The Bristol Rovers History Group. |
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Jonathon Beswetherick. 2004-05.
Born, 15.1.1978, Liverpool. 5’ 11”; 11 st 4 lbs. Career: 1.8.95 Plymouth Argyle (professional, 27.7.96) [125+13,0]; 29.5.02 Sheffield Wednesday (free) [9+2,0]; 20.2.03 Swindon Town (loan) [3,0]; 17.1.04 Macclesfield Town (loan) [3+1,0]; 28.7.04 Bristol Rovers (free); 4.11.04 Kidderminster Harriers (free); 7.1.05 Forest Green Rovers (free); 23.11.05 Salisbury City; 10.9.07 Mangotsfield United (loan); 5.1.08 Weston-super-Mare (loan); 4.7.08 Bath City (trial); 8.10.08 Paulton Rovers (free) (retired, 16.6.09). Reliable defender Jon Bethwetherick, who played for Rovers at Norwich City in the League Cup in September 2004, had enjoyed a long career prior to joining the club. A Plymouth début in a 2-1 defeat at Gillingham in October 1997 preceded playing against Rovers in two League Cup-ties in 2000 and both League fixtures in 2001-02. The 1999-2000 campaign had been arguably his most fruitful, being selected for the divisional Team of the Season and creating three goals in Argyle’s 4-0 victory at Torquay that March and he won a Division Three championship medal at Home Park. Sent off against Cheltenham in his final game with Swindon, he received another red card, this time as a substitute, in Forest Green’s goalless draw at Tamworth in August 2005. A Kidderminster début in a 4-0 home defeat against Boston United in November 2004 was the first of ten games and he later played ten times with Forest Green, five times for Mangotsfield and three times with Weston. One goal in 52 matches at Salisbury included helping the side secure the Southern League title in 2005-06. With Rovers he had missed the decisive penalty against Rushden which eliminated the Pirates from a pre-season tournament on the Isle of Man in 2004. Retiring from football to focus on work commitments, Jon Beswetherick now works for the police force and is married to Paula McCullagh. |
Michael Kwame Boateng. 2011-12.
Born 17.8.1991 Peckham. FB 5’ 11”; 11 st 4 lbs. Career: 2002 Archbishop Tenison’s Church of England High School; Addiscombe Corinthians; JEFC; 2005 Crystal Palace (schoolboy); 1.8.08 Woking; 22.7.10 Carshalton Athletic; 23.6.11 Bristol Rovers (trial); 20.7.11 Bristol Rovers (free); 21.10.11 Tonbridge Angels (loan); 19.12.11 Sutton United (loan); 17.7.12 Oxford United (trial); 30.7.12 Bradford City (trial); 8.10.12 Mansfield Town (trial); 13.10.12 Bromley (free); 1.11.12 Sutton United (free); 28.3.13 Newport County (free); 1.6.13 Whitehawk (free) (released, 6.11.13). A right-back of Ghanaian descent, Michael Boateng appeared as a substitute for Dan Woodards for the final fourteen minutes of an Auto Windscreens Shield tie against Wycombe Wanderers in September 2011. Previously in Woking’s reserve side, he played 52 times for Carshalton, scoring his only goal when he headed home a Byron Harrison cross with eighteen minutes left of a 1-0 home victory over Bury Town in November 2010. He also scored once in ten matches with Tonbridge, in a 3-2 home Nationwide South victory over Thurrock in November 2011. His début coming in a 2-2 draw at home to Truro City, Boateng later added 35 matches in two spells with Sutton United and two for Bromley. An adventurous overlapping full-back known for making surging runs, he joined Newport County at the tail end of the 2012-13 campaign and made three Conference appearances as County reached the play-offs, but was released by the club before their Wembley final, when they defeated Wrexham to return after a quarter-of-a-century outside the Football League. Whilst with Whitehawk, for whom he appeared in sixteen Conference South matches, he moved to Croydon. However, discarded by Whitehawk, Boateng was sentenced to sixteen months in prison from June 2014 with regard to match-fixing through the previous autumn and, no sooner was that served, than he was given a two-year suspended sentence, two years’ supervision order and 300 hours’ community work for his part in a drug-supplying racket from which he had apparently made £9,360 profit; this triggered a world-wide life-time ban from football. |
Martin Boyle. 1986-88.
Born, 10.1.1968, Bristol, Career: 1986 Bristol Rovers; 1988 Trowbridge Town; Mangotsfield United; 1991 Bath City; 1993 Cheltenham Town (£6,000); 1996 Newport AFC; 5.8.97 Forest Green Rovers (free); November 1997 Weston-super-Mare; 1998 Paulton Rovers; 2000 Mangotsfield United; 2001 Yate Town; 2003 Brislington; Almondsbury Town; Yate Town. Appearing in the FA Cup-tie with Brentford in December 1986, midfielder Martin Boyle also played for Rovers in Gloucestershire Cup-ties with Bristol City in December 1987 and March 1988 before enjoying a long career in senior non-league football. His 26 goals for Trowbridge included sixteen which rendered him that club’s top scorer in 1988-89, including two as Canterbury City were defeated 6-1 that February. During the 1993-94 campaign, he was Cheltenham’s top scorer in the Doctor Martens League, with twelve goals to his name. He is the son of Edward Boyle and Grace McSweeney. |
Mark Brain. 1984-85.
