List of Bristol Rovers F.C. players

Bristol Rovers record scorer, Geoff Bradford, who scored 355 goals for the club, 242 of which were in the Football League.

For a list of all Bristol Rovers F.C. players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Bristol Rovers F.C. players.

For the current Bristol Rovers squad, see Bristol Rovers F.C.#Current squad.

Bristol Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Bristol, who play in Football League One, the Third tier of the English football league system, as of the 2017–18 season. The club was formed in 1883 under the name Black Arabs F.C.^[1] playing their home games at Purdown in Bristol,^[2] but they used the name for only a single season, becoming Eastville Rovers^[1] and moving to a site known as Three Acres in 1884. Eastville Rovers were somewhat nomadic, moving home in 1891 to the Schoolmaster's Cricket Ground, in 1892 to Durdham Down, and in 1894 to Ridgeway, before finally settling at Eastville Stadium and changing their name to Bristol Eastville Rovers in 1897.^[2] Two years later they adopted their current name of Bristol Rovers when they became founder members of the Southern League.^[1] They remained at Eastville Stadium for 99 years, before leaving in 1986 when financial pressures meant that they could no longer afford to pay the rent, whereupon they moved to Bath City's Twerton Park, a move that saved the club £30,000 a year.^[3] After playing for ten years in Bath, the club returned to Bristol in 1997 when they agreed to share Bristol Rugby's Memorial Stadium.^[4] Since joining The Football League in 1920, when the top division of the Southern League effectively became the Football League Third Division, Rovers have spent most of their time in the second and third tiers of the English football league system; the team has never played in the top flight and spent six years, 2001 to 2007, in the fourth tier.^[5][6]

In the club's early history the appearance record was held by goalkeeper Arthur Cartlidge,^[7] who played in 258 Southern League games between 1901 and 1909.^[8] His record stood until it was broken by another goalkeeper, Jesse Whatley, who played 14 times in the Southern League and a further 372 in The Football League, making a total of 386 overall.^[9] Following the Second World War the Bristol Rovers board introduced a no-buy/no-sell policy, which remained in force until the abolition of the maximum wage in football in 1961; as a result some players in that era had a high number of appearances for the club.^[10] Eight of the top nine most-used players played during this time, each making over 400 appearances. These eight were Bobby Jones (421 appearances), Alfie Biggs (424), Ray Warren (450), Harold Jarman (452), George Petherbridge (457), Geoff Bradford (462), Jack Pitt (466), and Harry Bamford (486).^[11] The club's all-time leading appearance maker, Stuart Taylor, played in 546 League games between 1965 and 1980.^[12] The club's highest scorer by a wide margin is Geoff Bradford, who scored 242 times in The Football League,^[13] exceeding the next-highest scorer Alfie Biggs by 64 goals.^[14]

Players

Forward Alfie Biggs made 424 appearances for Rovers in two spells between 1953 and 1961 and again between 1962 and 1968. With 178 goals, he is the club's second highest goalscorer.

Ian Holloway, who played 397 league games in three spells with the club.

Chris Lines is, as of 5 May 2018, the leading appearance maker of the current Bristol Rovers squad with 294 appearances.

England international Gary Mabbutt, who played 131 league games between 1977 and 1982.

Tony Pulis made 130 Rovers appearances in two spells from 1975 to 1981 and 1982 to 1984.

Rovers' most capped player Vitālijs Astafjevs, who played 167 times for Latvia.

The list of players below includes all team members who have played in at least 100 professional league games for Bristol Rovers, which includes games played in the Southern League (1899–1920), Football League (1920–2014 and 2015–) and Football Conference (2014–15), and also includes substitute appearances.

Position key: GK – Goalkeeper; DF – Defender; MF – Midfielder; FW – Forward

  † Current Bristol Rovers player, as at 5 May 2018

  ‡ Capped at full international level^[a]

