanelli, he made his League début at Eastville for Coventry in January 1934 and returned for a Third Division (South) Cup-tie the following month. Although he scored for Rovers in the cauldron of a local derby, he was also in the side which crashed 12-0 at Luton Town over Easter 1936. After a goal for Newport County against Rovers in September 1936, he scored 21 times in 55 Southern League appearances with Colchester United, counting a hat-trick against Swindon Town reserves amongst that tally. Not included, though, was Colchester’s first Southern League “goal”; in their first ever game in that league, in August 1937, Crisp put the ball in the net at Yeovil after nine minutes, the goal was awarded, only for the referee to consult his linesman and disallow it. Colchester were Southern League champions in 1938-39, after which Crisp scored four times in 21 wartime games for Forest, adding wartime appearances with Notts County, Swansea Town, Cardiff City, Aberaman Athletic and Lovell’s Athletic. Nine goals for Aberaman included four in a match against Swansea Town in 1944. The son of Frederick Crisp and Julia Ann John, George Crisp was a losing Welsh Cup finalist with Merthyr Town in 1947 at the veteran stage of his career. |
No 12. George Ellis Crompton. 1920-21.
Born, 17.7.1886, Ramsbottom, Lancashire. Died, 17.5.1953, Barnstaple, Devon. 5’ 8”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 1.9.20 v Newport County. Career: 1902 Hapton United; 1905 Padiham; 18.5.06 Blackburn Rovers [35,20]; 29.12.10 Tottenham Hotspur [8,0]; 16.7.12 Exeter City (£450); 3.5.13 Bristol Rovers (£400) [41,10]; 20.7.21 Exeter City [145,6]; 5.8.26 Barnstaple Town (player-coach; re-instated as a professional, 5.9.27); 1929 Llanelli; 1930 Barry Town (player-coach). Despite missing Rovers’ first ever Football League game, Ellis Crompton had the distinction of scoring the club’s first goal in that tournament; indeed, he scored on both his Southern League and Football League débuts for Rovers. The eldest of four children to Ralph Crompton, a carter from Ramsbottom, and Annie Birch, a Derbyshire cotton winder, he grew up at 3 Lamb Carr Road, Holcombe, Lancashire and at 29 Manchester Road in neighbouring Hapton. A speedy forward or wing-half, who won the 100 yards professional handicap at Exeter in August 1912, he also excelled in front of goal, as witnessed by a Division One hat-trick for Blackburn Rovers against Sunderland in March 1909. However, his only goal for Spurs was deleted from the records, after the League fixture with Oldham Athletic was abandoned in fog at half-time. Exeter City’s captain in both spells at the club, his ten goals in 31 Southern League matches for the Grecians included two against Rovers in October 1912 and he played in seven League matches against the Eastville side. Having appeared for Brazil, Straker and Co, he then represented Rovers in wartime football, scoring 58 times, four goals coming against Avonmouth in October 1916 and against a Military XI in November 1917, as well as a hat-trick against Southampton reserves in October 1915, and adding a goal from forty yards in the first-half of an 8-0 win against RAVC in April 1919; an Ellis Crompton XI lost 2-1 to a Billy Wedlock XI in May 1919. “One of the most admired aspects of his play was his speed on the ball”, as one reporter commentated, and he was awarded a benefit game when Rovers and Exeter met in 1921. A frequent cry in the early Football League years at Eastville was “Give us another, Ellis!” When a Rovers’ game with Swindon Town was postponed, he went with trainer George Endicott to watch Horfield United against Douglas Brothers in Kingswood and together they recommended Joe Walter to Rovers. Ellis Crompton married Bessie Ashworth (1888-1969) at St John the Evangelist, Accrington in 1909 and they brought up their two sons and two daughters at 38 Heath Street, Eastville, before retiring to Devon to run The Globe in Queen Street, Barnstaple. |
No 823. Lance Cronin. 2011-12.
Born, 11.9.1985, Brighton. 6’ 1”; 12 st. Début: 31.12.11 v Crewe Alexandra. Career: Manchester United (schoolboy); 2001 Brighton and Hove Albion; 8.12.01 Crystal Palace; 18.3.05 Wycombe Wanderers (loan) [1,0]; 3.11.05 Oldham Athletic; 9.2.06 Shrewsbury Town; 10.8.06 Gravesend and Northfleet; 26.7.10 Gillingham [7,0]; 29.6.11 Bristol Rovers (free) [0+1,0]; 20.2.12 Ebbsfleet United (loan); 10.6.12 Macclesfield Town (free); 30.5.14 Whitehawk (free; retired, 19.9.14); 2.5.16 Whitehawk (assistant manager, to 11.8.16). Few Rovers players have experienced a career like that of Lance Cronin. The tall, agile goalkeeper, whose five pre-season friendly appearances had begun with the 5-1 win at Mangotsfield in July 2011, came on as a half-time substitute, with Rovers 4-1 down, and conceded just one goal, a mazy, solo goal from the future Manchester United teenager Nick Powell two minutes into stoppage time. Having not made the first-team at Palace, Oldham or Shrewsbury – although he played for Oldham against Chasetown in the FA Cup and was Joe Hart’s deputy at the Shrews -, Cronin’s League bow came when Wycombe lost 1-0 to Rovers in May 2005, his solitary game for the Chairboys. Gravesend evolved over time into Ebbsfleet, such that, in addition to his 186 Conference games for the club, Cronin became an FA Trophy winner following the 1-0 victory over Torquay United at Wembley in May 2008, playing alongside John Akinde and against Lee Mansell and Chris Zebroski. His club form earned seven games for the England “C” side, his début in November 2006 seeing Holland defeated as England secured the Euro Challenge Trophy and a League début for Gillingham at Morecambe soon followed. He was in goal when Gillingham lost 7-4 at Accrington in October 2010. After Macclesfield had lost their Football League status in 2012, Cronin played in 28 Conference matches for the Moss Rose outfit, as well as appearing in their shock FA Cup victories at Swindon Town in November 2012 and at home to Premier League-bound Cardiff City, three divisions their superiors, in January 2013. Cronin played in five Conference South games for Whitehawk, were to lose the end-of-season play-off final to Boreham Wood. He retired in 2014 to focus on his business aspirations in the building industry in Brighton. |
No 567. Stephen Charles Cross. 1991-93.
Born, 22.12.1959, Wolverhampton. 5’ 10”; 11 st 5 lbs. Début: 14.9.91 v Southend United. Career: Shrewsbury Town (professional, 29.12.77) [240+22,34]; 4.7.86 Derby County (£60,000) [42+31,3]; 12.9.91 Bristol Rovers (£75,000) [37+6,2] (player-coach, 28.5.92; acting manager, 3.3.93); 10.6.96 Mangotsfield United (player-coach); 30.9.96 Bath City (to December 1996). Shrewd and incisive in midfield, experienced Steve Cross scored on his home début for Rovers against Oxford United. Previously a stalwart at Shrewsbury, he had run up a sizeable tally of League appearances, playing three times in the League against Rovers and scoring once in the November 1980 fixture. With the Shrews he won a Division Three championship medal as well as winning the Welsh Cup on three occasions, scoring in the 1984 final against Wrexham. Arriving from Derby, Cross added a touch of class to Rovers’ midfield, scoring against Oxford and his former team-mates at Derby, and also coached the reserve side to the Football Combination Division Two title and success in the Somerset Premier Cup in 1992-93. Temporarily in charge at Twerton Park, he later ran the London Marathon in April 1996 to raise money to support Rovers. Although Cross scored in a 2-1 home defeat against Altrincham on his Bath début, he was to manage just seven Conference games and that one goal before injury put paid to his footballing career. An only child to Ray Cross and Maureen Moreton, who was one of nine girls and the ninth of eleven children to Charles Moreton and Martha Eagle, Steve Cross is married to Helen with two sons, and his over-exuberant and highly infectious style can be sporadically heard as a guest football commentator on BBC Radio Shropshire. |
No 52. William Peter Cuff. 1923-24.
Born, 3.3.1901, Bristol. Died, 20.11.1969, Bristol. 5’ 9”; 10 st 4 lbs. Début: 29.9.23 v Southend United. Career: Victoria Albion; 25.8.21 Bristol Rovers (amateur, 15.10.21) [2,0]; 5.9.32 Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd. A team-mate at Victoria Albion of Bristol City’s John Smith, who later scored against Rovers with Aberdare Athletic in March 1925, Billy Cuff captained the Suburban League XI against both Trowbridge Town and Bristol City reserves in 1922. On his Rovers reserves début on Michaelmas 1923, a 2-1 win against Bath City in October 1921, newcomer Cuff “shaped extremely well”. He replaced the injured Harry Rose against Southend United and Sam Furniss against Brentford, although he missed the final forty minutes of his second game through injury. In 1939, he played for CWS Ltd against Balloon Street of Essex in the Co-op Wholesale Society Cup. An only child of William Arthur Beavis Cuff, who died in 1904 and Elizabeth Hewson, Billy Cuff lost his father young and his mother re-married George Hale, a bacon curer, in 1906; he was brought up with his half-siblings Lilian Hale (1908-61) and George Hale (1910-91) at 32 Brick Street, St Philip and Jacob. Billy Cuff married Alice Victoria Avery (1899-1992) at Stapleton Road Chapel on 12th July 1920 and they had two children, a daughter Gladys (1920-2009, who married William Gooding in 1941) and a son William (1931-2000) as well as three grandchildren. Billy Cuff suffered a heart attack at home, aged sixty-eight, and died in the ambulance on his way to Bristol Royal Infirmary. |
No 654. Nicholas James Culkin. 2000-01.
Born, 6.7.1978, York. 6’ 2”; 13 st 9 lbs. Début: 12.8.00 v Bournemouth. Career: 1990 York City (YTS, 1994); 25.9.95 Manchester United (£250,000) [0+1,0]; 24.12.99 Hull City (loan) [4,0]; 1.7.00 Bristol Rovers (loan) [45,0]; 4.10.01 Livingston (loan) [21,0]; 5.7.02 Queen’s Park Rangers (free) [22,0] (retired, 27.4.05); 23.8.10 Radcliffe Borough; 2.11.12 Prescot Cables; 28.3.14 FC United of Manchester (goalkeeping coach). Tall and dominant, goalkeeper Nick Culkin was a popular and likeable figure with Rovers during the 2000-01 relegation campaign. Remembered for denting the stand roof with a wayward goal-kick against Bristol City, he also memorably kicked all Swansea’s warm-up match-balls into the Rovers crowd. Following an injury, in a collision with Andy Rammell at Wycombe, he warmed up for the following game with a crash helmet on and his ecstatic celebrations when Rovers knocked Everton out of the League Cup live long in the memory. “Without any doubt, my time at Rovers was the best of my playing career”, he said. Culkin had impressed at The Mem when he played alongside David Beckham and Paul Scholes in Lee Martin’s testimonial game for Manchester United in July 1999 and he also played before a crowd of 59,000 at Eric Cantona’s testimonial. His Premier League career, which followed two games for York reserves, remains the shortest on record, appearing for the final eighty seconds against Arsenal in August 1999. Livingston were third in the Scottish Premier League in 2001-02, QPR, then managed by Ian Holloway, were promoted to Division One in 2003-04 and, appearing alongside Steve Morgan and Jason Harris, Culkin kept a clean sheet in three of his four games at Hull, saving a penalty against Orient. Nick Culkin married Jane Turnbull, but is now divorced, and has two sons, Oliver and Harry; living near Manchester, he retired from football following an accidental collision whilst playing for QPR at Swindon and worked as a driver delivering steel products for eighteen months, and later as a landscape gardener. Coming out of retirement, his 110 games for Radcliffe Borough earned him the accolade of Club Player of the Year two years in succession. |
No 81. William Neill Culley. 1925-28.
Born, 26.8.1892, Kilwinning. Died, 9.11.1955, Irvine. 5’ 9”; 11 st 4 lbs. Début: 23.1.26 v Merthyr Town. Career: 1909 Kilwinning Eglinton; September 1910 Kilwinning Rangers; 1911 Ardrossan Winton Rovers; 30.3.12 Kilmarnock; 30.4.15 Third Lanark (trial); May 1916 Renton (trial); May 1917 Airdrieonians (trial); 2.3.23 Clyde [25,5]; 6.10.24 Weymouth; 21.1.26 Bristol Rovers (£100) [57,45]; 10.8.28 Swindon Town [3,1]; September 1929 Kilmarnock [314,156]; January 1930 Galston; August 1931 Kilwinning Eglinton (to 1933). “Quick and clever, with excellent control and deadly finish”, Willie Culley followed his elder brother Robert in signing for Kilwinning Eglinton and went on to become Kilmarnock’s all-time record goal-scorer. He also scored three hat-tricks for Rovers in becoming the Pirates’ top scorer for the 1926-27 season, his three goals against Swindon Town that Easter rendering him the oldest hat-trick scorer in Rovers’ League history. This tally included four goals in a fixture against QPR that March and seventeen strikes in an impressive thirteen-match run. Astonishingly, for a man who always side-footed his penalties, he missed a penalty and scored an own goal when Rovers reserves lost 5-1 at home to Exeter City reserves on Guy Fawkes Night 1927. When he scored at Newport in September 1927, the Western Daily Press reported that “it was Bristol Rovers weather last evening – that is, it was raining”. South of the border, he also appeared for Weymouth against Rovers in the FA Cup, scored for the Dorset side against Rovers reserves and added five goals as Swindon Town reserves beat Exeter City reserves by the incredible score of 12-5 in December 1928. Two goals on his Weymouth début were followed by two hat-tricks and four goals each against Welton Rovers, Bath City and Portsea. Willie Culley’s real fame, though, came north of the border. Coming from a family of clothing manufacturers, he was the second of five sons to James Culley and Mary Ann Imrie Neill of 31 Almsidall Road, Kilwinning, who had married in Kilwinning on 9th April 1890, and soon became a household name in his native Ayrshire. He equalised from a free-kick shortly before half-time in the 1920 Scottish Cup Final, as Killie beat Albion Rovers before a Hampden Park crowd of 95,000 in glorious sunshine. “In great form”, he scored nine League hat-tricks for the Rugby Park club and four goals when Hibernian were beaten 7-1 in September 1918, the first of the day followed by three late on. He represented the Scottish League against the English League, scoring after 47 minutes in a 3-1 defeat. Most notoriously, he was transferred to Clyde after being accused of not trying in a Cup replay against East Fife; having scored in the drawn tie, he was “not impressive forward” in a 1-0 defeat, the future Rover Wally Gillespie playing for East Fife, and was suspended on 7th February sine die; he scored at Ibrox on his Clyde début. |
No 603. Jamie Cureton. 1996-2001.