Born,1966, Bath. Career: Kingsfield School: 1984 Bristol Rovers; Longwell Green; 1990s Keynsham Town; Avon and Somerset Police. Goalkeeper Mark Brain replaced Jon Hallworth as a substitute when Rovers played Swansea City in the Freight Rover Trophy in January 1985. He is the son of Allen Stewart Brain (1923-82) and Edna Mitchell, who married in 1948, his mother being the daughter of Eddie Ernest Mitchell (1889-1962) and Mabel Alice Hole (1890-1961), who had married in 1922. An officer in the police force, he still regularly attends Rovers matches. |
Horace Briggs. 1932-33.
Born? Died? Career: 7.2.1933 Bristol Rovers (professional). This inside-forward, who played in Rovers’ 3-0 defeat at Swindon Town in a Welsh Cup-tie in February 1933, the day after signing professional forms for the club, is believed to be either the man born to John Charles Briggs and Ada Jackson in Coventry on 26th June 1911 who married Jessie Everitt in 1937 and died there in the autumn of 1979, or born on 26th November 1911 in Peterborough to William Briggs and Minnie Ellen Harvey and died in Leicester in the autumn of 1982, or Blackburn-born in 1912 to Edward Briggs and Clara Grace Cooper and married in 1939 to Gladys Boothman. |
Marco Carota. 1987-88.
Born, 17.4.1970, Bristol. Career: St Bonaventure’s Primary School; 1981 St Bede’s School; Bristol Boys; South West England; 1987 Bristol Rovers; Backwell; Mangotsfield United; 2.10.15 Bristol Rovers (kit manager, to 2.5.17). The youngest of three children to Guiseppe Carota and Caroline Hookham, who had married in Bristol in 1962, Marco Carota was recommended to Rovers by Lindsay Parsons. The young striker came on for Gerry Francis as a substitute and scored Rovers’ consolation goal in the March 1988 Gloucestershire Cup Final, which was lost 3-1 at Ashton Gate before a crowd of 2,278. When Steve Yates became Coach and Recruitment Consultant with Rovers in 2015, Carota returned to the club he supported to become kit manager and helped steer the team to promotion from League Two that campaign. |
Horace Cope. 1933-34.
Born, 24.5.1899, Treeton, Nottinghamshire. Died, 4.10.1961, Nottingham. Career: Treeton Reading Rooms; 4.5.20 Notts County [125,6]; 10.12.26 Arsenal (£3,125) [65,0]; 3.7.33 Bristol Rovers (£1,500); 1934 Heanor Town; 23.8.34 Ollerton Colliery. For the FA Cup-tie with Folkestone in November 1933 Rovers fielded left-back Horace Cope; level 1-1 at the interval, Rovers ran out 3-1 winners. In addition, he scored when the reserves defeated Bristol City reserves 4-1 the same calendar month, but he never appeared against Rovers in the Football League, a surprising fact for a player who attracted such a high transfer fee. A long career at Notts County, who gained their top-flight status in 1922 and lost it again in May 1926, not to regain it for fifty-five years, preceded a high-profile move to Highbury. A regular at Arsenal, where his first League appearance came in a 2-0 victory over Blackpool two days after Christmas 1926, he had played in the FA Cup semi-final against Southampton at Stamford Bridge, but missed the final defeat to Cardiff City through injury. He was called up for the England squad prior to the October 1925 fixture with Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, but withdrew through injury and never won international honours. He may also have been the defender who transferred from Stalybridge Celtic to Harrow Street Metal Works in December 1934. The youngest of five sons to Job Cope (1866-1936) and Aletha Smith (1865-1933), the family lived in Whiston from 1901 to 1904 and thereafter in Treeton, where all five boys worked at the colliery. Horace Cope, who later ran the Treeton Working Men’s Club before taking a pub in Nottingham, married Mabel Richardson in 1924 and had a daughter Constance, who married Sydney Bordon. |
Robert Bruce Cowen. 1933-34.
Born, 14.1.1907, Easington, Co Durham. Died, October 1996, Alton, Hampshire. Career: Aldershot; 11.9.31 London Co-operative Society; 25.8.32 Biggleswade; July 1933 Bristol Rovers; 7.9.34 Tooting and Mitcham. Outside-left Bob Cowan played in 2-1 defeat against Coventry City in Third Division (South) Cup in February 1934. He scored the opening goal of the reserves’ 3-1 victory over Bath City in September 1933 and added two goals in the reserves’ 6-2 win against Torquay United reserves at Eastville the following month. Born to a Scottish father, John Cowan, and a Norfolk-born mother, Elizabeth Spanton, the daughter of William Spanton (1843-80) and Anne Holman, he was the third of four children; his mother having married before (to Thomas Durden Peardon, 1869-94), he was effectively the second youngest of eight. He married Ann Holness (1908-98), their son John being born in the north-east before Bob’s travelling football career took hold, their daughter Norma being born in the south-east. |
Albert Henry Edwards. 1933-34.