Born, 28.8.1975, Fishponds, Bristol. 5’ 7”; 10 st 7 lbs. Début: 21.9.96 v Plymouth Argyle. Career: 1987 Southampton (schoolboy); 1990 Norwich City (professional, 5.2.93) [13+16,6]; 8.9.95 Bournemouth (loan) [0+5,0]; 20.9.96 Bristol Rovers (loan); 8.10.96 Bristol Rovers (£250,000) [167+9,72]; 23.8.00 Reading (£150,000) [74+34,51]; 11.7.03 Busan Icons; 28.1.04 Peterborough United (trial); 3.2.04 Queen’s Park Rangers (free) [20+23,6]; 30.6.05 Swindon Town (free) [22+8,7]; 21.10.05 Colchester United (loan); 1.6.06 Colchester United (free) [51+1,27]; 29.6.07 Norwich City (free) [42+27,16]; 1.1.09 Barnsley (loan) [7+1,2]; 16.2.10 Shrewsbury Town (loan) [10+2,0]; 3.8.10 Exeter City (free); 28.6.11 Orient (free) [9+10,1]; 1.3.12 Exeter City (loan); 31.7.12 Exeter City (free) [54+9,28]; 17.6.13 Cheltenham Town (free) [23+12,11]; 24.7.14 Dagenham and Redbridge (free) [61+22,26]; 5.8.16 Farnborough (free); 22.9.16 Eastleigh (free); 3.12.16 Farnborough (free); 9.12.16 St Albans City (free); 31.3.17 Farnborough (loan); 2.1.18 Bishop’s Stortford (free; 18.9.18 joint manager); 4.2.20 Hornchurch (free); 30.6.20 Enfield (29.9.20 manager). Four goals in 21 second-half minutes from Jamie Cureton set Rovers on course for their astonishing 6-0 victory at Reading’s new Madejski Stadium in January 1999. The free-scoring Cureton was an essential ingredient in Rovers’ successful end to the 1990s, hitting three hat-tricks away from home in 1998-99 alone, against Reading, Oxford and Macclesfield, when his 25 League goals rendered him the highest goal-scorer in the entire division. An ever-present that campaign, he was also the club’s joint top scorer in 1999-2000 and the second highest scorer in 1996-97. In addition to League football, Cureton scored four times in a 10-1 friendly win at Bideford in July 1997 and four more in a 5-1 win at Oxford City two years later. He hit the crossbar from a penalty against Carlisle United in August 1997, yet kept his courage to score the next spot-kick, Rovers’ equaliser at Bournemouth ten days later. Cureton, a Rovers supporter as a boy and the younger son of Glen Cureton (son of Len Cureton and Noreen Smith) and Christine Tilley, arrived at Rovers in 1996 after brief spells with Norwich and Bournemouth, where he scored a hat-trick in the reserves’ 3-1 win away to Plymouth. Having made his début as a substitute for Mark Robins in Norwich’s Premier Division goalless draw with Everton in November 1994, he hit national headlines by dyeing his hair green as a dare for the local derby at Ipswich in April 1996 and then scoring in a 2-1 defeat. 82 goals in only ninety matches for Norwich at youth level indicated the degree of commitment that supporters were to witness over the next two decades. His first League goal came just thirteen seconds after entering the field as a substitute, as Norwich defeated Chelsea 3-0 in December 1994. Cureton started his Rovers career with aplomb, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win against Chesterfield, his second from a very tight angle, but there were low moments too, such as the broken leg suffered against Brentford in May 1998 with Rovers still requiring a goal in the final eight minutes to make the play-offs. A large-fee signing by Reading, where he was a team-mate of Sammy Igoe, he scored a hat-trick in the 4-0 victory over Brentford in September 2000 to become not only the first opponent but also the first home player to register a hat-trick at the Madejski Stadium; he added three further goals as Luton Town were defeated three months later. He also scored after 42 minutes as Reading defeated Rovers 1-0 in January 2001 and his 77th-minute chipped winner, Brentford again being the victims, earned Reading promotion to Division One in April 2002, which was followed by a play-off season the following campaign. Some indication as to Cureton’s popularity at Reading is given by the fact that supporters named a star in the Perseus constellation after him in September 2002 – Right ascension 3h 26m 20s, declination +35* 20h 25m. Following a spell in South Korea, in which he scored four times in twenty games, he returned to the capital. At QPR with Ian Holloway and Marcus Bignot, he again won promotion to Division One and scored a hat-trick with his right foot as Coventry were defeated 4-1 in September 2004, as well as returning to Rovers to appear in Jamie Shore’s July 2004 testimonial. He was also sent off in December 2004 in a 1-0 defeat away to his former club Reading. Cureton missed a penalty against Barnsley on his Swindon début and suffered relegation to League Two in 2005-06, only to enjoy a renaissance at Colchester, with League hat-tricks against Derby County and Southend United. A hat-trick for Norwich City against his former club Colchester in March 2008 preceded the final goal in a 5-1 win against Rovers, as the Canaries ran away with the League One title in 2009-10 and Cureton became, in September 2012 in the red-and-white stripes of Exeter, the seventeenth oldest opponent to score against Rovers. He was sent off at Wycombe on New Year’s Day 2013, but nonetheless found his name on the shortlist for League Two Player of the Season in 2012-13. In May 2012, he had returned to Bristol to score a trademark hat-trick as Rovers Legends defeated Bristol City Legends 7-6. He was unable to prevent Cheltenham from being knocked out of the FA Cup in November 2013 by non-league Tamworth but finished the campaign as the Robins’ second highest scorer. Early in his time at Dagenham, he contributed a trademark goal in the astonishing 6-6 draw with Brentford in the League Cup and he added a hat-trick at the age of 39 years 222 days on Easter Monday 2015, as Wimbledon were defeated 4-0, completing 2014-15 as the second-highest scorer in fourth-tier English football and as his club’s Player of the Year. Cureton’s final League goal came in the Daggers’ 3-2 defeat at Orient in April 2016, his side dropping out of the Football League that spring, with Cureton on the field as a late substitute at The Mem as the season drew to a close. Even at non-league level, his quality shone through, a hat-trick in the 4-3 victory over Fleet Town proving the highlight of nine goals in 7(+1) Southern League appearances for Farnborough, whilst 3(+4) Conference games with Eastleigh included an October 2016 goal against Torquay United. Returning to Farnborough, he scored four goals in 6(+1) Southern League matches at the tail end of the 2016-17, including a final day hat-trick as Beaconsfield were defeated 6-1, his return to The Yellows enabling him to become the first player to score in all the top eight tiers of English football. He added 31 goals in 54(+2) Evo-Stick League South matches with Bishop’s Stortford, finishing the 2018-19 campaign as top scorer and Player of the Year (as well as in the Isthmian Premier Division Team of the Season at the age of forty-three) and scoring twice against Brighlingsea Regents on Easter Monday 2019 in his 1,000th professional match. Effervescent Cureton took just 116 seconds to register his first goal of 2019-20, the first of a pair as Stortford defeated Histon 3-2 and later made his Hornchurch bow in a 3-0 victory over Cheshunt alongside Adam Cunnington and Chris Dickson, before managing both Cunnington and Lyle Della-Verde at Enfield Town. Meanwhile, an October 2019 goal for Essex Senior League Enfield FC, for whom he had dual registration, meant he had become the first player to score in all nine top divisions of English football and he also worked with Arsenal’s academy until 22nd October 2021. In June 2017 he scored in the final, as England Seniors defeated Iran 2-0 in Thailand to win the World Cup at their age level. An astonishingly adept striker over a long career, he has accumulated League hat-tricks for six separate clubs and remains one of the most prolific scorers in Rovers’ history. |
No 478. Keith Curle. 1981-83.
Born, 14.11.1963, Bristol. 6’; 12 st 7 lbs. Début: 29.8.81 v Chester City. Career: Chase School, Mangotsfield; Bristol City (associate schoolboy); 1980 Bristol Rovers (professional, 20.11.81) [21+11,4]; 4.11.83 Torquay United (loan); 10.11.83 Torquay United (£5,000) [16,5]; 24.2.84 Bristol City (£10,000) [113+8,1]; 23.10.87 Reading (£150,000) [40,0]; 21.10.88 Wimbledon (£500,000) [91+2,3]; 14.8.91 Manchester City (£2,500,000) [172,11]; 1.8.96 Wolverhampton Wanderers (£650,000) [148+2,10]; 4.7.00 Sheffield United (free) (player-coach) [53+4,1]; 16.8.02 Barnsley (free) [11,0]; 4,12,02 Mansfield Town (player-manager) [11+3,0]; 29.4.05 Chester City (manager); 8.2.07 Torquay United (head coach); 11.10.07 Crystal Palace (coach); 1.3.10 Queen’s Park Rangers (coach); 20.2.12 Notts County (manager); 19.9.14 Carlisle United (manager, to 5.5.18); 1.10.18 Northampton Town (manager); 8.2.21 Oldham Athletic (manager, to 24.11.21); 18.9.22 Hartlepool United (interim manager). A tall, speedy teenage winger who developed into a cultured international central defender and a respected manager, Keith Curle is a well-known face in national football. His début goal against Chester, a club he later managed, was the first Rovers had ever scored against that club and he added a goal after just 25 seconds against Millwall in April 1983, before being sent off later in the same game, and the winner in the Gloucestershire Cup Final of September 1983. He was converted by Rovers’ manager Bobby Gould to full-back and by Terry Cooper to centre-back. From Rovers, Curle enjoyed a successful and extensive club career and represented the Football League, although he had proved something of a firebrand early on, his several red cards including one in Bristol City’s pre-season friendly at Cheltenham in 1984. Five League appearances for City against Rovers and a goal for the Robins in a 3-1 home win against Newport County in March 1986 preceded a Wembley appearance in the Freight Rover Trophy Final of May 1987, in which City lost to Mansfield Town in a penalty shoot-out, although Curle successfully converted his own kick. Wimbledon’s record signing and later their captain, he was sent off against Manchester United and later played for Manchester City in the League Cup against Rovers in October 1992 Joining Manchester City despite failing two medicals there due to knee injuries, he broke an ankle against his future club Wolves in August 1995 and suffered relegation under Alan Ball from the Premier League in 1995-96. The following campaign saw Wolves reach the play-offs, only to lose over two legs to Crystal Palace. By this stage, Curle’s impressive form at a club level had earned international recognition. Although a broken jaw, suffered in a collision with David Batty during international training, precluded any participation in the 1991 England tour of New Zealand and Australia, he won four caps for England “B” and three full caps, making his début in a 2-2 draw in Moscow in April 1992 and appearing in the Euro 1992 game against Denmark. One low point came when he was arrested at Molineux in September 1999, charged with theft and affray at Wolverhampton railway station. After scoring for Sheffield United against Bradford City in September 2001, Curle was touted for the Barnsley managerial job, was sent off for Mansfield against Oldham in March 2003, led Mansfield to victory over Rovers in September 2003 and a play-off final appearance in Cardiff in May 2004, where they lost on penalties to Huddersfield Town, and managed Chester to a 4-0 victory against Rovers before a run of eleven defeats in twelve games cost him his job. Having built up from the mid-1990s a property-letting business based around his own home in Prestbury, Cheshire, Curle was with Torquay when they forfeited their Football League status in the spring of 2007 but, by now living in Sheffield, led Notts County to a club record twenty-two consecutive away games without defeat through 2012 before managing Carlisle United against Rovers in 2015-16 and to the League Two play-offs in 2016-17. His Northampton side lost to Oxford City in the first round of the FA Cup in November 2020 and he was in charge of Oldham during the 2021-22 campaign, at the end of which they lost their 115-year Football League status. A son of Walter Curle and Frances Hartshorn, he married twice, with a son and daughter (Tom, who played for Mansfield Town, and Natasha) from his first marriage in 1984 to Geraldine Sims, and a daughter (Maci-Eva) with his second wife, Germaine Smith. |
No 255. Frank Curran. 1938-47.
Born, 31.5.1917, Ryton-on-Tyne. Died, 24.9.1998, Southport. 5’ 8½”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 19.11.38 v Swindon Town. Career: Spen Black and White Juniors; Blaydon and District Boys; Washington Colliery; 8.8.35 Southport [16,3]; 18.2.37 Accrington Stanley (exchange for George Pateman) [34,14]; 14.6.38 Bristol Rovers; 17.5.39 Bristol City (£200, including Alec Millar); 29.5.46 Bristol Rovers [37,24]; 16.5.47 Shrewsbury Town; 17.6.47 Tranmere Rovers [17,7]; March 1948 Shrewsbury Town; August 1948 Hyde United; December 1948 Ashton United; 1950 Hyde United; 1952 Darwen. Oliver Curran and Isabella Eltringham (1871-1935), who married in 1898, had many children, amongst their sons being Andrew (Blackpool and Accrington Stanley), James (Barnsley and Southend United), Jack (the England amateur side) and their youngest, Frank. Inspired by his elder siblings, Frank became the pick of the bunch, representing four sides in the Football League and adding seven goals in sixteen Midland League matches with Shrewsbury Town as well as wartime appearances with Southport, Everton, Swindon Town, Rochdale and Stanley; his goal returns were particularly strong at Haig Avenue – eight in thirteen matches -, Goodison Park – nine in only seven games – and Ashton Gate, where he contributed ten in nineteen fixtures. His solitary game for Rochdale was a 3-2 home defeat against Southport in September 1942. “Very tricky and with a good shot”, he made his Stanley début in a 6-3 win against his former club Southport in 1936 and added five goals in nine wartime matches. Whilst at Eastville, Curran was top scorer in the final season prior to World War Two, contributing four of the goals in a 5-0 win against Swindon Town in March 1939, this tally including a first-half hat-trick, scored against Bristol City in the Gloucestershire Cup Final of September 1945 and added Rovers’ first goal on the resumption of League action in August 1946. Having scored on his Shrewsbury début, he made a dramatic return to the Football League in 1947, scoring a brace of goals in a 2-1 victory over Hull City in November of that year, almost three decades after his brother Andrew had first signed for Sunderland in 1920. Living at 76 Cottrell Road, Eastville during his Rovers years, Frank Curran married Mary Howard in 1939; they lived for many years in her native Southport and had three sons and three daughters. |
No 52. Walter Robertson Currie. 1922-23.
Born, 5.10.1895, Auchterderran. Died, 18.1.1965, St Andrew’s, Fife. 5’ 8”; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 26.8.22 v Portsmouth. Career: Denbeath Star; August 1914 Cowdenbeath; October 1916 East Fife; December 1916 Raith Rovers [21,2]; 30.12.19 Leicester City [32,1]; 11.5.22 Bristol Rovers [42,0]; 1923 Lochgelly United (professional, August 1925). Tough and uncompromising as a wing-half, Wattie Currie was an ever-present at Eastville in 1922-23, a season when Rovers presented a strong and at time impenetrable defence in front of the reliable Jesse Whatley. Having helped Cowdenbeath become Second Division champions in 1914-15 on goal average above both Leith Athletic and St Bernard’s, Currie played in seven wartime matches with East Fife without scoring. He subsequently added one goal in 22 Eastern League matches to his tally at Raith Rovers. The fifth son, and seventh of eight children to an inspector of mines, Peter Currie, and his wife Violet of 60 Grainger Street, Auchterderran, he worked as a commission agent and, making his Football League bow for Leicester City against Stockport County, scored his only goal against Orient in Division Two in May 1920. One of seven débutants in Lochgelly United’s 1-0 win against Bathgate in the Scottish Second Division in August 1923, he then saw his side endure fifteen winless games in succession to finish at the foot of the league, nineteen points adrift of Vale of Leven. Wattie Currie was unrelated to three footballing Currie brothers of the same era, Sam of Leicester Fosse, Bob at Bury and David with Hearts, nor to Pat Curie, a team-mate at East Fife. |
No 662.Moussa Moustapha Dagnogo. 2000-01.
Born, 30.1.1972, Paris. 6’; 12 st 5 lbs. Début: 30.9.00 v Luton Town. Career: Nantes; Pau; Les Lilas; Châtillon; July 1996 Moissy Cramayel; July 1997 Angoulême; July 1998 Racing Club de Paris; 1999 União Madeira; 4.9.00 Bristol Rovers (trial); 19.9.00 Aberdeen (trial); 29.9.00 Bristol Rovers [0+2,0]; 10.1.01 Ayr United (trial); 24.1.00 St Mirren (trial) [2+3,1]; 24.3.01 KR Reykjavík; 23.11.01 AS Red Star 93; 24.10.02 Saint-Colomban Locminé (trial); 4.8.02 Indiana Blast; January 2005 Indiana Reggae Boyz; 6.7.05 Cincinnati Kings (free); 5.5.07 Indianapolis Braves; May 2009 Carmel United (head coach); May 2011 Jacksonville Youth (coach). Having scored for the reserves against Portsmouth, tall French striker Moussa Dagnogo played 31 minutes of League football for Rovers. His peripatetic career took in the Portuguese First Division, Scottish and English League fare, nine months in Iceland and numerous years in French and American football. After scoring the winning goal six minutes from time on his St Mirren début, against Dundee in February 2001, he joined Sergio Ommel at Iceland’s oldest club, and both played for Reykjavík in the UEFA Cup against the Albanian side KS Vilaznia in July 2001. He was to play in ten Icelandic League games, scoring once on his home début against Akranes, and added four goals in eleven French League matches with Red Star of Paris, before joining the Brittany side St Colomban. “Rookie of the Year” at Indiana Blast in 2002, he scored seven times that season to be the club’s second highest scorer, but left when Blast went into administration and, having scored twice as Kings were knocked out of the cup, joined them soon afterwards to score three times in eight appearances. A keen drummer, Moussa Dagnogo holds a National C coaching licence in the States and led his Under-15 girls’ side at Carmel United to the State Cup in 2010. |
No 418. Malcolm Owen Dalrymple. 1971-73.
Born, 8.10.1951, Bedford. 6’; 13 st. Début: 22.4.72 v Wrexham. Career: September 1968 Luton Town (amateur); July 1970 Margate (loan); 24.8.71 Cambridge United (trial); 13.10.71 Bristol Rovers (free) [7,0]; March 1973 Margate; July 1973 Watford (free) [5,0]; November 1975 Hendon; August 1976 Colne Dynamoes; 1978 Southport; 1979 Colne Dynamoes; 1980 Pendle Forest; Nelson; Accrington Stanley; Padiham Wanderers (to 1991). Previously an England Youth international goalkeeper who had played three times, once each against Scotland, Wales and Ireland, Malcolm Dalrymple enjoyed a brief career at Eastville. The middle son of Malcolm Dalrymple senior and Phyllis Reed, who married in Cambridge in 1947, he lived in Bedford until joining Rovers in 1971, but had appeared 46 times for Margate, his début coming in a 3-0 win at Telford in August 1970. After Watford had won three of his five League matches at Vicarage Road, Dalrymple appeared 67 times for Hendon, his début being a 2-1 home victory over Wealdstone in August 1975 and fifteen times in Southport’s first season outside the Football League, before helping Colne finish the 1979-80 season as runners-up to Clitheroe in the Lancashire Combination. A long-distance lorry driver who has been resident in Lancashire since 1976, he can look back on the FA Cup as producing great excitement and disappointment: his greatest game for Margate was the 1-0 win at Herne Bay in November 1970; he was in the Hendon side which shocked Reading 1-0 in the second round in December 1975; and he was Rovers’ keeper in the demoralising 1-0 defeat at Hayes on a grey Saturday afternoon in November 1972. |
No 938. James Stanley Daly. 2019-2021.
Born, 12.1.2000, Brighton. 5’ 8”; 11 st 1 lb. Début: 29.2.20 v Shrewsbury Town. Career: Lewes; 11.12.13 Crystal Palace (professional, 27.6.19); 31.1.20 Bristol Rovers [15+18,3]; 2.6.21 Stevenage (free) [2+13,0]; 2.6.22 Woking (free). Signing a two-and-a-half-year contract with Rovers, inexperienced striker James Daly left Palace with a fine reputation. Hard-working, a strong finisher and a player with a very positive attitude, he played alongside his twin brother Joel in a school side which was Sussex County Champions at Year Ten level and he was top scorer in 2016-17 in the Ryman Youth League (South) as well as scoring ten times in 35 matches for Crystal Palace Under-18s. This side was Under-18 Professional Development League southern champions in 2017-18 and Daly’s form earned him thirteen games for the Under-23 side, in which his nine goals included a hat-trick, a tap-in and two headers, in a 3-0 victory over Queen’s Park Rangers in February 2018; he was the club’s Scholar of the Year that campaign. The young striker scored his first goal for Rovers with a header from Josh Hare’s cross just after half-time of Rovers’ game against Lincoln City at Sincil Bank in October 2020, becoming in the process the first player born after New Year’s Day 2000 to score a League goal for the Gas. Unfortunately, opportunities were rarer the following campaign, as Rovers were relegated from league One in the spring of 2021. Subsequently, he made his Stevenage début at the Mem in League Two. A good friend of the Brighton-based singer Libby Whitehouse, Daly is one of three boys to David and Heather Daly. |
No 793. Luke Matthew Daniels. 2010-11.
Born, 5.1.1988, Bolton. 6’ 4”; 12 st 10 lbs. Début: 11.1.11 v Walsall. Career: 1.7.03 Manchester United (schoolboy); 1.7.04 West Bromwich Albion [0+1,0]; 8.2.08 Motherwell (loan) [2,0]; 1.8.08 Shrewsbury Town (loan) [38,0]; 21.7.09 Tranmere Rovers (loan) [37,0]; 14.7.10 Bristol Rovers (loan); 21.9.10 Charlton Athletic (loan); 3.12.10 Rochdale (loan) [1,0]; 7.1.11 Bristol Rovers (loan) [9,0]; 25.10.11 Southend United (loan) [9,0]; 22.1.15 Scunthorpe United (free) [101,0]; 24.5.17 Brentford (free) [17,0]; 9.8.21 Middlesbrough (free) [12,0]. Tall, inexperienced goalkeeper Luke Daniels joined Rovers on loan in 2010 but, suffering a back injury prior to a pre-season friendly against his former club, West Brom, his loan deal was cancelled. Undaunted, the young man returned to the Memorial Stadium a few months later to make a handful of appearances as Rovers were relegated to League Two in 2010-11. An unused substitute at Wembley as West Brom lost 1-0 to Derby County in the 2007 play-off final, Daniels made his Motherwell début against Celtic and won two England Under-19 caps, the first in a 2-1 victory over Slovenia in April 2006. The star of a penalty shoot-out against Bury, which took Shrewsbury to Wembley, he played in the 1-0 play-off final defeat at the hands of Gillingham in May 2009; he had played when the Shrews had defeated Gillingham 7-0 only a few months earlier. Daniels kept two clean sheets for Tranmere against Rovers, but was sent off after 65 minutes of the defeat against Stockport County in October 2009. He later played for Southend in their 1-1 draw with Rovers in November 2011, helping the Shrimpers to seal promotion to League One in the spring of 2012. Eventually, Daniels made his Baggies’ bow in August 2013, playing in the final twelve minutes of the goalless Premier League game at Everton after Ben Foster had suffered an injury, but left the club early in 2015. He was sent off against Burton Albion in Scunthorpe’s opening fixture of the 2015-16 campaign, spending that season as his side’s regular keeper and played twice against Rovers during the following League One campaign, as his side reached the play-offs, only to lose over two legs to Millwall. He was an unused substitute at Wembley in May 2021 as Brentford secured promotion back to the top flight after an absence of seventy-four years, via the play-offs. |
No 117. Maurice Dando. 1928-33.
Born, 12.7.1905, Bristol. Died, 25.9.1949, Plympton. 5’ 9”; 12 st. Début: 15.9.28 v Plymouth Argyle. Career: Kingswood; Brocknell’s; April 1926 Bath City; September 1926 Brocknell’s; 30.8.28 Bristol Rovers (professional, 9.9.32) [17,5]; 13.7.33 York City [82,46]; June 1935 Chesterfield [27,29]; July 1937 Crewe Alexandra (exchange with Job Taylor for Bert Swindells and Ernie Wright) [16,2] (to May 1938). For a player with such a phenomenal goals-to-games ratio, particularly at Chesterfield, it is strange that Maurice Dando never made the transition to the higher echelons of English football. The eighth of nine children to a coal mine hewer, Henry Dando, and his wife Sarah Ann Noble, he was brought up in Rose Green Road, St George. A cricketer with Bristol Pottery and Stoke Park Colony, he did not make the grade at Bath City and arrived at Eastville from Bristol and District League football. Free scoring in Rovers’ reserve side, he hit four in the 7-3 win at Hereford United in February 1929 and against Plymouth Argyle reserves on New Year’s Eve 1932 as well as a hat-trick against Swindon Town reserves. With Jack Phillips’ form restricting first-team options, Dando had to be content with sporadic appearances, hitting a brace of goals as Southend United were defeated 4-1 at Eastville in March 1929. “A plucky, two-footed player”, as the Western Daily Press described him, he won a Western League championship medal with the reserves in 1928-29. Chesterfield’s top scorer as they secured the Division Three (North) championship in 1935-36, his tally including four in a 6-0 win against his future club Crewe that September, he added two goals on his York City début, completed three hat-tricks at Bootham Crescent, against Rochdale, Rotherham United and Carlisle United, and was twice their top scorer. Jack Eyres, Bill Routledge and “Mick” Dando, all three Rovers players in their day, were in the York side which defeated Carlisle United 7-0 in April 1935, Dando scoring three times. Having suffered with injuries, and having missed the 1936-37 season entirely through ill health, he suffered from paralysis from 1946 and Rovers played St George in September 1948 in a benefit match, but Dando died shortly after his forty-fourth birthday. He had married Gladys Cookson, one year his junior, in 1930 and their daughter Barbara married John Watson two years after her father’s death. |
No 503. Ian Claude Davies. 1985-86.
Born, 29.3.1957, Bristol. 5’ 8”; 10 st 8 lbs. Début: 18.8.85 v Darlington. Career: Cleveland Youth; Fisons Sports, Bristol; 30.7.73 Norwich City (professional, 1.4.75) [29+3,2]; 29.3.78 Detroit Express (loan); 26.6.79 Newcastle United (£150,000) [74+1,3]; 1.8.82 Manchester City [7,0]; 4.11.82 Bury (loan) [14,0]; 11.11.83 Brentford (loan) [2,0]; 3.2.84 Cambridge United (loan) [5,0]; 17.5.84 Carlisle United [4,0]; 20.12.84 Exeter City [5,0]; 1985 Bath City (loan); 1985 Yeovil Town (loan); Bury Town (loan); Diss Town (loan); 8.8.85 Bristol Rovers (free) [13+1,1]; 25.11.85 Swansea City (free) [11,0]; November 1987 Gloucester City. Left-footed Ian Davies made his Rovers début in an exciting 3-3 draw and, operating on monthly contracts, scored in Rovers’ game against Reading at Elm Park seven days later. A Somerset cricketer at Under-13, Under-15 and Under-17 level, he also won one Welsh Under-23 cap at football, playing as a substitute against Scotland in 1980. Still Norwich’s youngest ever League débutant, when he replaced Steve Grapes in a 2-1 defeat against Birmingham City at Carrow Road in April 1974, he scored top-flight goals over Christmas 1978 against both Ipswich Town and Queen’s Park Rangers. This left-back with excellent positional sense was a team-mate of the Rovers player David Rushbury at Carlisle, where Davies featured in a goalless draw in September 1984 against his former club, Manchester City. He played for two sides called Bury, the Football League one commencing with a game at Chester in November 1982. Although he never opposed Rovers in the League, a brief spell in the States saw him play against Franz Beckenbauer and he was with Yeovil when they suffered relegation from the Conference in 1984-85 before a badly broken leg, suffered playing for Swansea against Doncaster Rovers, forced his retirement. Married to Julie with two sons, Ian Davies worked for a hardware company, and later as a delivery driver for the Avonmouth-based NYK Logistics, which supplies medical goods. |
No 109. Royston Davies. 1927-28.
Born, 19.10.1903, Penydarren, Merthyr Tydfil. Died, 15.10.1944, Gloucester. 5’ 8”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 14.4.28 v Bournemouth. Career: Cyfartha Stars, Merthyr; Aberaman Athletic; 13.3.25 Merthyr Town; 15.5.25 Manchester United; 6.11.25 Southport (£600) [5,0]; 2.10.26 Cyfartha Stars; March 1927 Barry Town; 12.5.27 Bristol Rovers [2,0]; August 1928 Ebbw Vale; 8.5.29 Wolverhampton Wanderers [9,0]; 2.10.29 Reading [69,7]; 1932 Guildford City; August 1933 Aberaman Athletic; August 1934 Bangor City; October 1934 Cyfartha Stars; September 1935 Troedyrhiw Welfare; July 1936 Barry Town (to 1939). Not having made the grade prior to his arrival at Eastville, Roy Davies scored direct from a corner on Guy Fawkes Night 1927, as Rovers reserves led at half-time before crashing 5-1 to Exeter City reserves. He subsequently played in two League games and a Gloucestershire Cup-tie, Rovers winning all three without conceding a goal, before losing his place to Alf King. Cardiff City had expressed an interest in his signature, but it was to be Andrew Wylie who, as manager, signed him for both Reading and Guildford City. Meanwhile, his contract at Wolves had been ripped up, after he had been sent off in a Second Division match against Hull City in September 1929. The younger brother of Baden Davies (1900-1982), a full-back with Barry Town between 1926 and 1932, Roy Davies worked as a civilian clerk at Quedgeley RAF depot, near Gloucester. Taken ill whilst playing in a Sunday morning football game, he died in the ambulance on the way to hospital, aged just forty. |
No 796. Scott Myles Edward Davies. 2010-11.
Born, 10.3.1988, Aylesbury. 5’ 9”; 12 st 5 lbs. Début: 29.1.11 v Walsall. Career: Aylesbury Boys’ Grammar School; Aylesbury FC; Watford (trial); 2001 Wycombe Wanderers; 1.7.02 Reading (professional, 1.7.06) [3+1,0]; 23.9.06 Yeading (loan); 25.7.07 Aldershot Town (loan); 23.7.09 Aldershot Town (loan); 16.10.09 Wycombe Wanderers (loan); 16.3.10 Yeovil Town (loan) [4,0]; 9.9.10 Wycombe Wanderers (loan) [19+4,4]; 28.1.11 Bristol Rovers (loan) [4+3,0]; 31.5.11 Crawley Town (free) [17+3,2]; 1.1.12 Aldershot Town (loan) [37+4,12]; 1.3.13 Oxford United (free) [17+17,1]; 15.8.14 Dunstable Town (free); 27.1.15 Wealdstone (free); 17.5.16 Oxford City (free); 30.5.17 Chelmsford City (free); 23.3.18 Slough Town (free); 31.8.18 Biggleswade Town (trial); 1.2.19 Kingstonian (free); 6.3.19 Harlow Town (free); 6.5.19 Slough Town (loan); 7.8.20 Biggleswade Town (player-coach); 4.5.21 Slough Town (free). Constructive midfielder Scott Davies made his first League appearance for Rovers as a half-time substitute for Ben Swallow in a 6-1 defeat, but he was unable to prevent the Pirates’ relegation to League Two in the spring of 2012. Consistent form early in his career earned a call-up to the Republic of Ireland Under-19 squad and Davies was an unused substitute for the 1-1 draw with Germany in February 2009. He scored the Conference Goal of the Season past Mikkel Andersen in March 2008 at Plainmoor, one of nine in 24(+4) Conference games with Aldershot and scored Yeading’s winning goal against Ramsgate to set up a lucrative FA Cup-tie against Nottingham Forest. Oddly, Forest supplied the opposition for his League bow in August 2009 and, having been sent off against Cambridge United, Gray’s Athletic and Droylsden in 2007-08, he scored the winning goal four minutes from time against Bradford City when he re-joined the Hampshire club in 2009. Prior to joining Rovers, Davies had played in Yeovil’s game against Rovers at Huish Park in March 2010, which Rovers won through three first-half goals and, scoring at Torquay and at Barnet, he helped Crawley achieve promotion to League One in 2011-12. He scored for Oxford away to his former side, Aldershot Town, in April 2013 and played as a late substitute against Rovers in November of that year, also scoring in the FA Cup-tie at Charlton Athletic in January 2014, before 29 Southern League games with Dunstable incorporated goals against Histon, Paulton Rovers and Redditch United. His 45(+8) Nationwide South appearances for Wealdstone, alongside Jefferson Louis and Scott McGleish, included a goal in February 2015 against St Albans City and he scored from more than seventy yards out in the final minute of the FA Cup victory at Brockenhurst in October 2015 as well as in matches against Hayes and Yeading, Concord Rangers and Weston-super-Mare that campaign. Davies was appointed club captain at Oxford City, again playing alongside Louis and scoring five goals in 35(+3) Nationwide South fixtures, but was sent off against Weston-super-Mare in October 2016; he scored three goals in 26(+4) matches at Chelmsford. After 17(+8) Conference South appearances without scoring for Slough, his five Isthmian League games with Kingstonian brought a goal in the 3-2 home defeat against Worthing and he made his Harlow bow alongside Tom Hitchcock, playing against Kingstonian, the club he had left three days earlier. In nine League games with Harlow, he scored once, a free-kick in the 4-3 defeat at home to Margate on the final day of the season. Davies returned to Slough Town to feature as substitute in the Berks and Bucks Senior Cup Final, which was won by defeating Reading Under-23 3-1 and scored from his own half against Eastbourne Borough in January 2020. After eight Southern League matches with Biggleswade, he returned again to Slough, reaching a total of 65(+22) games and two goals with that club by the summer of 2022. |
No 923. Tom Davies. 2019-2021.