Born, 17.2.1912, Bristol. Died, January 2000, Bristol. Career: Hanham Athletic; Bristol St George; December 1933 Bristol Rovers (professional, 7.3.34). Appearing against Coventry City in the Third Division (South) Cup, a 2-2 draw in January 1934, Bertie Edwards was a locally-born outside-left. The son of a single mother, Annie Thorne (1890-1971), he appears to have scored six goals in five reserve appearances in the spring of 1934, including braces against both Taunton Town and Cheltenham Town. “Too slow for a keen defence”, (Western Daily Press), he also appeared sporadically for the amateur side Bedouins between 1932 and 1934. By 1939 he was living at 57 St Werburgh’s Park and working as an aircraft metal worker and appears never to have married. |
Max Oliver Edwards-Stryjewski.
Born, 19.9.2005, Preston. 6’ 2”; 11 st. Career: Backwell School; 2016 Bristol Rovers. Replacing Luke Thomas five minutes into stoppage time in the FA Cup defeat at Peterborough United in January 2022, Max Edwards was brought up in North Somerset of Welsh heritage. He played for Wales at Under-15 level in a 4-0 win against Malta at Colliers Park, Wrexham in August 2019 and in the Under-17 side’s 4-3 defeat at home to Scotland in September 2021 and the fixtures two months later against Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The son of Rob Edwards, formerly of Bristol City and the holder of four full caps with Wales, his elder sister Holly is training to be a chartered accountant. |
Willian Walter Frankham. 1901-02.
Born, 1881, Keynsham. Died, 20.11.1917, Croisilles, France. Career: Oldland; 5.4.01 Bristol Rovers (professional, 12.11.01); 1903 Bristol East (professional, 29.6.04). A goalkeeper who played in the 5-0 FA Cup victory over Weymouth in November 1901, Bill Frankham played for Bristol East in 1903-04, including a 3-1 victory over Rovers reserves in October 1903, and was in the Fulham census of 1911, having been in Keynsham in previous census returns. He is known to have played in goal for Rovers’ reserves during the 1901-02 season, having made two appearances in the Western League in April 1901. Indeed, he was called up as an amateur trialist for the game with Bristol City, as he had conceded only nine goals all season up to that point with Oldland in the Bristol and District League. The son of Frederick John Frankham (1845-1915) and Annie York (1849-1917), he married in Bedminster in 1906 to Ethel Jane Hayward, the daughter of George Yates, and had a son, Leslie William Frankham (1906-60). Bill Frankham was killed at Croisilles in the cauldron of World War One. |
Jordon Goddard. 2011-12.
Born, 9.9.1993, Wolverhampton. Career: St Brendan’s College; Bristol Rovers (professional, 4.5.12); 1.10.12 Gloucester City (loan); 8.11.13 Gloucester City (loan); 18.7.14 Leamington (free); 10.6.15 AFC Telford United (free); 23.10.15 Sutton Coldfield Town (free); 1.9.16 Halesowen Town (free); 10.1.17 Leamington (free); 17.7.17 Halesowen Town (free); 8.11.18 Highgate United (free); 10.12.19 Nuneaton Borough (free); 2.10.21 Halesowen Town (free); 21.12.21 Bromsgrove Sporting (free). Unusually for a footballer, Jordan Goddard found himself under police investigation following his Rovers début in a 3-1 FA Cup victory over Corby Town in November 2011. A 93rd-minute substitute for Craig Stanley, he was alleged to have urinated next to the pitch before entering the field of play. Six goals in 27(+1) matches for the Under-18 side, an appearance in the reserves’ 4-4 draw with Brentford reserves in September 2011 and 2(+1) pre-season friendly appearances in 2012 preceded a loan spell at Gloucester, where he scored after six minutes on his Nationwide North début against Bishop’s Stortford, contributing two goals in 9(+3) matches. He scored Rovers’ second goal, after nineteen minutes, in a 4-0 victory over Yate Town in the Gloucestershire FA Challenge Cup in March 2013, stroking the ball home with the outside of his right boot, and added another in Rovers’ 5-1 victory at Clevedon Town in July 2013. Goddard was released when Rovers crashed out of the Football League in May 2014 and scored in his first appearance in a Leamington shirt, in a pre-season friendly against Cheltenham Town; he scored ten goals in 33(+6) Conference South matches in his solitary season with the club and played in 4(+1) Conference North matches with Telford. Two Northern Premier League goals for Halesowen Town, against Coleshill Town and Nantwich Town, preceded one goal in thirteen games on his return to Leamington. He added two goals in 19(+3) matches with Highgate, making his first appearance away to Shepshed. Goddard was sent off after just eighteen minutes of Nuneaton’s 2-2 draw at home to Biggleswade Town in the Southern League Premier Central Division in February 2020. Over two covid-hit seasons, he appeared in 16(+4) Southern League matches with Nuneaton, scoring in 3-0 away victories at both Needham Market and Hednesford Town in the spring of 2020 and adding two further goals early in the 2021-22 campaign. Goddard played in 6(+4) Southern League Premier Division matches with Bromsgrove Sporting, where he played alongside Cameron Ebbutt and Liam Armstrong. |
Cecil William McKinley Gough. 1923-24.