Born, 18.4.1992, Warrington. 5’ 10”; 11 st 13 lbs. Début: 3.8.19 v Blackpool. Career: Grappenhall Juniors; 2001 Manchester United; 2005 Blackburn Rovers; 2009 Warrington Town; 2010 Runcorn Town; 2011 Team Northumbria; 2013 FC United of Manchester (free); 11.3.14 Fleetwood Town (free); 26.3.14 FC United of Manchester (loan); 17.10.14 Alfreton Town (loan); 2.2.15 Lincoln City (loan); 5.3.15 Southport (loan); 27.5.15 Accrington Stanley (free) [31+1,1]; 1.8.16 Portsmouth (free) [10+3,0]; 31.8.17 Coventry City (free) [34+10,0]; 11.6.19 Bristol Rovers (free) [18+1,1]; 18.1.21 Barrow (loan) [12,1]; 9.6.21 Tranmere Rovers (free) [36,1]. In six games against Rovers prior to his signing, central defender Tom Davies had incredibly represented six different sides. During Rovers’ 2014-15 Conference season he had played for Alfreton, Lincoln and Southport against the Gas; he was in the Stanley side which won 1-0 at The Mem in September 2015, represented Pompey in a Football League Trophy match in November 2016 and was in Coventry’s team which drew 0-0 with Rovers in April 2019. Moreover, a move to Bristol looked attractive, given that his sister and brother-in-law lived in the city. “Tom will add a lot of solidity and quality in the heart of the back four”, suggested manager Graham Coughlan on his signing, Rovers having recently lost Welsh international defender Tom Lockyer. He did precisely that: in the final seconds of his first home appearance, Davies blocked Wycombe Wanderers’ Jack Grimmer’s close-range goal-bound drive and earned Rovers their first point of the season. He scored Rovers’ winning goal four minutes after half-time at home to MK Dons in October 2019, acrobatically flicking Luke Leahy’s left-wing cross past former Rovers custodian Lee Nicholls. With Team Northumbria, alongside completing his Newcastle University degree in Sports Management and working as a greenkeeper, Davies had helped secure a Northern Football League and Cup double and he scored twice in a 4-4 draw with Newcastle United reserves at St James’ Park in the Northumberland Senior Cup Final of 2012. He added fifty games and five goals with FC United, nine Conference matches for relegated Alfreton, 8(+1) with Southport and just a brief substitute appearance for Lincoln City against Rovers in the spring of 2015. A League bow came with Stanley in their 1-1 draw with Luton Town in August 2015 and he scored his only League goal three months later, three minutes after half-time of a 3-2 home victory over Cambridge United, knocked home from close range after goalkeeper Chris Dunn had dropped Sean McConville’s corner. He was sent off six minutes from time as they secured a 2-1 victory at Oxford United in February 2016. Helping Coventry to the play-offs of League Two in 2017-18, although missing the final, Davies was to play for the Sky Blues in their 6-1 win at Cheltenham in April 2018 and their extraordinary 5-4 away victory at Sunderland twelve months later; he played for Coventry alongside both Abu Ogogo and Jonson Clarke-Harris. On loan at Barrow, Davies scored against Crawley Town in March 2021 and was in the Tranmere side which played Rovers the following season, scoring against Hartlepool United that campaign. |
No 352. Joseph Davis. 1960-67.
Born, 24.8.1938, Bristol. Died, 26.11.2018, Soundwell, Bristol. 5’ 9”; 11 st 7 lbs CH Début: 25.2.61 v Luton Town Career: Staple Hill School; Gloucestershire Boys; Soundwell; 1955 Chelsea (trial); 1.3.56 Bristol Rovers [210+1,4]; 10.3.67 Swansea City (£1,000) [38,0]; August 1968 Bristol Rovers (scout and youth coach; coach of “A” team, 1973; assistant chief scout, 1977-78). Reliable centre-half Joe Davis was a stalwart of Rovers’ side for many years. The son of Joseph Davis senior and Edna Owen, who had married in 1934, his father’s sister Violet was the mother of Rovers’ Bobby Jones, the team-mates therefore being first cousins. Captain of his school side and the county team, he boarded with Roy Bentley on trial at Chelsea, but disliked life in the capital and spent the bulk of his career instead with Rovers. “That lovely man” (Ian Holloway), Davis’ National Service was spent at Devizes with the Pay Corps, for whom he played in the Services Cup Final, which was lost 1-0 to REME. A professional earning £35 per week, he was the club’s Player of the Year in 1964-65, became the first substitute used by Rovers in League football, when he appeared in the game against Walsall in October 1965, and his four League goals all came from the penalty-spot. Naturally right-footed, he had worked on power in his left foot so much that all his penalty kicks were taken with his supposedly weaker foot. Converted to full-back once Stuart Taylor had laid claim to the centre-half berth, Davis found his career at Swansea blighted by Achilles trouble. Retiring from the game, he became a newsagent before spending thirty years employed by the Bristol Evening Post, working from 1973 as field sales manager, and was a committee member of Rovers’ Ex-Players’ Club. His later career saw him develop the burgeoning talent of young footballers such as Gary Penrice, Ian Holloway, Phil Purnell, Steve White and Paul Randall, while he and his wife Alma Britton had three daughters (Marian, Amy and Catherine) and four grandchildren. Joe Davis’ funeral was held at Staple Hill Methodist Church on 18th December 2018, with a cremation afterwards at Westerleigh Road. |
No 578. Michael Vernon Davis. 1992-96.
Born, 19.10.1974, Bristol. 6’; 12 st. Début: 8.5.93 v Millwall. Career: Bristol City (schoolboy); August 1991 Yate Town; Aston Villa (trial); 26.4.93 Bristol Rovers (£7,500) [3+14,1]; 19.8.94 Hereford United (loan) [0+1,0]; 18.11.95 Bangor City (loan); 19.3.96 Exeter City (trial); 22.7.96 Exeter City (trial); 30.7.96 Bath City (free); 2.6.01 Basingstoke Town (free); 17.7.02 Mangotsfield United (free); 8.3.03 Cirencester Town (free); 20.10.04 Yate Town (retired, 31.8.05). Millwall moved out of their historic ground at The Den in May 1993, the last goal ever scored on that pitch being from Rovers’ substitute débutant Mike Davis. With Rovers’ relegation to third-tier football confirmed, Davis struggled to claim a regular place in the side, although he contributed hat-tricks when Rovers reserves beat Chelsea reserves 5-2 in February 1995 and won 4-3 on Millwall’s new ground in September 1995. Fighting his way back into first-team reckoning at this stage, he added a goal seven minutes from time as Brighton were defeated 2-0 in the Auto Windscreens Shield in October 1995, two days before his twenty-first birthday. An Avon Under-15 and Under-16 midfielder, he was recommended to Rovers by Villa staff, who had been impressed by his trial and joined on the back of over forty goals for Yate Town’s youth side. After hitting two goals against his former Yate team-mates in a July 1993 friendly, Davis made his full League début in a 1-0 win at York that November, with Lee Archer out injured. A solitary substitute appearance for Hereford marked a spell which ended when the Bulls signed Steve White, the former Rovers striker later becoming Davis’ team-mate at Bath. Mike Davis accumulated 228 (+27) games and 76 goals at Twerton Park, being Bath’s top scorer in 1996-97 with 21 goals and Player of the Year in 1998-99. After a début against Northwich Victoria, he was the Mail on Sunday Goal-scorer of the Month for February 1997, scored after just two minutes of the victory over King’s Lynn in August 1998, this being the first goal of the season in the entire Dr Martens League, and was sent off, along with débutant Jimmy Nichol, in the 3-0 defeat at Macclesfield in February 1997 as well as for a foul on Ian Cooper in the 3-0 win against Bromsgrove Rovers in September 1998. Mike Davis represented a Football Association XI against British Universities in January 2000, the match finishing goalless and by 2004 had completed his UEFA “B” coaching certificate. |
No 59. James Daws. 1924-25.
Born, 27.5.1898, Mansfield. Died, June 1985, Birmingham. 6’; 12 st 1 lb. Début: 30.8.24 v Merthyr Town. Career: September 1919 Mansfield Woodhouse Exchange; 7.10.19 Mansfield Town; 1.11.19 Notts County; 12.12.19 Birmingham [46,1]; 15.5.24 Bristol Rovers (£250) [30,0]; 31.7.25 Mansfield Woodhouse; 10.8.25 Poole Town (player-trainer) (released, 7.5.27). A strong, defensive player and Rovers’ captain in the 1924-25 season, Jimmy Daws had made his name at Birmingham. The fourth of six children to a colliery electric engine driver James Daws and his wife Eliza Brown, of 21 Station Road, Mansfield Woodhouse, he arrived at St Andrew’s after making five appearances for Mansfield Town as they won the 1919-20 Central Alliance, the first being a 4-1 victory at Sutton Junction in October 1919. Eleven appearances as the Blues were Division Two champions in 1920-21 earned him a medal and a gold watch and he went on to perform in top-flight football. He was in the side which opposed Bristol City in Ted Jones’ benefit match. As his career waned, he moved to the Dorset coast and made his Poole Town début in the Western League against Lovell’s Athletic in August 1925. A regular for two seasons, he helped Poole secure the Western League Second Division title in 1926-27 and share the Dorset Senior Cup, his two goals that season coming against Newport County in the FA Cup in November 1926 and from the penalty-spot against Folkestone the following month in the Southern League. He had dropped out of their side prior to the epic FA Cup-tie at Goodison Park in January 1927, which Poole lost 3-1 to Everton. Jimmy Daws married Lily Chatland (1897-1988) in 1922 and their daughter Marion, born in Poole, married Harry Shaw and had two children; he died at the age of eighty-seven. |
No 429. Graham George Day. 1974-79.
Born 22.11.1953, Bristol. Died, 8.2.2021, Bristol. 6’; 10 st 6 lbs. Début: 11.3.75 v Fulham. Career: Speedwell School; 1969 Bristol City (schoolboy); Hanham Athletic; Bristol Coin; 1970 Bristol St George; May 1973 Bristol Rovers (£100) [129+1,1]; 1.5.75 Portland Timbers (loan); 18.5.77 Portland Timbers (loan); 1.5.78 Portland Timbers (loan); 26.3.79 Portland Timbers (£40,000) [117+8,7]; 1982 Forest Green Rovers; 24.3.83 Bournemouth; 1983 Exeter City; 1984 Bath City; 1984 Paulton Rovers (manager); 1985 Patchway; 16.9.95 Made for Ever; November 1995 Longwell Green Abbotonians (treasurer). Bearded central defender Graham Day forged an excellent defensive partnership with Stuart Taylor as Rovers cemented their place in Division Two through the mid-1970s. The partnership added stability to Rovers’ side and he played in most of the side’s more notable games at this time, including the nine-goal televised defeat at Spurs in October 1977. Strong in the air and reliable in the tackle, he first appeared in the side for the pre-season friendly against Weymouth in August 1974, was sent off in the League Cup against Cardiff and the FA Cup at Sunderland and scored his only Rovers goal against Fulham in February 1977. This headed goal, following a Kenny Stephens free-kick after thirteen minutes, helped defeat a visiting side which included George Best (1946-2005) and Bobby Moore (1941-93) in its line-up. He won the Gloucestershire Cup, Hampshire Cup and Somerset Cup during his career and played under manager Don Megson at both Rovers and Timbers, where he marked Ray Graydon of Washington Diplomats in the championship play-off semi-final of 1978, the year he was Timbers’ Player of the Year. Day’s final game of 1979 for Timbers, by now playing again under manager Don Megson, saw his goal being cancelled out by a Los Angeles Aztecs strike from Johan Cruyff (1947-2016), and he went on to score against San Diego in the 1981 play-off match. A pipefitter and welder by profession, Day represented Gloucestershire during his three years at St George and won Sunday League honours with Bristol Coin. The younger son of Ivan Day and Violet Thompson, Graham Day was followed into local non-league football by his sons Ryan at Forest Green and Matthew at Abbotonians. Having joined Bournemouth on the same day as George Best but only playing in the Hampshire Cup Final, Graham Day won the FA Vase at Wembley in 1982 with Forest Green, playing alongside Peter Higgins. Signed by Bobby Jones at Bath, his career was ended at Twerton Park by a broken leg suffered against Barnet, before Paulton lost eight of the ten games played when he was manager. Sent off in December 1995, when representing Longwell Green alongside his teenage son Ryan, Graham Day has worked in Kingswood as a financial adviser, ran the “Globe” and “Rising Sun” pubs at Frampton and, since 2006, the “Flowerpot” in Kingswood. |
No 951. Joe Day. 2020-21.
Born, 13.8.1990, Brighton. 6’ 1”; 12 st. Début: v Sheffield United. Career: Crystal Palace; 31.1.07 Rushden and Diamonds (free); 23.3.09 Brackley Town (loan); 8.10.09 Harrow Borough (loan); 6.4.11 Peterborough United [4,0]; 6.10.11 Alfreton Town (loan); 19.10.12 Eastbourne Borough (loan); 28.8.14 Newport County (loan); 29.12.14 Newport County (free) [211,0]; 27.6.19 Cardiff City [0+1,0]; 28.1.20 AFC Wimbledon (loan) [9,0]; 4.1.21 Bristol Rovers (loan) [18,0]; 11.6.21 Newport County (free) [27,0]. Sheffield United, struggling in the Premier League, travelled to play Rovers at The Mem in an FA Cup-tie in January 2021 and experienced goalkeeper Joe Day made his first appearance for the Gas that day. The Sussex-born custodian had been signed on loan as Rovers sought to adequately cover injured Finnish international Anssi Jaakkola. Day arrived at Rovers with “an abundance of experience”, according to Rovers’ manager Paul Tisdale, “and has shown his credentials as a highly-rated keeper over many years”. This experience was largely at Newport County, where he had been part of the club’s “Great Escape”, emerging from being seriously adrift at the foot of League Two in the spring of 2017 to retain their League status with a last-minute goal against Notts County in the final fixture; Day and the former Rovers players Sean Rigg and David Pipe were on the pitch on that occasion. Selected for the PFA Team of the Year in 2018-19, he had survived a 6-0 humiliation at home to Yeovil that season to keep seventeen clean sheets in League Two and take Newport to a Wembley play-off final, where they only lost to a last-minute extra time goal from Tranmere Rovers. He played against Rovers in both fixtures of the 2015-16 season, Alex Rodman scoring County’s goal when Rovers won 4-1 in South Wales in March 2016, and was in goal when his side drew 1-1 in the FA Cup with Spurs early in 2018 and in the replay, which was narrowly lost 2-0. In addition, he was sent off against Plymouth Argyle in October 2016, conceding the first of two penalties scored by Graham Carey that day. Joe Day’s career started with a pre-season friendly for Rushden at Halstead Town in August 2008 and he kept a clean sheet in the Hillier Senior Cup against Rothwell Town before appearing for Rushden in 33 National League matches. After two Southern League games with Brackley, he “was superb” (manager David Howell) on his solitary Harrow appearance, a 2-0 Isthmian League defeat at Dartford in October 2009 during which he saved an Adam Flanagan penalty. A Football League bow for Peterborough against Tranmere in January 2014 preceded an extraordinary game in which Posh let a 3-0 half-time lead slip to lose 5-4 at Oldham Athletic, for whom Jonson Clarke-Harris was playing. After 15 Conference matches with Alfreton and three Conference South games with Eastbourne, he played under Justin Edinburgh (1969-2019) at Newport. Deputy at Cardiff to the former Rovers goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, Day managed just 34 minutes as a substitute at Wigan Athletic in August 2019 but also played in a League Cup-tie against Luton Town. He was in goal when Matty Taylor scored twice as Oxford defeated Wimbledon 5-0 in February 2020 and had not featured in League football for nine months prior to his arrival at The Mem. His time with Rovers proved tough, though, as the club was relegated to League Two; he conceded an own goal on his first appearance, against Sheffield United in the FA Cup, and he was sent off at Charlton in March 2021, as Rovers let a two-goal lead slip to lose 3-2. Subsequently, he will have been relieved to have been on the bench in August 2021, when the Exiles lost 8-0 at home to Southampton in the League Cup. Married to Lizzie, he is the father of Harrison, who was born in 2016, and twin girls, Sophia Grace and Emelia Lillie, who were born at the Royal Gwent Hospital whilst Joe was playing for Newport; after County defeated Tony Pulis’ Middlesbrough side 2-0 in an FA Cup fourth-round tie in February 2019 to reach the fifth round for the first time in seventy years, he sprinted off the pitch to meet his newly-born daughters. Playing alongside Dom Telford, Ed Upson, James Clarke and Timmy Abraham at Newport, he was in the side which defeated Rovers 3-1 at The Mem in October 2021. He played as County knocked Luton Town, two divisions above them, out of the League Cup in August 2022. |
No 449. (Miah) Jeremiah Dennehy. 1978-80.