Born, 14.9.1901, South Cerney, Gloucestershire. Died, 1963, Braintree. Career: Cirencester Juniors; South Cerney; Cirencester Town; Cirencester Victoria; Tetbury Town; Cirencester Town; 6.10.23 Bristol Rovers; August 1925 Orient; 14.6.26 Queen’s Park Rangers [19,0]; June 1927 Torquay United [28,0]; August 1928 Orient [7,0]; May 1929 Canterbury Waverley; 30.10.33 Park Royal; 10.12.35 Ealing Celtic; March 1948 Crittall Athletic (committee); Braintree Town (committee). Standing five feet ten inches and weighing eleven stone seven pounds, “Mac” Gough was a powerful defender, who played for Rovers against Bristol City in the 1924 Gloucestershire Cup Final after making his reserve team début in a 7-0 win at Taunton Town in October 1923. He later enjoyed League football elsewhere, appearing against Rovers in Torquay’s goalless draw in March 1928 and Queen’s Park Rangers’ 2-2 draw in October 1926, and is recorded as scoring 42 for Cirencester against East Gloucestershire at cricket in May 1926. An appearance in Orient’s 2-0 home defeat against West Brom in December 1928 followed six previous Second Division games for the same club in 1925-26. “Mac” married Dorothy Eleanor Redding (1903-79) on 19th April 1927 and they had two sons and a daughter. His brother Arthur “Tony” Gough (1900-75) played for Brighton, Walsall and Merthyr in the Football League after being on Rovers’ books in 1923. |
Dr Kennneth Raymond Gough. 1950-51.
Born, 11.3.1927, Lyndhurst, Hampshire. Died, 11.7.2020, Bath. 5’ 10”; 11 st 12 lbs. Career: Brockenhurst Grammar School: Wellow; Romsey Town; Arsenal (trial); Bristol University; 1950 Bristol Rovers. Ken Gough, who played and scored as an amateur when Rovers drew with Gillingham in the FA Cup in December 1950, was a medical student at Bristol University. An inside-forward with three Combination appearances to his name, he had been a member of the side which won the University Athletic Union football championship that year, the only time Bristol has won the title. Brought up at Penford House, Canada Road, West Wellow, Hampshire, the only son of bus driver Roland Carling Gough (1898-1980) and Bessie Ruth Moody (1903-77), he met his wife, also a doctor, whilst they were both working at Bristol Royal Infirmary. Marrying Pauline Bland at St John’s, Taunton in 1958, he worked, after a year at Duke University in the United States, as a registrar at the National Heart Hospital, London and later worked as a consultant physician. He was credited with introducing a flexible Japanese endoscope and with researching acid suppressane and anti-inflammatory drugs. One passion late in life was flying and he regularly flew his four-seater plane to Provence. Ken and Pauline Gough had two sons and a daughter, as well as eight grandchildren and they lived from 1965 in Bath, latterly at 23 Lansdown Park. He died at the age of ninety-four. |
Matthew Philip Hope. 1995-96.
Born, 13.10.1976, Bristol. 5’ 8”; 10 st Career: Southampton (youth); Stoke City (youth); 12.7.93 Bristol Rovers (retired, 4.11.95); 2003-05 Roman Glass St George. Appearing in a 2-0 Football League Trophy victory at Brighton in October 1995, playing for twenty seconds and not touching the ball four days after his nineteenth birthday, midfielder Matt Hope appeared to have a long career ahead of him. Sadly, though, for a player with just two Rovers Youth substitute appearances and a goal, coincidentally against Brighton in October 1994, behind him, two serious injuries as well as a freak basketball injury incurred whilst on holiday necessitated his early retirement. He later scored eleven goals in 54 games with St George. Brought up in Yate, Matt Hope’s father Edward came from Ireland, whilst his brother David was on Rovers’ books until the summer of 1995. |
Alan John Hoult. 1978-79.
Born, 7.10.1957, Burbage, Leicestershire. 5’ 8”; 10 st Career: Leicester City (professional, September 1975); January 1978 Hull City (loan) [3,1]; March 1978 Lincoln City (loan) [2+2,1]; July 1978 Bristol Rovers; July 1979 Nuneaton Borough; 3.8.82 Bedworth United. An England Schoolboys international, Alan Hoult played in the League Cup-tie against Hereford United in August 1978. He had previously scored twice as a substitute on his club début against Paulton Rovers in a friendly and added another goal as a substitute in a pre-season friendly against Everton. He was the only child of John Hoult and Margaret Ingram, who married in 1951. Small and slight, Hoult made the Leicester bench for an FA Cup-tie against Hull City but, despite being top scorer for the reserves in 1976-77 and 1977-78, was not used in the first-team as the Foxes were relegated in 1978 and instead made his sole League appearances on loan. He scored in Hull’s 1-1 draw at home to Brighton in February 1978 and played alongside both Alan Warboys and Bruce Bannister during his month at Boothferry Park. In August 1979 he played in Nuneaton’s first ever Alliance Premier League match, a 2-1 victory at home to Barnet. After 17 goals in 46(+4) Alliance Premier matches, Hoult found himself out of favour in 1981-82, under new management and with Borpough relegated to the Southern League. He was an unused substitute in twelve matches before finally coming on as substitute against Endersby Town at George Street in March 1982 and then scored “with a speactaular shot over his left shoulder” on his first start, against Merthyr Town at Manor Park the following month; he appeared in 3(+1) Southern League matches, scoring the one goal. A production controller living in Hinckley, he married Gayel Batchelor at Breadsall Priory in Derbyshire in December 2004 and she was a games maker for the 2012 London Olympics. |
Lee David Howells. 1987-88.