Born, 29.3.1950, Cork, Ireland. 5’ 9”; 10 st 13 lbs. Début: 19.8.78 v Fulham. Career: Cork Hibernian; 19.2.73 Nottingham Forest [37+4,4]; 15.7.75 Walsall (£10,000) [123+5,22]; 22.7.78 Bristol Rovers (£20,000) [47+5,6]; 9.7.80 Cardiff City (trial); 9.9.80 Trowbridge Town; 19.11.80 Cork FC (Dublin); 4.8.81 Trowbridge Town (trial); 1982 Castleview Juniors (Cork); Thurles Town; Galway United; 1983 Limerick United; 1985 Drogheda United; 1985 Newcastle west. Mercurial winger Miah Dennehy brought a touch of flair to Rovers’ Second Division stay and his hat-trick in the 4-1 home victory over Swansea City on Boxing Day 1979 was to be the last in the League by any Rovers player for six years. A jinking, popular winger, who could beat his man and cross well, Dennehy worked in a Cork shoe factory and had eleven full caps for Ireland to his name, having made his international début in a 3-2 victory over Ecuador in June 1972. The first player to score a hat-trick in an Irish Cup Final, this feat being achieved in 1972 as Cork Hibernian defeated Waterford 3-0, Dennehy was a former Gaelic footballer who made his Forest bow in a 2-1 defeat at Preston in April 1973 and was in their side which beat Rovers through a Neil Martin goal in October 1974. A clever winger with two good feet, he never played against Rovers whilst with Walsall; he did, however, score a hat-trick as Reading were defeated 6-1 in Division Three in February 1977 and he appeared in FA Cup-ties away to Manchester United and Arsenal. He later added four goals in Limerick’s colours before coaching junior football in Cork and hurling for St Vincent’s. Living in Gurranebraher, near Cork he suffered a serious head injury in an unprovoked assault in August 2007 outside the “Fob and Gill” pub in Mayfield and was in emergency care for a week; his assailant, David Naughton, was found guilty of assault and Miah Dennehy was left dependent on others. |
JEREMIAH DENNEHY
29th March 1950 – 10th November 2023 Described as one of Cork’s favourite sons, and a football legend in his native city, former Bristol Rovers player Miah Dennehy died on 10th November following a long illness. Whilst working in a shoe factory in Cork, Dennehy played his football for Wolf Tones and North Villa and, after joining Cork Hibernian he helped them to a first League title in 20 years, in 1971, and in 1972 he became the first player to score a hat trick in an Irish Cup Final as his side defeated Waterford 3-0. That year also saw him win the first of his 11 international caps for the Republic of Ireland, against Ecuador in a 3-2 victory in June. In February 1973 Nottingham Forest paid £20,000 to secure his signature and it was whilst at the City Ground that he made a guest appearance, as a substitute, for an all Ireland XI when they took on the full Brazilian international side at Lansdowne Road. During his time at Forest, and allegedly unknown to them, Miah would return to Ireland most weekends where he played hurling and Gaelic football. His time with Forest took in four goals in 41 league appearances but two years after joining them he was on the move again, to Walsall, and in three years with the Saddlers he scored 22 goals in 128 league games. In July 1978 Rovers brought him to Eastville and the clever and tricky winger became a firm favourite with the club’s regular supporters. He made his league debut for Rovers on 19th August 1978 in a 3-1 win against Fulham watched by a crowd of 5,950. He was the 449th player to represent the club in the league. His six goals in 52 league games for Rovers included a Boxing Day hat trick against Swansea in a 4-1 win in 1979. He returned home, in 1980, to captain Cork United in the League of Ireland and he later turned out for Thurles Town, Waterford, Limerick, Drogheda and Newcastle West. He suffered a serious head injury following an unprovoked assault, outside a local pub, in August 2007 and spent time in a coma in his local hospital followed by time in the National Rehabilitation Centre in Dublin where he learned to speak again. His later years were blighted by the onset of Alzheimer’s and the 73 year old passed away leaving a widow, Caroline and children Kristian and Chelsea. Our thoughts go out to them and his wider family and circle of friends at this sad time. |
No 144. George Thomas Dennis. 1930-31.
Born, 12.9.1897, Moira, Leicestershire. Died, 13.10.1969, Burton-upon-Trent. 5’ 9”; 11 st 10 lbs. Début: 3.9.30 v Gillingham. Career: Stanton; June 1919 Coalville Swifts; May 1920 Newhall Swifts; 21.2.21 Nottingham Forest (£200) [30,3]; May 1924 Luton Town [141,42]; 16.5.29 Norwich City [1,0]; 5.5.30 Bristol Rovers (£20) [26,4]; 1931 Burton Town; August 1932 Gresley Rovers. As a fast, marauding outside-left, George Dennis had scored almost fifty Football League goals prior to his arrival at Eastville. Two of these goals had come as Forest secured the Division Two title in 1921-22 and he added two more when Luton Town defeated Clapton 9-0 in the FA Cup in November 1927. Luton’s top scorer in 1924-25, he apparently scored the last 22 penalties he had taken for the Kenilworth Road club. He scored two goals in a League fixture on four occasions with Luton and played alongside Joe Pointon in the astonishing 6-5 home defeat at the hands of Northampton Town on Boxing Day 1927. His six League appearances for Luton against Rovers had also included a goal in the 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road in April 1925 and he played in Norwich’s 1-1 draw at home to Southend United in February 1930. Prior to that, he had helped Newhall Swifts secure the 1920-21 Burton and District League championship. Converted at Norwich into a firm and uncompromising full-back, it was in the rôle of left-back that “Tinty” Dennis served Rovers so well. His goal tally of six – three in the League, plus two against QPR in an FA Cup-tie in January 1931 and one in the Gloucestershire Cup – all came from the penalty-spot. A World War One guest with Leicester Fosse, his family came from that area, he being the youngest of twelve children, five girls and seven boys, to a coal mine hewer Thomas Dennis and his wife Hannah Jones, who had married in Ashby-de-la-Zouch over Easter 1870; he appears to have been related to brothers Henry and William Dennis, who were signed as amateurs by Moira Rovers on 3rd September 1897. In Nottingham in 1933, George Dennis married Kate Mould (1916-2001), the fifth daughter and sixth of seven children to Roger Mould (1883-1966) and Amy Lawson Wilkinson (1885-1931) and they had a son, Allan, and a daughter, Wendy. |
No 110. Arthur Herbert Densley. 1927-30.
Born, 11.5.1903, Bristol. Died, 1.6.1982, Bristol. 5’ 11”; 12 st. Début: 14.4.28 v Bournemouth. Career: Victoria Albion; YMCA; Union Jack; YMCA; February 1924 Bristol Rovers [23,0] (professional, March 1924); 11.8.31 Bath City; Douglas; 1938 Filton Occupational Centre FC. Long-time understudy to Jesse Whatley, Bert Densley emerged from Downs League football and gave loyal service to Rovers over a seven-year period. Baptised on 20th September 1903, he was the fifth of six children to Arthur Densley (1875-1931) of Corston and Frances Parsons (1875-1914); the Densley family can be traced back in Camerton, Somerset to Andrew Densley (c.1679-1764) and his wife Elizabeth (c.1670-1760). He made his reserve team début against Weymouth in February 1924 and helped the reserves to secure the Western League championship in 1928-29. When Whatley rested himself after 246 consecutive Football League games, Densley stepped into his boots, conceded an own goal against Luton Town and returned for the home defeat against Newport County in March 1929 as well as for three separate spells during the 1929-30 season. Injured against Swindon Town reserves in January 1930, he could only watch as Rovers reserves conceded four late goals to lose 4-1. Making his Bath City début against Paulton Rovers in August 1931, he was a regular in their reserve side too, winning a Western League championship medal for the second time in his career in 1933-34. A keen cricketer with Lombardians, Densley worked as a car sprayer in Warmley and lived for several decades in Newbury Road, Horfield; he had one leg amputated in 1977 and the other shortly before his death. He married Phyllis McGuinness (1904-2007) in 1925 and they had eight children, the start of a dynasty. By the time Phyllis died at the remarkable age of 103, they had ninety surviving grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. |
No 69. Andrew Dick. 1925-26.
Born 26.3.1900, Larkhall. Died, 16.8.1970, Larkhall. 5’ 9”; 11 st 6 lbs. Début: 29.8.25 v Charlton Athletic. Career: Larkhall Thistle; July 1919 Armadale; 12.6.20 Motherwell [8,3]; 1921 Royal Albert; 15.12.22 Aberdeen [11,0]; 13.1.23 Royal Albert (loan); 11.6.25 Bristol Rovers [19,0]; 1927 Motherwell; Ayr United; Aberdeen. Scottish left-half Andrew Dick captained Rovers reserves in 1926-27 but, badly injured at Ashton Gate during the goalless draw on Christmas Day, missed much of the campaign through injury. Prior to this, records show him scoring for the reserves in a 10-3 win against Weymouth in December 1925, in the 51st minute of the home game with the same opposition in September 1926 and making nineteen Football League appearances. His League début was an exciting affair off the pitch, for Rovers’ train was held up in the holiday traffic and the team arrived at the ground in taxis moments before the kick-off. The brother of William Dick, who played for Airdrieonians, Hibernian and Brentford, Andrew Dick had grown up in Scottish football. Non-league Royal Albert lost 1-0 to Dundee before a 5,000 crowd at Larkhall in the Scottish Cup in February 1922, Dick’s long-range “goal” disallowed before the visitors’ seventieth-minute winner. Joining Rovers from Aberdeen, having scored a hat-trick in August 1920 in a 4-2 victory over Hibernian on his first Motherwell appearance in Division One, he reverted to lower-league football north of the border, where he worked as a scaffolder. He had the same name as the explorer Andrew Dick, so eloquently described by Chaôs Miller in his 1971 book, “The Lunatic Express” as, in December 1895, “the first and only European ever to be skewered on a Maasai spear”. |
No 781. Christopher Matthew Kofi Dickson. 2009-10.
Born, 28.12.1984, Plumstead. 5’ 8”; 11 st 9 lbs. Début: 19.9.09 v Brentford. Career: Erith and Belvedere; 12.8.06 Dulwich Hamlet; 25.3.07 Charlton Athletic (£35,000) [6+17,0]; 16.8.07 Crewe Alexandra (loan) [2+1,0]; 21.9.07 Gillingham (loan); 17.9.09 Bristol Rovers (loan) [10+4,4]; 15.2.10 Gillingham (loan) [13+8,8]; 15.7.10 Stevenage (trial); 30.7.10 Nea Salamis Fagusta (free) [44,22]; 25.1.12 AEL Limassol (£60,000) [19,3]; 30.1.13 Shanghai East Asia (free) [2+3,0]; 11.9.13 Portsmouth (trial); 13.9.13 Legia Warsaw (trial); 3.10.13 Dagenham and Redbridge (free) [3+22,1]; 2014 Paphos [24,19]; 11.8.15 Enosis Neon Paralimni [12+3,3]; 9.1.16 Ermis (free) [15+1,5]; 30.7.16 Sutton United; 8.1.17 Chelmsford City (free); 17.7.18 Hampton and Richmond Borough (free); 19.7.19 AFC Hornchurch (free); 19.11.20 Dartford (loan); 22.10.21 Cray Wanderers (free). Two first-half goals at Griffin Park on his Rovers début indicated Chris Dickson could become the next Rovers hero. First he out-muscled defender Alan Bennett to fire home after ten minutes, before lobbing goalkeeper Lewis Price from twenty yards. As it was, his loan spell was not extended and the young striker pursued his career elsewhere. Early promise indicated by his 35 goals in 75 games at Erith and 31 goals in just 35 matches at Dulwich earned an international call-up and Dickson won two full caps for Ghana in the autumn of 2008, having previously been an unused substitute for a World Cup qualifying game against Libya. Having played for Crewe against Rovers, his Charlton début was against Swindon Town in the League Cup in August 2007 and he hit a hat-trick in the Football League Trophy against Luton Town two months later, as well as Gillingham’s winner that autumn against Rovers. Chris Dickson later enjoyed a long spell in Cypriot football, appearing in Europa League games with Limassol in the autumn of 2012 before, having registered a goal against Scunthorpe United on Burns’ Night 2014, appearing as a late substitute as Dagenham won at the Memorial Stadium in the spring of 2014. Later that year he was back in Cypriot football, scoring nineteen goals in 24 games during Paphos’ first professional season, but he did not score in 9(+11) Nationwide South matches with Sutton United. Dickson scored four times, twice in each half, as Chelmsford City defeated Eastbourne Borough 5-1 in the Nationwide South in March 2017, totalling twenty goals in 43(+14) games as the Clarets reached the play-offs only to lose the final to Ebbsfleet United. Playing alongside Conor Gough and Tom Hitchcock, he scored a hat-trick as Ramsgate were defeated 7-0 in the FA Cup in September 2017, before adding sixteen goals in 31(+5) Nationwide South matches with Hampton. Dickson scored a hat-trick when Hornchurch won 6-0 at Worthing in the Isthmian League Premier Division in August 2019 and another in the 3-2 win at Wingate and Finchley four months later. “One of life’s characters who people want to be around, his enthusiasm is infectious” (according to Hornchurch chairman Alex Sharp), he was later joined at Hornchurch by two former Rovers strikers in Adam Cunnington and Jamie Cureton and scored twice on his Dartford début in a 2-0 victory over Slough Town. Alongside 28 goals in 42 games at Hornchurch, he scored three in seven with Dartford, and he was in the side which won the FA Trophy Final at Wembley in May 2021, Dickson coming off the bench after an hour to assist with two goals as Hornchurch overcame an early deficit to defeat Hereford 3-1. He scored eleven goals in 32 Isthmian League Premier Division matches for Cray Wanderers in 2021-22. |
No 138. Norman Dinsdale. 1930-31.
Born, 20.6.1898, Hunslet. Died, October 1970, Nottingham. 5’ 10“; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 30.8.30 v Northampton Town. Career: Anston Council School; Anston Athletic; 4.5.20 Notts County [267,11]; March 1928 Coventry City (£500 with Alf Widdowson) [88,10]; 13.6.30 Bristol Rovers (£425) [31,3]; October 1931 Heanor Town (free); 1.6.32 Kidderminster Harriers (free). Vastly experienced central defender Norman Dinsdale leant a degree of stability to Rovers’ defensive line in the 1930-31 season. Captain of the side, he steadied the ship and his experience enabled Rovers to strengthen as a side. A stalwart of the Notts County team, he had played in the 1922 FA Cup semi-final, which was lost 2-0 to Huddersfield Town at Turf Moor, and won a Second Division championship medal in 1922-23, as well as playing in their 4-2 win away to Barcelona in 1922 and their demoralising 9-1 defeat against Portsmouth over Easter 1927. Coventry’s captain, he was tried at centre-forward against QPR in April 1928 and obliged with an uncharacteristic hat-trick. Norman Dinsdale was the grandson of the illustriously-named cemetery keeper Collingwood Dinsdale (1829-1911), who married Ann Clara Shearman in 1851 and the second son of Alfred Dinsdale (1872-1941) and Harriett Colley (1872-1932). He married in 1921 Edith Violet Wragg (1901-88) and they had four daughters, Norma, Gladys, Sheila and Barbara. |
No 705. Michele Di-Piedi. 2002-03.
Born, 4.12.1980, Palermo, Sicily, Italy. 6’ 2”; 13 st 5 lbs. Début: 22.2.03 v Macclesfield Town. Career: 1996 Palermitana; 1997 Siracusa; 1999 Perugia; 1.8.00 Sheffield Wednesday (free) [9+30,5]; 3.8.02 Mansfield Town (trial); 30.8.02 Odd Grenland (loan) [5,5]; 21.2.03 Bristol Rovers (loan) [3+2,0]; July 2003 AS Sora [3,0]; 23.7.04 Bournemouth (trial); September 2004 Apoel Nicosia [5,2]; 2005 FC Gela [9,0]; 11.7.06 Yeovil Town (trial); 18.7.06 Gillingham (trial); 16.8.06 Doncaster Rovers (free) [3,0]; 2007 FC Nuorese (free) [34,11]; July 2009 Castrovillari [12,5]; March 2010 Sapri [1,0]; April 2010 Vigor Lamezia [16,2]; 20.8.10 Mazara [13,4]; 1.12.10 Acireale [17+1,2]; 31.8.11 Viribus Unitis [2,0]; 17.9.11 Cittanova Interpiani [10,4]; 4.3.12 FK Tauras [2+1,0]; 27.8.12 Milazzo; 15.1.13 Nardò; July 2013 Rende; 24.1.14 Nay Pyi Taw; 29.12.14 Persib Bandung (trial); 16.1.15 Bali United Pusam; 27.6.15 Metropolitanos (free); 29.8.16 Mons Calpe (free); 17.8.17 Arcos di Veldevez (free); 17.1.18 Paceco 1976 (free); 20.8.18 Siderno (free); 31.7.19 Mons Calpe (free); 16.8.19 Glacis United (free, player-manager). Long-haired Sicilian striker Michele di Piedi’s varied career has taken him from Sicily around Italy, to Cyprus, Norway, Lithuania and the Memorial Stadium. Paul Jewell’s first signing as Wednesday manager, accrued on the recommendation of Simon Stainrod, he attained a cult following of sorts after his superb League Cup overhead kick against Sunderland won the Nationwide Goal of the Month award for September 2001. Although he had arrived at Hillsborough on the back of thirteen goals for Siracusa, injury affected his spell there and, playing alongside Aaron Lescott, he suffered relegation to Division Two in 2002-03 and was released by the club. His time with Rovers was, he declared, “un'esperienza in prestito, fugace”, just a fleeting moment. A brief spell in Norwegian football included a nineteen-minute first-half hat-trick as di Piedi scored five times in Grenland’s 8-0 victory over Herkules in September 2002 and he was an unused substitute in the 1-0 defeat to Valerenga in the Norwegian Cup Final. After just two games with Viribus, a 2-1 win against Campania and a 2-1 loss at Gaeta, di Piedi’s brief Lithuanian sojourn opened with a Tauras début in the 4-1 home defeat at the hands of Suduva in March 2012 and he later scored once in nine matches with Nardò before trying his hand at football in Myanmar, Indonesia and Venezuela. The veteran striker scored on his first appearance for Metropolitanos, a Caracas-based side, against Atlético Venezuela in July 2015 and a year later opened his scoring account for the Gibraltar side Mons Calpe with a strike against Saint Joseph’s. Scoring twice in 12(+4) matches with Metropolitanos and eight times in 20(+1) with Mons Calpe, he played 3(+4) games for Valdevez in Portugal, before making his Paceco début back in Italy in a 2-1 defeat at Palmese, the first of thirteen matches; he is married to Veronica and their son Francesco was born in the autumn of 2003. Returning to Gibraltar, he captained Glacis United in fifteen Gibraltarian League matches, scoring once and led them as coach to the Gibraltar Cup Final of May 2021, where they lost 2-0 to Lincoln Red Imps. |
No 733. Craig Edward Disley. 2004-09.
Born, 24.8.1981, Worksop. 5’ 10”; 10 st 13 lbs. Début: 11.9.04 v Orient. Career: Mansfield Town (professional, 23.6.99) [109+35,16]; 28.6.04 Bristol Rovers (free) [171+32,25]; 4.6.09 Shrewsbury Town (free) [38+4,3]; 25.6.11 Grimsby Town (free) [15+13,2]; 1.6.17 Alfreton Town (free); 7.8.18 Cleethorpes Town (loan); 11.7.19 Barton Town (free; retired, 12.6.21). Ginger-haired midfield dynamo Craig Disley was the ball-winning box-to-box central cog of a successful Rovers side which gained promotion, played at Wembley and the Millennium Stadium and reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. There was no disputing the grit and determination of Disley’s style, adept at making last-ditch tackles, striving endlessly in midfield and appearing unmarked inside the opposition’s six-yard box to score some critical goals. Disley was well-known to Rovers’ supporters, especially for the two excellently-taken first-half goals which helped Mansfield defeat Rovers at The Mem in September 2003. He had appeared four times against Rovers prior to a play-off final in May 2004, which Mansfield lost heartbreakingly on penalties against Huddersfield Town. Following a début against Shrewsbury in September 1999, he had endured promotion and relegation at Field Mill, his first two goals being headers from corners against Cheltenham Town. Disley’s do-or-die approach soon endeared him to Rovers’ followers, as he hit the bar at Rochdale before his early goal led to a 4-1 victory over Chester in December 2004 and he added an excellent opening goal at Yeovil two months later. Sent off at Scunthorpe in April 2005, when his tackle broke Richard Kell’s leg, Disley played in all but one of the 62 matches in 2006-07, as Rovers reached the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final in Cardiff, only to lose in extra time to Doncaster Rovers, and reached the League Two play-offs, where Disley’s impressive performance on the Wembley turf helped Rovers defeat Shrewsbury 3-1 and seal the club’s return to League One. One goal that season which will have brought immense pleasure was a fine, angled near-post header four minutes from time to defeat Mansfield, his former club. Having added an appearance in the FA Cup quarter-final against West Brom in the spring of 2008, Disley’s next move was to the Wembley opponents, Shrewsbury, where he played alongside Mark Wright, another former Rovers player; he recovered from a broken ankle suffered six minutes from the end of a game at Rotherham in February 2010 to help the Shrews to the 2010-11 play-offs, where they lost to Paul Buckle’s Torquay side. Married with a daughter Emmie, born in February 2003, Disley later added 196(+7) Conference games for Grimsby, contributed 32 goals and was in the Grimsby side which defeated Port Vale, a division above them, in the FA Cup. In the spring of 2013 he returned to Wembley as Grimsby captain, although the Mariners were defeated in a penalty shoot-out by Wrexham in the FA Trophy Final, and he led the side to the Conference play-offs in the spring of 2013 where, although the inspirational midfielder hit a post in the first leg, the Mariners succumbed 2-0 on aggregate to Newport County, and in 2014 where, despite a typical Disley goal in each leg, Grimsby lost to Gateshead. He was in the Grimsby side which faced Rovers at The Mem in the Pirates’ first Conference fixture in August 2014 as well as the return game on Valentine’s Day 2015; the sides met at Wembley in May 2015 for a place in the Football League, Disley captaining his side as they took Rovers to a penalty shoot-out, where he scored the Mariners’ first spot-kick only to see Grimsby miss out on promotion for a third successive campaign. Twelve months later, he captained the Mariners as they returned to the Football League fold, defeating Forest Green Rovers 3-1 at Wembley in the play-off final before losing to Halifax a week later in the FA Trophy Final, also at Wembley. He did not score in 30(+4) Nationwide North matches with Alfreton Town and his only Cleethorpes goal in 26(+12) appearances came in a 3-0 Northern Premier League East Division win at AFC Mansfield in February 2019, where the local reporter indicated that “the ‘Ginger Pirlo’ has a touch of undoubted class”. He scored the first goal, as captain, when Barton Town recovered from a 3-0 half-time deficit to draw 3-3 with Skegness in the Lincolnshire Senior Trophy in November 2019, Disley converting his penalty as his side won the subsequent shoot-out. |
No 106. Ronald William Dix. 1927-32.
Born, 5.9.1912, Bristol. Died, 2.4.1998, Bristol. 5’ 9”; 12 st 7 lbs. Début: 25.2.28 v Charlton Athletic. Career: South Street School; May 1927 Bristol Rovers (professional, 5.9.29, £10) [100,33]; 9.5.32 Blackburn Rovers (£3,000) [38,14]; May 1933 Aston Villa [97,29]; February 1937 Derby County (£4,875) [94,35]; 14.6.39 Tottenham Hotspur (£8,500) [36,5]; 6.11.47 Reading (£2,750) [44,13] (retired, 1949); 1961 Bristol Rovers (scout). Years on, Ronnie Dix retains his record as the youngest goal-scorer in Football League history. At the tender age of fifteen years 180 days, having earlier hit the crossbar, he scored in the 3-0 home victory over Norwich City and a reputation was made. This reputation grew as he appeared in over 400 League games, despite the seven-year interruption caused by World War Two, and won an England cap. True to form, against Norway at Newcastle in November 1938, Dix scored after 28 minutes “with a long shot that [Øivind] Holmsen (1912-96) deflected on the way to goal” (The Times). “A stocky, cleverly constructive inside-forward of high consistency”, Ronnie Dix allegedly scored over 100 goals during 1926-27, form which won him the England Schoolboys captaincy against Wales and Scotland and a Gloucestershire cap at the age of sixteen. He scored twice when the Football League beat the Scottish League 3-1 at Molineux in November 1938. The son of George Dix and Ann Mills, he had one sibling, Irene, who died aged nine in 1924. From Rovers, the world beckoned for Ronnie Dix. A member of Derby’s all-international forward line, he spent three sesaons in the top flight with Villa before claiming a hat-trick at home to Swansea Town on Boxing Day 1936 in Division Two. Still Spurs’ fourth eldest débutant, scored another hat-trick against the Swans when Reading won 4-1 at Elm Park in January 1948 and played for Reading against Rovers at Eastville as late as February 1948. A cricketer for Bristol Wesleyans and the Bristol Evening World, where he worked as a reporter, as well as a golfer at Long Ashton, Dix represented Western Command in addition to Bristol City, Spurs, Blackpool, Chester, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Wrexham and York City in wartime football, scoring four times in Blackpool’s 15-3 win against Tranmere Rovers in February 1942 and being in the Blackpool side which defeated Arsenal in the 1943 Football League Cup Final. Ronnie Dix married Rosamond Saunders (1911-93) in 1935 and they had a son and two daughters; he ran a children’s wear shop for many years at 125 North Street, Bedminster and died at the age of eighty-five. |
No 420. Colin Dobson. 1972-76.
Born, 9.5.1940, Eston, Cleveland. Died, Middlesbrough, 16.2.2023. 5’ 8”; 10 st 12 lbs. Début: 24.11.72 v Southend United. Career: South Bank; 1955 Sheffield Wednesday (professional, November 1957) [177,49]; 27.8.66 Huddersfield Town (£25,000) [149+6,50]; January 1972 Brighton (loan) [2+2,0]; 3.6.72 Bristol Rovers (free) (player-coach) [63,4]; May 1976 Coventry City (youth team coach); 14.12.83 Port Vale (assistant manager); 1985 West Riffa, Bahrain (coach); 1985 Al Rayyan (coach); June 1986 Aston Villa (youth coach); June 1987 Sporting Lisbon (youth coach); November 1988 Gillingham (youth coach); Coventry City (youth coach); 1992 Al Arabi, Kuwait (coach); September 1995 Port Vale (coach); May 1996 Oman (national youth coach); January 1999 Coventry City (academy coach); July 1999 Stoke City (chief scout). A coaching career across a variety of countries has succeeded winger Colin Dobson’s impressive playing career. The younger child of Oswald Dobson and Millicent Cooper, his mother being the daughter of William Cooper and Edith Roberts, Colin Dobson was a fast, elusive winger who represented Eston District and Yorkshire Schools whilst working as an apprentice ship-builder in Middlesbrough. When Pelé played in his first match on British soil, both Don Megson and Colin Dobson were in the opposition, Dobson missing a penalty a minute before half-time as Santos defeated Sheffield Wednesday 4-2. A stalwart for a decade at Hillsborough, he appeared against Barcelona in a Fairs Cup quarter-final but, dropped in the run-up to the 1966 FA Cup Final, missed the Wembley show-piece and commanded a large transfer fee to join Huddersfield. Top scorer in 1967-68 and 1968-69 with the Terriers, he won a Second Division championship medal in the spring of 1970. By this stage, Dobson had supplemented the two England Under-23 caps he had won against Yugoslavia and Denmark in 1963 with an appearance for the Football League XI and a place on the Football Association tour to the USA, New Zealand, Malaysia and Hong Kong in 1968. Having broken his leg on loan at Brighton, Dobson brought his pace and guile to Eastville as Don Megson’s first signing, and registered the hundredth League goal of his long career when opening his Rovers account against Tranmere Rovers in January 1973. He later struck the crossbar with a venomous thirty-yard drive 28 minutes into Rovers’ 1-0 home victory over Cambridge United in September 1973. A regular in Rovers’ 1973-74 promotion campaign, at which time he lived in Downend with his wife Susanne and son Simon, he played in the club record victory 8-2 away to his former side, Brighton, in December 1973, and appeared for Rovers in second-tier football. He had scored in the promotion campaign against Cambridge when, having hit the bar after 28 minutes with a thirty-yard drive, he hooked home the only goal of the match after 65 minutes from Frankie Prince’s knock-down. Later that season, he was made captain for the day when Rovers played away to his former club, Huddersfield, the Pirates recording a 2-1 victory. He never played against Rovers during his footballing career. Dobson’s peripatetic coaching career included coaching Rayyan, alongside Wayne Jones, to the United Arab Emirates League title in 1985-86, winning the Amir Cup both at West Riff and at Rayyan, and lifting the 1996 Asian Cup in Thailand, whilst working for the Oman national side. More recently, he has worked under the former Rovers striker John Rudge at both Port Vale and Stoke. We were saddened to learn that former Rovers midfielder and player coach, Colin Dobson, passed away in Middlesbrough on 16th February, at the age of 82.
Born on 9th May 1940, in Eston, Cleveland, Colin turned professional with Sheffield Wednesday in November 1957 and in almost a decade with the Hillsborough side scored 49 goals in 177 league games, though he was left out of the FA Cup Final side when Wednesday were beaten 3-2 by Everton. In August of that year he was transferred to Huddersfield Town for a £25,000 fee and he was top scorer for them in 1967/68 and 1968/69 and was a member of their Second Division title winning side in 1969/70. His Huddersfield career saw him score 50 goals in 155 league games and during his time with them, in January 1972, he played four games whilst on loan with Brighton, though that was curtailed when he sustained a broken leg. In June 1972 he became the first signing made by new Rovers manager Don Megson, a former Sheffield Wednesday team mate, as player coach and made his debut for the club against Southend United on 24th November that year. A skilful, pacey, player, he was a regular in the 1973/74 promotion side, he also appeared in the famous 8-2 victory against Brighton and scored the 100th league goal of his career whilst a Rovers player. His career at Eastville took in 63 league games, during which time he scored four goals, before leaving to embark on a coaching career in May 1976. As well as an impressive club career, he gained representative honours, winning two England U-23 caps, playing against Yugoslavia and Denmark, appeared in one game for a Football League XI and toured the USA, New Zealand, Malaysia and Hong Kong with the Football Association in 1968. His coaching career took in a number of clubs, both in this country and abroad and his CV includes spells with Coventry City, Port Vale, Gillingham, Aston Villa and Stoke in the UK and Sporting Lisbon, Kuwait and Oman, where he was national youth coach, in foreign climes. It’s always sad to report the passing of a former player, and one remembered fondly by the club’s older supporters, and we send our condolences to Colin’s family and friends at this time. |
No 228. (Bill) William Dodgin. 1936-37.