Born, 14.8.1968, Fremantle, Australia. 5’ 11”; 11 st 12 lbs Career: 1986 Bristol Rovers (professional, 17.10.86); 1.7.1988 Brisbane Lions; 1.7.91 Rochedale Rovers, Brisbane; 1.12.91 Cheltenham Town (free) [119+2,6]; 6.2.04 Merthyr Tydfil (loan); June 2004 Merthyr Tydfil (free); 23.5.05 Mangotsfield United; 17.12.05 Clevedon Town; 18.1.06 Mangotsfield United (manager); 25.5.07 Bath City (15.10.08 assistant manager; 12.10.12-18.1.16 manager). Having appeared in the December 1987 Gloucestershire Cup Final, which was lost 2-1 at Eastville, Lee Howells also played in the March 1988 final, which was lost 3-1 at Ashton Gate before a crowd of 2,278. Thereafter, he returned to his native Australia, where he was born to British parents, before scoring 66 goals in 367 matches in all competitions for Cheltenham, and helping the Robins to win the Conference as well as the FA Trophy, defeating Southport 1-0 at Wembley. His Football League bow came against Rochdale in August 1999, at the age of thirty, and he was sent off in three fixtures the following campaign, as well as playing in League fixtures against Rovers on three occasions. A broken leg suffered in the first-half of the Robins’ win at The Mem in May 2002 ruled Howells out of the 2002-03 season entirely. Armed with “balance, speed, athleticism and technical ability, the sight of Howells gliding past opponents was a joy to behold” (Jon Palmer, Gloucestershire Live). He also scored twice in 39 games as captain at Merthyr and played twelve times for Mangotsfield and in five games for Clevedon before helping Bath City, as assistant manager, to Conference football in the spring of 2010, whilst also running City Barbers in Bristol and Bradley Stoke. He was in charge of the Bath City side which faced Rovers in pre-season friendlies in July 2013 and July 2014, as well as in the FA Trophy in the autumn of 2014. |
Darren Jefferies. 2011-12.
Born, 17.10.1993, Swindon. 6’; 10 st 6 lbs Career: 2009 Bristol Rovers; 21.8.12 Sheffield Wednesday (trial); 31.8.12 Frome Town; 2.4.13 BK Sport (Sweden); 20.10.13 Chippenham Town (free); 7.11.13 Paulton Rovers (free); 1.1.14 BK Sport (free); 11.10.14 Paulton Rovers (free); 17.2.15 BK Sport (free); 7.8.15 Larkhall Athletic (free); 4.9.15 Frome Town (free); 22.6.18 Highworth Town (free). Appearing for Rovers as a substitute for Oli Norburn in the televised FA Cup-tie away to AFC Totton in December 2011, which Rovers won 6-1, midfielder Darren Jefferies had also played in 52(+1) matches for the Under-18 side, many as captain, scoring twelve goals and missing a penalty in the FA Youth Cup-tie against Newport County in November 2010. He scored his first Frome goal in a 3-1 win at Cambridge City, contributing three goals in 27(+11) matches and was offered a trial in Sweden in April 2013. Without a game at Chippenham, Jefferies scored in the 2-2 draw at eventual champions Cirencester Town in his thirteen Southern League appearances during his first spell with Paulton Rovers (subsequently appearing in 7(+7) Southern League games without scoring during his second stint) and added an impressive 39 goals in just 35 fourth-tier matches with Swedish side BK Sport. He appeared in five Evo-Stik League games with Larkhall Athletic, scoring in a 2-0 victory over AFC Totton and took his career tally at Frome to 134(+35) Southern League matches and eighteen goals by the summer of 2018, but was sent off against Hereford in March 2018. With Highworth Town, Jefferies scored seven goals in 22 matches during the 2018-19 campaign. |
Ryan Mark Jones. 2021-
Born, 2002, Bristol. Career: Churchill Academy; North Somerset Academy; 2018 Hutton; 2018 Clevedon Town; 31.8.19 Weston-super-Mare (free; 26.5.20 professional); 16.10.20 Bristol Rovers (free); 16.10.20 Weston-super-Mare (loan); 19.2.22 Bath City (loan); 26.9.22 Hungerford Town (loan). Left-footed full-back-cum-winger Ryan Jones arrived at The Mem in the autumn of 2020 and was promptly loaned back to Weston for the season. “He’s quick, he’s tenacious”, commented their assistant manager, Scott Laird. “[He] gets stuck in, he’s not afraid, [he’s] confident”. Growing up in Banwell, Jones had scored three times in five games for Hutton, seven times in ten matches with Clevedon’s Under-18 side and twice for Clevedon in nine Western League fixtures, where he helped his side secure the Somerset Floodlit Youth League title. A further three goals in fourteen matches for Weston, plus eleven goals in nineteen Under-19 fixtures, preceded his signing by Rovers and he was to score the decisive penalty as Swindon Supermarine were defeated in a penalty shoot-out in the FA Cup in October 2020. In August 2021 he replaced Siôn Spence fifteen minutes from the close of a Football League Trophy game against Cheltenham Town for his first appearance in a Rovers shirt and he marked his first start, a match in the same tournament at Exeter three months later, with a fine left-footed goal, before playing against Oxford United in the FA Cup. He played 10(+1) times for Bath City in the National League South and scored when Rovers won 6-1 at Melksham Town in a pre-season friendly in July 2022. He came on as a late substitute the following month, as Rovers lost in the League Cup at Crawley Town before joining Jed Ward on loan at Hungerford Town. |
Jarmani Langlais. 2021-
Born, 4.10.2004, Bristol. 6’ 2” 10 st 8 lbs Career: Cardiff City; 19.5.16 Bristol Rovers. A tall sixteen-year-old from Fishponds, Jarmani Langlais became Rovers’ youngest ever League Cup player when he came on as a substitute twenty minutes from the end of a tie against Cheltenham Town in August 2021.”The potential is there”, reported Rovers’ first-team coach Andy Mangan. Langlais was an unused substitute when Rovers recorded an unexpected 1-0 victory in October of that year in the club’s first ever fixture at Harrogate Town. |
Niall Lovelock.. 2021-
Born, 2003. Bath City; 13.5.20; Bristol Rovers; 3.11.21 Cirencester Town (loan); 15.7.22 Larkhall Athletic (free). An “eye-catching debut”, according to the Bristol Post, in Rovers’ Football League Trophy encounter with Chelsea Under-21 at The Mem in October 2021, included an unfortunate own goal, when Lovelock turned the ball home six minutes before half-time, under pressure from Jayden Wareham. “Uncompromising and brave”, as the club’s website described him on his arrival, the central defender, aged seventeen at the time of this first appearance, had also played in Rovers’ goalless draw with Havant and Waterlooville in a pre-season friendly in July 2021 and had appeared in the Academy side’s 3-3 draw with Forest Green Rovers in October 2020. He played three times on loan at Cirencester. |
Tyron Thomson Mbuenimo. 2021-
Born, 5.11.2003, London. Career: Tottenham Hotspur; 13.5.20 Bristol Rovers; 10.9.21 Yate Town (loan). Released by Rovers, 19.4.22. Seventeen-year-old “powerful and robust” right-back Tyron Mbuenimo replaced Trevor Clarke with twenty-nine minutes left to play in a Football League Trophy game against Chelsea Under-21 at The Mem in October 2021 and started against Exeter City in the next game in that competition. The previous month, on loan at Yate Town, he hit the crossbar in an FA Cup-tie against Gosport Borough and played in two Southern League fixtures. Played in 1-1 draw v Plymouth Argyle, pre-season friendly, July 2021. |
(Tom) Tommaso Salvatore Parrinello. 2007-08.
Born, 10.7.1989, Bristol. Career: Filton Academy; 2005 Bristol Rovers (professional, 11.7.06); 12.12.08 Weston-super-Mare (loan); 10.2.09 Weston-super-Mare (free); 1.7.10 Gloucester City (free); 1.7.11 Mangotsfield United (free); July 2014 Bristol Rovers (Lead Youth Development Coach, to 27.9.21). Five feet three inches in stature and weighing ten stone, left-back Tom Parrinello replaced Craig Disley after 84 minutes of a comfortable 5-1 FA Cup victory over Rushden and Diamonds in December 2007. A product of Rovers’ Filton Academy set-up and the England squad at Under-13 level, he played for Rovers on their 2008 Sweden tour and against Rovers for Mangotsfield in a July 2011 pre-season friendly. He played eight times for Weston, where he initially deputised whilst Ludovic Quistin (1984-2012) was away on international duty with Guadeloupe, and in 35 fixtures for Gloucester City, before appearing in 155(+11) fixtures with Mangotsfield. Sent off in a 1-1 draw at Bridgwater Town in December 2012, he helped the side secure the Gloucestershire Senior Challenge Cup when they defeated Cinderford Town 4-0 in the final in May 2013 and conceded an own goal in the 2-1 home defeat against North Leigh in October of that year. Parrinello played alongside Lewis Hogg and Matt Groves in the Mangotsfield side which faced Rovers in a pre-season friendly in July 2016. The son of Salvatore Parrinello and Graziella Merlino, who married in Bristol in March 1988, he runs the Tom Parrinello Football Academy, coaching young footballers in the Bristol area and holds a UEFA “B” football coaching license as well as an FA Youth Award. He married Georgina Hooper in September 2015. |
Nigel Patterson. 1987-88.
Born, 1972, South Shields. Career: 1988 Bristol Rovers; Southmead United; Mangotsfield United; Bristol Manor Farm; 1989 Trowbridge Town. Young defender Nigel Patterson played at the age of fifteen in the March 1988 Gloucestershire Cup Final, which was lost 3-1 at Ashton Gate before a crowd of 2,278. The younger son of Brian Patterson and Catherine Wright, he may be the Nigel Patterson who married Holly O’Callaghan in Stockton-on-Tees in 1998. |
Kieron Phillips. 2019-20.