Born, 17.4.1909, Gateshead. Died, 16.10.1999, Godalming, Surrey. 5’ 9”; 12 st. Début: 29.8.36 v Millwall. Career: Newcastle and Gateshead Schools; Wallsend; Kirkley and Waveney (Lowestoft); Gateshead High Fell; October 1929 Huddersfield Town (professional, November 1929) [10,0]; March 1933 Lincoln City [46,1]; 3.8.34 Charlton Athletic [30,0]; 4.5.36 Bristol Rovers [30,1]; July 1937 Orient [62,1]; June 1939 Southampton (manager, January 1946); August 1949 Fulham (manager); 1.10.53 Brentford (manager); May 1957 Sampdoria (coach) (to February 1958); March 1959-December 1960 Yiewsley (manager); August 1961 Bristol Rovers (chief scout) (manager, 6.8.69 – 1.7.72, then chief scout to November 1979). When Rovers met Fulham in the FA Cup in November 1970, Bill Dodgin and his son, also Bill, were the two managers. This feat, repeated when Gary Johnson and Lee Johnson were managers at the Oldham against Yeovil game in the spring of 2013, speaks volumes for the former Rovers wing-half. Having built his own career as a player, he became one of the most respected managers nationally and gave his own son a League début and a pathway to the world of both playing and managing. Amongst his spells at six League clubs, Bill Dodgin experienced double promotion with Charlton Athletic from the third to top tier of English football, captained both Lincoln City and Southampton, for whom he scored once in 84 wartime matches, and returned to Eastville to play for Orient. Playing in the final twelve games of the 1933-34 campaign, he scored from inside-right as the Imps crashed 6-2 at Nottingham Forest in March 1934. His solitary Rovers goal was one of the four the club put past Exeter City at Eastville in December 1936. At Fulham, he was credited with “discovering” Johnny Haynes (1934-2005), even though the club was relegated and he later served Rovers under managers Bert Tann and Fred Ford, who had both been his team-mate at Charlton. Manager of the Month for March 1970, he sowed the seeds of the promotion team he passed on to Don Megson in July 1972. Bill Dodgin was the third son of Robert Dodgin (1885-1964) and Mary Havis (1892-1958) of 81 Halls Terrace, Windy Nook Road, Sheriff Hill in Gateshead, his mother being the daughter of Thomas Havis and Mary Ann Errington; he married Gladys Carlaw (1907-2003), the daughter of James Carlaw (1881-1944) and Hannah Pallister (1883-1940), in Gateshead and they had a son Bill (1931-2000), who was to play for Fulham and Arsenal before taking up football management, followed by two daughters, Jean and Ann. He died at Robertson Nursing Home in Godalming at the age of ninety. |
No 167. Alexander Donald. 1932-36.
Born, 3.5.1898, Kirkintilloch. Died, 10.4.1952, Kirkintilloch. 5’ 9”; 10 st 11 lbs. Début: 27.8.32 v Crystal Palace. Career: Kirkintilloch Harp; July 1923 Partick Thistle [67,3]; June 1926 Indiana Flooring; 6.8.27 Heart of Midlothian (trial); 1928 New York Nationals; July 1930 Chelsea [24,0]; 6.5.32 Bristol Rovers [137,0]; July 1936 Dunfermline Athletic [7,0]. A stalwart of Rovers’ side for four consecutive seasons, Alec Donald was a dependable left-back who played in the Third Division (South) Cup Final in April 1935, as Rovers defeated Watford 3-2 to lift the trophy. A tireless campaigner, he “shone with his usual bold and vigorous defensive work”. Despite never scoring, he was a creative player, as epitomised by the fact that he set up George McNestry’s fiftieth-minute strike with which Rovers regained the lead in an FA Cup replay in 1933, which was eventually won 3-1. Having lost his place to Jack Preece, Donald returned north of the border and, making his Dunfermline début against Hearts in August 1936, saw Athletic relegated from Division One in 1936-37, conceding thirty goals in his seven appearances, which were all lost. Appointed School Board Officer in Kirkintilloch in 1939, he worked in education for many years. The eldest son of Kenneth Donald and Mary McLean McWilliams of 49 Victoria Street, Kirkintilloch, Alec Donald married Helen Campbell Kay (1900-66) on 16th February 1923 at Kirkintilloch Parish Church and had enjoyed early success at Partick Thistle, creating the only goal of the game on his début at Falkirk in September 1923 and playing in a 6-2 win against Hibernian and a 7-1 victory over Queen’s Park. His first two goals both came in the 5-2 win over Dundee before a Firhill crowd of 6,000 in March 1924, one early on and the second from Bill Salisbury’s (1899-1965) cross midway through the second-half. A fruitless spell at Hearts was sandwiched between two stints in America, scoring three times in 39 games for Indiana Flooring and twice in 119 appearances with Nationals, who played at the Polo Grounds in New York. He was a member of their side which defeated Chicago Bricklayers in the 1928 Open Cup Final, the leading North American cup tournament at that time and made his Chelsea début in a 2-0 defeat away to Blackburn Rovers in November 1930. |
No 821. Andrew Dorman. 2011-12.
Born, 1.5.1982, Chester. 6’ 1”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 19.11.11 v Barnet. Career: Hawarden High School; 2000 Boston University; 2004 New England Revolution [112,17]; December 2007 St Mirren [79+9,19]; 6.7.10 Crystal Palace (free) [14+7,1]; 10.11.11 Bristol Rovers (loan) [20+5,2]; 15.11.12 New England Revolution (free) [32+19,2]; 13.4.16 FC Boston Bolts (player-coach) (free) [22,2]; 2018 Boston University (Director of Soccer Operations). Despite being English-born of English parentage, midfielder Andy Dorman was resident sufficiently long to play for Welsh Schoolboys and win three full caps for Wales. Having made his full international début in a 2-0 defeat to Croatia in the Stadion Gradski in May 2010, he also featured against Scotland and as a substitute against Northern Ireland. An experienced player in North America, where he helped Revolution secure the 2007 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, he created a goal in a 3-1 victory over Motherwell in January 2008 on his St Mirren début. Watched by scouts from Rangers, Sheffield United and Bolton Wanderers, he was Scottish Premier League Player of the Month for February 2009 and completed the 2008-099 season as his club’s joint top scorer. St Mirren were Scottish League Cup runners-up in March 2010, Dorman replacing Hugh Murray after an hour as the Saints lost to a Kenny Miller goal against nine-man Rangers. Later that month he scored twice as St Mirren defeated Celtic 4-0 in a League fixture and he was twice a Renfrewshire Cup Final winner. An attacking, goal-scoring midfielder, he found the net once for Palace, in a 4-3 defeat at Preston in October 2010 and expressed surprise on joining Rovers, believing he was dropping one division, apparently unaware of the club’s League Two status. Nonetheless, he made his début against Corby Town in the FA Cup, was outstanding in the next round against AFC Totton and scored his first League goal for Rovers in injury time as Rovers secured a 1-0 victory at Rotherham in February 2012, before adding one of the five put past Accrington Stanley two months later. Having been sent off against Sporting KC and against New York Red Bulls in the 2013 season, he scored for New England against both those clubs, Sporting in November 2013 and Red Bulls in July 2015. Married, he now lives in Boston, Massachusetts. His younger brother, Richie Dorman, has played football professionally in Wales, the United States and Finland. |
No 95. George Harold Douglas. 1926-28.
Born, 18.8.1893, Stepney. Died, 24.1.1979, Southborough, Kent. 5’ 7”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 4.9.26 v Norwich City. Career: Godwin Road School; West Ham United Schoolboys; St Saviour’s, Forest Gate; Custom House; Ilford; 24.5.12 Leicester Fosse (professional, 17.5.13) [127,10]; 21.2.21 Burnley (£1,600) [5,0]; 22.5.22 Oldham Athletic (£750) [134,8]; 7.8.26 Bristol Rovers (£100) [45,5]; 5.7.28 Tunbridge Wells Rangers (player-manager, November 1929); 14.11.30 Dover United; Southborough Wednesdays (chairman, 1936). A teenage prodigy, George Douglas captained the West Ham Schoolboys side which secured the 1906-07 English Schools Shield, played for London Schools against Glasgow in 1907-08, won three consecutive local championships, represented Isthmian League Ilford against Clapton in the London Cup Final and won twenty England amateur caps. He progressed from there to appear in over 300 League matches for four League clubs, the enforced break of World War One notwithstanding. During his football career, he played in Paris, Berlin, Liège, Brussels, Antwerp, Gothenburg, San Sebastian and Bilbao, and he also spent two seasons with Rovers. Goals came in the home fixtures with Charlton Athletic, Bournemouth and Newport County in the 1926-27 season and he scored twice more the following campaign. A team-mate of Arthur Ormston at both Oldham and Rovers, he “was a handful for any defender”, as a local newspaper reporter commented. He served in the Leicestershire Royal Horse Artillery, scored Leicester’s first ever Football League goal in 1919 and made two appearances as Burnley were League champions in 1920-21. He was to score 33 goals in 74 matches at Tunbridge Wells. Son of a Scottish-born commercial clerk, Robert Douglas, and his wife Margaret Jane MacKie, George Douglas was brought up at 36 Bulwer Street, Leyton and married Elsie May Foulds (1894-1966); they had a son, Robert. Late in life he appeared in court charged with the desertion of his wife, but the case collapsed. |
No 824. Aaron Terence Downes. 2011-12.
Born, 15.5.1985, Mudgee, New South Wales, Australia. 6’ 1”; 12 st 9 lbs. Début: 2.1.12 v Barnet. Career: 2003 Australian Institute of Sport; 1.10.03 Hampton and Richmond; November 2003 Bolton Wanderers (trial); December 2003 Feltham (loan); 12.12.03 Frickley Athletic; 1.8.04 Chesterfield (free) [165+9,10]; 1.1.12 Bristol Rovers (loan) [8,0]; 24.7.12 Torquay United (free) [68+2,9]; 11.5.15 Cheltenham Town (free) [43+5,6]; 13.12.18 Torquay United (assistant manager). Powerful at set pieces, central defender Aaron Downes had made his name at Chesterfield after playing three times for Frickley and once for Hampton. The first Australian-born player to represent Rovers, although his father was Leeds-born, he had scored once in eleven games for Australia at Under-20 level, including an appearance at the 2005 FIFA World Youth championships in the Netherlands, before adding four goals in eight matches for the national Under-23 side in 2007-08. Signed for Chesterfield by Roy McFarland, he scored against MK Dons on his début in September 2004. Club captain at Saltergate after Chesterfield’s relegation to League Two in 2007, he had scored twice in a Football League Trophy tie against Chester in November 2006. Injured after scoring against Port Vale in February 2010, his knee took longer than expected to recover, such that his next competitive game proved to be his Rovers début almost two years later. During his stint on loan with Rovers, the talented defender played in the comprehensive 5-1 home victory over Accrington Stanley in April 2012. Scoring and being sent off when the Gulls played Rochdale, he was voted Torquay’s Player of the Month in August 2012, his first month with the club. Aaron Downes played against Rovers for the first time in October 2012 and marked the occasion by scoring, as did another former Rovers player, René Howe, even though Rovers defeated Torquay United 3-2 in this League Two encounter. The Gulls, early play-off contenders, plummeted through the table in the spring of 2013, Downes being sent off in the third minute at Dagenham that March, but an exciting final-day 3-3 draw with Rovers at Plainmoor, Downes setting up Ryan Jarvis for their second goal, guaranteed the Gulls would retain their League status. He appeared again against Rovers for the Gulls the following campaign, as a team-mate of Michael Poke, the former Rovers custodian, but could not prevent Torquay from tumbling, along with Rovers, out of the Football League. He was sent off in the final minute of the Gulls’ 4-3 defeat at Telford at the end of September 2014 and in the home fixture with table-topping Barnet that December and played against Rovers on New Year’s Day 2015. After six goals in 39 Conference matches, he was released by Torquay at the end of that campaign. In August 2015 he conceded an own goal in a Conference game between Cheltenham Town and Barrow, but the Robins ran away with the Conference title that campaign, Downes scoring five times in 28 matches as Cheltenham regained their Football League status in the spring of 2016. Downes was part of the staff who ensured Torquay’s Nationwide South title win in 2018-19. |
No 334. Joseph Brian Doyle. 1957-60.
Born, 15.7.1930, Manchester. Died, 22.12.1992, Blackpool. 5’ 9”; 11 st 7 lbs. Début: 11.1.58 v Sheffield United. Career: 1945 Salford Schoolboys; Lostock Graham; Manchester City (trial); Witton Albion; March 1951 Stoke City [17,0]; April 1954 Exeter City [100,0]; 26.6.57 Bristol Rovers [43,1]; (Colts’ trainer, 22.7.60; assistant trainer, 1962); 1964 Cambridge United (coach); November 1966 Carlisle United (coach); July 1968 Workington (manager); May 1971 Blackpool (assistant manager; manager, 1972); March 1972 Stockport County (manager); May 1974 football coaching in Kuwait and Finland (to 1990). Tough-tackling full-back Brian Doyle, a Cheshire County player in his youth, became a well-respected coach in several countries after his playing days were over. The son of John Doyle and Ellen Brennan, who had married in Salford in 1928, he was signed for Exeter by manager Norman Dodgin (1921-2000), whose brother Bill was with Rovers at the time, made the first of exactly one hundred League appearances in a 2-0 home victory over Crystal Palace in August 1954 and captained the Grecians for two years prior to joining Rovers in 1957. Often missing out at Eastville to the Watling-Hillard full-back partnership, Doyle nonetheless scored the only goal of his career when Rovers played at Roker Park in September 1959. Retiring with a nasal complaint, he worked for Douglas at Kingswood and picked up qualifications in coaching and in the treatment of injuries, which enabled him to coach at Blackpool when they won the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1971, before serving overseas. After Stockport County finished in bottom place in the Football League in 1973-74, Brian Doyle coached overseas. |
No 341. Leonard Drake. 1958-60.
Born, 26.7.1937, Dorchester. 5’ 10”; 11 st. Début: 21.2.59 v Stoke City. Career: 1953 Dorchester Town (amateur); 1954 Weymouth; 20.8.55 Dorchester Town; 1956 Bristol City (trial); 25.5.57 Bristol Rovers (free) [8,1]; April 1960 Barnstaple Town (trial); 19.7.60 Dorchester Town; 25.8.61 Weymouth (free); 23.7.62 Barnstaple Town; 25.7.64 Portland United; 17.7.67 Dorchester Town; 27.7.68 Weymouth (youth coach); 26.7.2969 Dorchester Town (reserve team coach; manager, 22.10.70-5.2.73); Weymouth (youth coach; reserve team manager, 7.5.90; caretaker manager, 2.12.90; manager, 27.3.91-26.10.92). Having impressed when Rovers played Dorchester in a pre-season friendly in May 1957, forward Len Drake participated in the Dorset side’s French tour, playing in a 2-1 defeat at Bayeux, and joined Rovers ahead of the 1957-58 campaign. Tall and athletic, his appearances were restricted, although he scored against Sheffield United in April 1959, and he played just once the following season, against Charlton Athletic, before leaving Eastville with an arthritic knee. His time at Eastville had also been punctuated by a period of National Service, stationed at Devizes alongside Bobby Jones, for whom he was best man. Whilst at Eastville, he supplemented his income of £11 per week in the first-team by working as a deck chair attendant on Weymouth beach and he also scored six goals in 32 matches with Weymouth. A motor mechanic from Fordington, who had scored eight goals for Dorchester during the 1956-57 season before departing on National Service, Len Drake, the youngest of three children to William John Drake (1898-1959) and Ethel Myra Legg (1899-1948) later became the first man to manage at both Dorchester and their South Dorset rivals Weymouth, leading the Terras back to the Southern League Premier Division, as well as to success in the Dorset Senior Cup in 1991-92. His dismissal from Weymouth led to court proceedings at which, eventually in May 1995, Len Drake was awarded £5,000 in damages and £9,000 in costs. Married to Margaret Elizabeth Mence, with two children, Simon and Lisa, and four grandchildren, William, George, Annie and Ethan, he worked in the motor industry and delivering “The Dorset Echo” to newsagents, and now lives in Weymouth. |
No 527. Richard Andrew Dryden. 1986-89.