Born, 13.8.2002, Bristol. 5’ 11”; 11 st 8 lbs F Career: Henleaze School; Bristol Rovers (scholarship, 13.3.18; professional, 26.2.20); 9.10.20 Chippenham Town (loan); 10.9.21 Dorchester Town (loan); 28.10.21 Swindon Supermarine (loan); 27.7.22 Gloucester City (trial); 30.7.22 Gloucester City (free). Striker Kieran Phillips, the son of local footballer Lee Phillips, came through Rovers’ ranks and was North Somerset U14 Player of the Year for 2014-15. As early as November 2016 he scored a hat-trick for Rovers, helping the U15 side defeat Reading 5-4 in the Floodlit Cup. After suffering eight months out through injury in 2017, he registered hat-tricks in a 3-1 victory over Swindon Town in April 2018 and as Hardwicke were defeated 9-3 in July 2018. The following month he scored in victories over Újpest and MTK Budapest on the club’s U18 tour of Hungary. Two goals in a midweek victory over Forest Green Rovers preceded a call-up to Rovers’ match-day squad for the November 2019 trip to Rochdale and he replaced James Daly eight minutes from time against Oxford United in the Football League Trophy in October 2020. He played in 1(+3) National League South fixtures with Chippenham Town and scored twice against Walton Casuals, including a first-minute goal, on his first of five National League South appearances for Dorchester Town, and scored eleven times in 23(+3) Southern League matches with Supermarine, being that club’s Player of the Month for November 2021. He scored the fourth goal in the Wiltshire Premier Shield Final of May 2022, as Supermarine beat Corsham Town 5-2. |
Lee Portch. 1985-86.
Born, 22.10.1966, Bristol. Career: Bristol City; Bristol Rovers (apprentice, 19.7.83; professional, 22.10.84; released, 12.2.88). Prior to appearing in local non-league circles, Lee Portch played in two Football League Trophy games for Rovers in January 1986, a 2-0 defeat at Hereford United and a 2-1 home victory over Swindon Town. In April of that year, he had carbon fibres inserted into his knee ligaments, following an injury sustained playing for the reserves at Chelsea, but this surgery at a Westminster Hospital proved insufficient to save the teenager’s professional career. Living in Manson Close, Stockwood, he had earlier earned £25 per week as an apprentice with Rovers. Prior to that, he had been on Bristol City’s books at the time that his uncle, John Lillington, was the club secretary at Ashton Gate. The son of Richard Portch, who was the third of five sons to Leonard Frederick Portch (1908-81) and Annetta Clarissa Brewer (1908-90) and Christine Lillington, she being the second of four children to Arthur Lillington (1914-87) and Alma Dardanella Workman (1915-2000), he played 38 times in goal for Golden Hill Sports between 2010 and 2012. Living in Bristol, he was married to Alison Evans until her death in 2007. |
Mark Stevens. 1987-88.
Born, 31.1.1963, Bristol. 6’ 1”; 13 st GK Career: July 1979 Bristol City (professional, 6.2.81); 2.6.81 Swindon Town (free) [1,0]; September 1983 Trowbridge Town (to November 1983); July 1985 Yate Town; July 1986 Trowbridge Town; January 1988 Gloucester City; 21.3.88 Bristol Rovers (trial); 29.6.88 Bristol Rovers (free); August 1988 Mangotsfield United; 9.6.89 Bristol Rovers (free); 1991 Clevedon Town; 1993 Weston-super-Mare. Experienced local goalkeeper Mark Stevens played in the March 1988 Gloucestershire Cup Final, which was lost 3-1 at Ashton Gate before a crowd of 2,278. Earlier in his career he was in goal when Swindon beat his former club Bristol City 2-0 in May 1983, the future Rovers player-manager Terry Cooper being in the opposition, and later appeared in eight Southern League fixtures with Gloucester. He had also played in the Trowbridge side which finished bottom of the Alliance Premier League in 1983-84. He married Tracey Haines in Bristol in July 1987 and now lives near Chard. |
Paul Sugrue. 1987-88.
b 6.11.1960 Coventry M Career: Walsall (youth); 1978 Coventry Sporting; Bedworth; 2.2.79 Nuneaton Borough (professional, 26.3.79); 18.2.80 Manchester City [5+1,0]; July 1981 Cardiff City [2+3,0]; Kansas City Comets, USA; 14.12.82 Middlesbrough [66+3,6]; 24.12.84 Portsmouth (free) [2+2,0]; March 1985 Northampton Town (free) [2+6,2]; Newport County (free) [1+1,0]; November 1987 Bristol Rovers; Bridgend Town; Elo Kuopio, Finland [29,7]; 1989 Newport County; February 1990 Kidderminster Harriers; 1990 Barnet (free); Nuneaton Borough (manager); Inter-Cardiff (manager); 2000 Merthyr Tydfil (vice-chairman; manager, February 2006-May 2007). Experienced midfielder Paul Sugrue played in the Gloucestershire Cup Final of December 1987, Rovers losing 2-1 to Bristol City at Eastville before a crowd of 1,376 and was substituted by Martin Boyle. His League bow had come as early as May 1980, when he appeared in Manchester City’s 2-1 victory over Ipswich Town in Division One. Prior to that, he had played alongside Alan Hoult in 27(+4) Alliance Premier games with Nuneaton, his three goals including a brace in a 3-0 victory over Yeovil Town in November 1979. He added a hat-trick, all three goals with his right foot, in a 5-1 thrashing of Hinckley Town at Manor Park in the Southern League Cup in October 1990. Impressive form against Cremonese, Casale, Chieti and Pisa in an Anglo-Italian Tournament had preceded his Alliance bow against Redditch United in March 1979. A long League career had taken in a Boro in a 2-0 defeat at Cambridge in December 1982, both goals as Bournemouth were defeated 2-0 in the FA Cup at Ayresome Park in January 1984 and, working under the former Rovers midfielder Alan Ball, a Pompey début in a 4-1 defeat at Sheffield United just after Christmas 1984. He later scored League goals over Easter 1986 for Northampton against Tranmere Rovers and Aldershot. After a spell in Finland, he début appeared in the Conference with Newport (13+1 games and two goals), Harriers (20+7 games and five goals) and Barnet (one substitute appearance). His career ended by a knee injury, Sugrue, the son of John Sugrue and Maureen Docherty, worked as a First Aid instructor in Welsh secondary schools. In 1998 he was presented with a trophy at Wembley by Pelé, after managing, coaching and playing in the Inter-Wales Vets side which defeated Liverpool Vets 1-0 for the Umbro Vets Professional Trophy. In October 2016 he appeared in court with three other men in relation to his alleged rôle in a fraudulent football-related apprentice scheme and was, in February 2018, found guilty of illegally earning £516,000 through the establishment of a fraudulent football youth set-up and jailed for seven years. |
Gregory Dean B Taylor. 1984-85.
Born, 1966, Bath. Career: 1984 Bristol Rovers; Paulton Rovers; 1995 Mangotsfield United; 1997 Paulton Rovers (joint player-manager, to 20.2.99); Welton Rovers (free). Gregory played in the League Cup in October 1984 in the unaccustomed position of left-back. Later he was joint manager at two clubs alongside Stuart Minall. Later he was to miss just one Southern League fixture in 1995-96 with Mangotsfield, scoring in a 5-1 victory over Minehead. He may be the Greg Taylor who was the son of Philip Taylor and Elizabeth Wright, who married in 1963. |
Dominic Thomas. 2014-15.
Born, 23.11.1995, London. Career: 2002 Charlton Athletic; 3.7.12 Bristol Rovers (professional, 9.4.14); 8.8.14 Mangotsfield United (loan); 25.3.15 Yate Town (loan); 19.8.15 Paulton Rovers (loan) (retired, 1.10.17). Six-feet-one-inch tall and weighing in at eleven stone six pounds, midfielder Dominic Thomas helped Rovers’ Under-18 side secure the League and Cup double in 2012-13 and captained the youth side the following campaign, before being an unused substitute for the end-of-season home fixtures with Rochdale and Mansfield Town. London-based, he accumulated 32(+1) games and six goals for the Under-18 side in the league and a further seventeen games, plus a goal against Yeovil Town in October 2012, in other competitions. In addition, he played for Rovers’ reserve side against Hartpury College and Bath City in January 2013 and against Brighton and Swindon in April 2014, as well as scoring as the side defeated Australia Under-17s 2-1 in January 2014. In July 2014 he headed a young Rovers side’s goal in the 1-1 draw with Mangotsfield United. With Rovers losing their Football League status that summer, Thomas spent a month on loan at Cossham Street, playing once against North Leigh alongside Tom Parrinello, Neil Arndale and Lewis Hogg, before replacing captain Lee Mansell for the final six minutes of the 7-1 FA Cup drubbing of Dorchester Town in October 2014. His five Southern League First Division games for Yate Town featured a sixty-first-minute goal in a 3-0 victory over Bishops Cleeve on Easter Monday 2015. However, long-term knee injuries took their toll and, despite on-going treatment form the former England rugby union full-back Dr Jonathan Webb, Thomas announced his retirement from all football in the autumn of 2017. |
Theo Widdrington. 2018-19.
Born, 6.4.1999, Southampton. M 5' 8"; 11 st 12 lbs Career: 2005 Portsmouth (Academy; 10.4.17 professional); 26.7.17 Havant and Waterlooville (loan); 2.7.18 Bristol Rovers (free); 21.12.18 Bognor Regis Town (loan); 13.9.19 Welling United (loan); 6.3.20 Hemel Hempstead Town (loan); 31.8.20 Lewes (free); 13.9.20 Havant and Waterlooville (free); 5.9.21 Gosport Borough (loan); 23.12.21 King’s Lynn Town (loan); 2.2.22 King’s Lynn Town (free). Central midfielder Theo Widdrington, the younger son of Rovers' Head of Recruitment Tommy Widdrington and the grandson of Tom Widdrington senior and Joan Taylor, arrived at Rovers after impressing with Pompey. Under-18 captain at Fratton Park, he was in their side which reached the Premier League Cup semi-final and, although never appearing in the League, was an unused substitute against Rovers on New Year's Day 2018. He also enjoyed a loan spell at Havant, which incorporated 23 Nationwide South games and three goals. He made his senior bow in playing the final thirty minutes of the Football League Trophy match at Exeter City in November 2018. Subsequently, his 15(+2) National League appearances and a goal against Bromley in April 2022 were insufficient to prevent King’s Lynn’s relegation in 2021-22. In September 2022 he scored from the half-way line in King’s Lynn’s National League North match at Chester and two months later he played alongside Josh Barrett as King’s Lynn drew 1-1 at Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup. His elder brother, Kai Widdrington, appeared on television in “Strictly Come Dancing”. |