Born, 14.6.1969, Stroud. 6’; 11 st 2 lbs. Début: 28.12.86 v Brentford. Career: Bristol Rovers (professional, 14.7.87) [12+1,0]; 22.9.88 Exeter City (loan); 8.3.89 Exeter City (£10,000) [92,13]; 15.5.91 Manchester City (loan); 9.8.91 Notts County (£250,000); 18.11.92 Plymouth Argyle (loan) [5,0]; 19.3.93 Birmingham City (£165,000) [48,0]; 16.12.94 Bristol City (£200,000) [32+5,2]; 15.7.96 Dundee United (trial); 22.7.96 Southampton (trial); 5.8.96 Southampton (£150,000) [44+3,1]; 1.11.99 Stoke City (loan); 23.3.00 Stoke City (loan) [11+2,0]; 17.8.00 Notts County (loan) [30+1,1]; 8.9.00 Northampton Town (loan) [9+1,0]; 21.11.00 Swindon Town (loan) [7,0]; 2.2.01 Luton Town (free) [22+1,0]; 28.11.01 Scarborough (loan); 11.7.02 Scarborough (loan); 12.7.03 Worksop Town (free); 4.9.03 Redditch United (free); 7.11.03 Tamworth (exchange for Joe Taylor) (assistant manager, 28.4.04); 5.3.07 Shepshed Dynamoes; 28.11.07 Worcester City (manager, to 17.1.10); 29.6.10 Darlington (assistant manager, to 14.10.11); 14.7.12 York City (head of youth team); 5.8.15 Notts County (youth coach; senior professional development coach, 5.10.15; caretaker manager, 29.12.15-10.1.16); 22.6.16 East Bengal (coach; 2.9.16 caretaker manager); 28.3.17 Forest Green Rovers (chief scout; 21.7.20 assistant coach); 28.5.21 Barrow (assistant manager, to 20.3.22). A teenage flying winger with Rovers, later converted into a dependable left-back, Richard Dryden enjoyed a long and varied League career. Unusually, his first five appearances for Rovers came in away matches, before his career took in several loan spells and League appearances against Rovers with Birmingham, Stoke, Luton and Northampton. Having secured a Fourth Division championship medal with Exeter in 1989-90, Dryden suffered relegation to Division Two with Bristol City in 1994-95 and had four stitches inserted in an eye wound during the 2-0 defeat at Swindon in October 1995. His two goals for the Robins came in a 3-2 victory over Barnsley in February 1995 and a 75th-minute equaliser in the 4-2 loss at Crewe the following December; he scored a League goal for Southampton against Forest, in addition to three goals in the League Cup. Having conceded an own goal to Newcastle in his only Saints game in 1999-2000, he finished that campaign with a Wembley appearance, being used as a substitute as Stoke beat his former club Bristol City 2-1 in the Auto Windscreens Shield Trophy Final. On his Swindon début, he managed to concede an own goal in favour of his former team, Stoke. After 7(+3) games in pre-season 2003 for Worksop had included a Man of the Match performance against Leek Town, Dryden was not used in their side once the campaign got underway and moved on, adding Conference games at both Scarborough, where he scored twice in 24(+2) appearances, and Tamworth, where his two goals playing alongside Carl Heggs and Julian Alsop came in 23 fixtures, before embarking on a managerial career. He and Mark Cooper took ailing Darlington to the 2011 FA Trophy Final at Wembley, where Mansfield Town were defeated 1-0 after extra time, whilst York retained their Football League status in 2013 with a final day victory at Dagenham and Redbridge. Cooper and Dryden were reunited at Notts County, Dryden making an appearance for their reserve side aged forty-six, as Chesterfield reserves were beaten 3-1 in April 2016. He later worked under the former Rovers striker Trevor Morgan at East Bengal in the Indian League. |
No 79. Samuel Edward Duckers. 1925-26.
Born, 28.11.1903, Stafford. Died, 1972, Stafford. 5’ 9½”; 10 st 10 lbs. Début: 5.12.25 v Southend United. Career: Bagnall’s; 26.1.24 Stafford Rangers; 7.5.25 Bristol Rovers [1,0]; 15.1.26 Stafford Rangers; September 1938 English Electric; 1947 Stafford Rangers (director). Top scorer with Bagnall’s in the Stafford and District League, Sam Duckers was a regular for over a decade at Stafford Rangers, where he was one of three professionals on the club’s books as late as the 1935-36 season. His most profitable campaign had been that of 1926-27, when he scored eighteen times in twenty games for the Birmingham League champions, before being ruled out by an injury suffered against Wellington St George’s in January 1927. Rangers scored 542 goals in a five-season spell at this time. On the basis of good club form, Rovers took a chance on the inside-forward, signing him along with Charles Heinemann, but he appeared just the once in the League, in a 3-1 home defeat, in which Rovers conceded three headed goals. “It is obvious”, the Bristol Times and Mirror reported, “that Duckers needs far more experience”. He did score for the reserves when they defeated Bath City 4-1 in December 1925, but returned to Stafford to play alongside his cousin John Duckers and also Frank Wragge, another Rovers man, and later for English Electric in the Stafford Works League. Sam Duckers, the son of William Duckers (1873-1951) and Mary Elizabeth Adams (1876-1938) was brought up in Stafford with his two younger sisters and later married in 1932 to Frances Jones, who died in 1985, having a son Bryan who still lives in Stafford. |
No 771. Darryl Alexander Duffy. 2008-11.
Born, 16.4.1984, Glasgow. 5’ 11”; 12 st 1 lb. Début: 9.8.08 v Carlisle United. Career: Linwood High School; 1.7.03 Rangers [0+1,0]; November 2003 Brechin City (loan) [8,4]; 25.6.04 Falkirk (free) [55+2,27]; 10.1.06 Hull City (free) [9+15,3]; 3.11.06 Hartlepool United (loan) [10,5]; 21.3.07 Swansea City (loan); 10.7.07 Swansea City (£200,000) [17+11,6]; 3.7.08 Bristol Rovers (£100,000) [43+33,16]; 1.2.10 Carlisle United (loan) [7+1,1]; 30.8.10 Hibernian (loan) [2+5,0]; 21.7.11 Cheltenham Town (free) [28+37,13]; 3.8.13 Salgaocar (India) [48+3,32]; 2.9.15 FC Goa (loan) [2+2,0]; 30.6.16 Mohun Bagan (free); 11.8.17 St Mirren (free) [0+2,0]; 10.1.18 Airdrieonians (loan); 21.5.18 Airdrieonians (free) [30+12,14]; 7.8.19 Stirling Albion (free) [19+4,10]; 6.7.20 Stranraer (free; 11.6.21 assistant manager) [19+10,8]. Striker Darryl Duffy scored at Weymouth in his first appearance in a Rovers shirt and had a “goal” disallowed on his League bow for the Pirates against his future club Carlisle. He scored twice in both the large victories in 2008-09, 6-1 at home to Hereford and 5-0 at Walsall, added a brace the following campaign against Aldershot in the League Cup, but played only three times as Rovers were relegated to League Two in 2010-11. A prodigious teenage player, he had represented Scotland against a Netherlands side featuring Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben at a schoolboy tournament in Brora in April 2000. Seven minutes on the field, as a substitute for Michael Mols against Dundee United in December 2003, constituted Duffy’s Rangers career, although he also played in a League Cup-tie against Forfar and a Champions League match with Panathinaikos. A loan spell at Brechin was ended by a broken ankle suffered at St Mirren’s Love Street, and he added fourteen goals in his first eleven matches for Falkirk prior to an 8-1 drubbing by Celtic in the League Cup. A Hull début against Palace, as a substitute for the future Rovers striker Wayne Andrews, preceded nine consecutive victories at Hartlepool, one being a 2-0 win at The Mem in December 2006, in which he scored the second goal in injury-time, five goals being a club record at Hartlepool for a loan player. Duffy appeared in the Swansea side which drew 2-2 with Rovers in March 2008 and, having played in a 6-3 loss at home to Blackpool in May 2007, helped the Swans to the League One title in 2007-08, even though he also played in their humiliating FA Cup defeat at Havant and Waterlooville the same campaign. His Hibernian début delayed by a leg injury, Duffy played alongside Steve Elliott, Chris Zebroski and Josh Low for Cheltenham against Rovers, was sent off in an FA Cup-tie against Luton Town, scored 39 seconds after coming on as a substitute against Wycombe Wanderers in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in October 2011 and played at Wembley, as Cheltenham lost the League Two play-off final to Crewe Alexandra in May 2012. Twelve months later, the Robins again reached the play-offs, only to lose the semi-final over two legs to Northampton Town. This proved to be Duffy’s final game in football prior to a move to India, where he scored twice as a late débutant substitute as green-shirted Salgaocar overcame the stubborn Wilred defence to win 3-0 in August 2013. His fourteen goals in 2013-14 won him the prestigious Golden Boot award in the I-League, Salgaocar finishing third in the thirteen-team division, before a hairline fracture on his shin-bone cut short a loan spell at Goa. On Valentine’s Day 2016, he scored a hat-trick as Salgaocar won 3-2 away to Shivajians, but his side, with Duffy named Player of the Season, only avoided relegation on goal difference that campaign. He managed just two substitute appearances as St Mirren won promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2017-18 and later scored two first-half goals as Airdrieonians won 3-0 at Montrose in October 2018 and twice more against East Fife the following month. Against Annan Athletic in November 2019, he scored and was then red-carded in Stirling’s 2-0 home victory but he returned to the side to score a first-half hat-trick in the 3-0 victory at Albion Rovers’ Cliftonhill ground in January 2020. Two months later he contributed the consolation goal as Stirling lost 7-1 at home to promotion favourites Cove Rangers; in November of that year, his late winning goal enabled Stranraer to pull off a Scottish League Cup shock, defeating Premiership side Hamilton Academical 2-1 at Stair Park; he retired from playing in the summer of 2021, only to make a comeback, the veteran scorer adding to his tally at Stirling Albion in Seoptember 2022, his side finding itself 4-1 down by half-time. Tall and blue-eyed, Duffy married Claire in May 2008 and they have two sons, Leighton and Oscar. |
No 93. Thomas Grossett Duncan. 1926-27.
Born, 1.9.1897, Lochgelly. Died, 9.2.1940, Leicester. 5’ 8½”; 11 st. Début: 30.8.26 v Merthyr Town. Career: 1918 Lochgelly United; 11.8.19 Raith Rovers [47,6]; 20.7.22 Leicester City (£1,500 with John Duncan) [41,6]; 12.9.24 Halifax Town [32,5]; 18.5.26 Bristol Rovers [13,2]; 1927 Kettering Town. “Fine turns of speed which, on occasion, enabled him to get goals from unusually narrow angles” characterised the play of Scottish forward Tom Duncan. A brother of John “Tokey” Duncan (1896-1966), his team-mate at Raith and Leicester, who spent Christmas Day 1924 scoring six times for Leicester against Port Vale in Division Two, he had begun his footballing career alongside various brothers at Lochgelly. It was for Raith that he made his début in a 4-1 defeat at Falkirk in August 1919, scoring his first goal in the 4-3 defeat at Third Lanark the following month. In October 1919 he was in the Raith side which, 5-2 down at half-time, clawed back for a memorable 5-5 draw at Hamilton Academical. Having helped the side to third place in the Scottish First Division in 1921-22, still their highest ever final placing, he found himself in direct competition at Filbert Street with the future Rovers player Hugh Adcock for the outside-right position. A team-mate of Rovers’ Alec Smeaton at Halifax, his début came in their reserve side against Sheffield Wednesday in the Yorkshire Midweek League in September 1924 and he scored League goals against Hartlepool, New Brighton, Southport, Doncaster and Walsall. He also scored for Rovers at home to Merthyr Town and in the cauldron of a local derby at Ashton Gate. Had he lived long enough, he would have become father-in-law to the great Leeds United manager Don Revie (1927-89) for his daughter Elsie (1927-2005) married the dashing Leicester City centre-forward in 1949 and had a son Duncan (1954-2016, a Cambridge University graduate who became a lawyer, married Rita Whelan and had two children, Aidan and Natalie) and a daughter Kim, who managed the Brighton-based band Rubylux. |
No 901. Philip Kenan Dunnwald-Turan. 2017-18.
Born, 14.11.1995, Düsseldorf, Germany. 6’ 3” 12 st 8 lbs. Début: 26.9.17 Portsmouth. Career: TSV Fortuna 1895 Düsseldorf; 1.7.09 SG Unterrath 1912; 1.7.12 SC Rot-Weiss Oberhausen; 1.7.14 MSV Duisburg; 3.7.16 FC Wil (trial); 4.8.16 TSG Sprockhövel; 18.8.17 Bristol Rovers (free) [0+1,0]; 3.2.18 Weston-super-Mare (loan); 6.9.18 1.FC Kaan-Marienborn (free); 25.1.19 SV Wuppertal (free); 5.7.19 Fortuna Köln (free) [0+3,0]; 13.1.20 Bonner SC (free); 3.9.20 Scunthorpe United (free) [1+5,0]; 11.9.21 Stockport County (loan). Tall left-sided attacker Kenan Dünnwald arrived at Rovers from German fifth-tier side Sprockhövel, for whom he had appeared in four Regionalliga West fixtures. Thirty-two matches for Oberhausen in the Junior Bundesliga West had brought goals against Rot-Weiss Essen, Bonn and his future club Duisburg. Likewise, thirty-two Oberliga Niederrhein matches with Duisburg had incorporated three goals, against Jahn Hiesfeld in June 2015, Schonnebeck in October 2015 and Düsseldorf-West in March 2016. He was an unused substitute when Rovers took on Wycombe Wanderers in the Football League Trophy in August 2017 before making his first appearance in a 3-0 League defeat at Fratton Park the following month. He scored twice, against Eastbourne Borough and Bognor Regis Town, in 10(+1) Nationwide South matches with Weston-super-Mare and added four goals in 8(+2) Regionalliga matches with Kaan-Marienborn, scoring at Viktoria Köln, Alemannia Aachen and Fortuna Düsseldorf as well as in a 5-1 victory at home to Wiedenbrück. Subsequently, he scored twice as Wuppertal won 3-0 away to Fortuna Düsseldorf II in April 2019, his only goals in 4(+5) Regionalliga games for that club. He remained unused on the bench as Wuppertal lost 2-1 to Bayer Uerdingen in the Niederrhein Cup Final in May 2019 and, at Cologne, was used as a substitute and in four Mittelrhein League games for the Under-23 side. An unexpected signing for Scunthorpe, he was in their side which crashed out of the FA Cup 3-2 at home to Solihull Moors in November 2020. |
No 207. James Durkin. 1934-35.
Born, 14.7.1915, Bannockburn. Died, 4.8.1987, Stirling. 5’ 7½”; 11 st 8 lbs Début: 16.1.35 v Northampton Town. Career: Vale of Bannock; Raploch Hearts; August 1929 King’s Park; February 1934 Cardiff City (professional, March 1934); 27.7.34 Bristol Rovers [2,0]; 6.8.35 King’s Park (released, 24.9.35) [4,0]; July 1936 Bo’ness (to November 1938). Few Rovers players can claim to have made their début in a 7-1 victory, but such is the case for James Durkin. Born, like Donnie Gillies of Glencoe, at the site of a famous battle, Durkin appears not to have made the grade in Scotland or Wales before his arrival at Eastville and, after several positive performances in Rovers’ reserve side, headed back north of the border in 1935. His Scottish Second Division début came at Marine Gardens, Portobello in August 1935 when, before a crowd of 1,700, King’s Park defeated Leith Athletic 1-0 in August of that year but Durkin, a storeman by profession, soon left the Scottish League scene to play for Scottish Football Combination side Bo’ness. In January 1938 he spent most of the game in goal after an injury after twenty minutes to the Bo’ness goalkeeper in a Stirlingshire Cup semi-final, his side drawing 2-2 with Falkirk “A”, only to lose the replay 5-0. Isabella Cowie Durkin (1879-1966) and Joseph Durkin (1881-1941), both buried at Bannockburn, may well be his parents. One of three brothers, he married Norah Brennan (1914-95) and they lived for many years at 11a Atholl Place, Stirling; he was buried three days after his death at St Thomas Cemetery, Cambusbarron in Section F, Row B, grave 46. |