Table of players, including nationality, playing position and club statistics

Player	Nationality[b]	Pos[c]	Club career	Apps[d]	Goals[e]	Ref[f]
Junior Agogo	Ghana ‡	FW	2003–2006	126	41	[15]
Peter Aitken	Wales	MF	1972–1980	234	3
Ian Alexander	Scotland	DF	1986–1994	291	6
Byron Anthony	Wales	DF	2006–2012	163	7	[16]
Ben Appleby	England	MF	1903–1908	180	9
Lee Archer	England	MF	1991–1997	126	13
Harry Armitage	England	DF	1922–1926	122	0
Vitālijs Astafjevs	Latvia ‡	MF	2000–2003	110	16
Harry Bamford	England	DF	1946–1958	486	5
Bruce Bannister	England	FW	1971–1977	206	80
Mike Barrett	England	MF	1979–1984	128	18
Phil Bater	Wales	DF	1974–1981 1983–1986	310	3
Peter Beadle	England	FW	1995–1998	109	39
Bert Bennett	England	DF	1911–1915	101	0
Fred Bennett	England	DF	1925–1930	129	2
Alfie Biggs	England	FW	1953–1961 1962–1968	424	178
Geoff Bradford	England ‡	FW	1949–1964	462	242
James Brogan	Scotland	FW	1910–1915	106	24
John Brown	England	FW	1963–1968	156	32
Lee Brown	England	DF	2011–2018	285	21	[17]
Marcus Browning	Wales ‡	MF	1989–1997	174	11
Bryan Bush	England	MF/FW	1947–1955	113	19
Stuart Campbell	Scotland	MF	2004–2011	291	3	[18]
Chris Carruthers	England	DF	2005 (loan) 2005–2008	100	1	[19]
Arthur Cartlidge	England	GK	1901–1909	258	0
Trevor Challis	England	DF	1998–2003	146	1
Justin Channing	England	MF	1992–1996	130	10
Billy Clark	Scotland	FW	1904–1908	133	35
Billy Clark	England	DF	1987–1997	248	12
Ollie Clarke †	England	MF	2011–	168	13	[20]
Danny Coles	England	DF	2007–2011	102	3	[21]
Andy Collett	England	GK	1994–1999	107	0
Fred Corbett	England	FW	1901–1903 1904–1905 1908–1911	139	52
Ellis Crompton	England	FW	1913–1921	150	36
Jamie Cureton	England	FW	1996–2000	174	72
Joe Davis	England	DF	1960–1967	211	4
Graham Day	England	DF	1973–1979	130	1
Craig Disley	England	MF	2004–2009	203	25	[22]
Ronnie Dix	England ‡	FW	1928–1932	100	33
Alec Donald	Scotland	DF	1932–1936	136	0
Hughie Dunn	Scotland	DF	1901–1906	155	1
Jim Eadie	Scotland	GK	1973–1977	183	0
Nathan Ellington	England	FW	1999–2002	116	35
Steve Elliott	England	DF	2004–2010	218	17	[23]
Gordon Fearnley	England	FW	1970–1977	120	21
Steve Foster	England	DF	1997–2002	197	7
Geoff Fox	England	DF	1947–1955	276	2
Rory Gaffney	Ireland	FW	2015–2016 (loan) 2016–2018	100	21	[24]
Ray Graydon	England	MF	1965–1971	133	33
Arthur Griffiths	England	DF	1897–1904	105	1
Andy Gurney	England	DF	1992–1997	108	9
Lewis Haldane	Wales	MF/FW	2002–2010	147	15	[25]
Denzil Hale	England	MF/FW	1952–1959	120	12
Bernard Hall	England	GK	1959–1967	163	0
Ian Hamilton	England	FW	1958–1968	149	60
Ellis Harrison	Wales	MF/FW	2011–	185	44	[26]
David Harvie	Scotland	DF	1910–1920	219	1
Jimmy Haydon	England	DF	1921–1931	290	5
Doug Hillard	England	DF	1957–1968	318	12
Craig Hinton	England	DF	2004–2009	153	3	[27]
Len Hodges	England	FW	1946–1950	118	20
Ian Holloway	England	MF	1981–1985 1987–1991 1996–1999	397	42
Peter Hooper	Kenya ‡	FW	1953–1962	297	101
Bert Hoyle	England	GK	1950–1953	104	0
Jeff Hughes	Northern Ireland ‡	MF	2008–2011	129	28	[28]
Harold Jarman	England	MF	1959–1973	452	127
Bobby Jones	England	FW	1956–1966 1967–1973	421	101
Glyn Jones	Wales	DF	1962–1966	153	0
Vaughan Jones	Wales	DF	1976–1982 1984 (loan) 1985–1993	381	12
Wayne Jones	Wales ‡	MF	1966–1972	224	28
Jo Kuffour	Ghana	FW	2008–2012	130	32	[29]
Vic Lambden	England	FW	1945–1955	268	117
Rickie Lambert	England ‡	FW	2006–2009	128	51	[30]
Daniel Leadbitter †	England	DF	2014–	104	1	[31]
Aaron Lescott	England	DF	2004 (loan) 2004–2010	207	5	[32]
Chris Lines †	England	MF	2004–2011 2015 (loan) 2015–	294	29	[33]
Tom Lockyer †	Wales ‡	DF	2012–	215	3	[34]
James Lofthouse	England	FW	1923–1926	105	15
Gary Mabbutt	England ‡	DF	1977–1982	131	10
Ray Mabbutt	England	MF	1956–1969	395	27
Nigel Martyn	England ‡	GK	1987–1989	101	0
Wally McArthur	England	MF	1933–1950	261	14
Aidan McCaffrey	England	DF	1980–1985	184	11
Mark McChrystal	Northern Ireland	DF	2013–2017	114	0	[35]
Jock McLean	Scotland	MF	1933–1938	134	1
George McNestry	England	FW	1932–1935	113	42
David Mehew	England	MF	1985–1994	222	63
Barrie Meyer	England	FW	1953–1958	139	60
Steve Mildenhall	England	GK	2013 (loan) 2013–2017	127	0	[36]
Paul Miller	England	FW	1994–1997	110	20
Jerry Morgan	England	FW	1920–1925	114	25
Jimmy Morgan	England	FW	1946–1952	104	24
Alex Munro	Scotland	DF/MF/FW	1962–1971	169	11
Joe Nicholls	England	GK	1936–1939	112	0
Matt O'Mahoney	Ireland ‡[g]	DF	1936–1939	101	6
Terry Oldfield	England	MF/FW	1958–1966	132	11
Billy Palmer	England	FW	1912–1913 1919–1922	102	14
Tom Parkes	England	DF	2012 (loan) 2012–2016	175	7	[37]
Brian Parkin	England	GK	1989–1996 1999–2000	246	0
Tim Parkin	England	DF	1981–1986	206	12
Lindsay Parsons	England	DF	1963–1977	360	0
Gary Penrice	England	MF/FW	1983–1989 1997–2002	257	60
Billy Peplow	England	FW	1908–1915	216	42
George Petherbridge	England	FW	1945–1962	457	85
Steve Phillips	England	GK	2006–2010	136	0	[38]
Bill Pickering	England	DF	1931–1937	215	1
Jack Pitt	England	MF	1946–1960	466	16
Tony Pounder	England	MF	1990–1994	113	10
Frankie Prince	Wales	MF	1967–1980	362	22
David Pritchard	England	DF	1994–2001	163	1
Dick Pudan	England	DF	1902–1907	116	0
Tony Pulis	Wales	DF/MF	1975–1981 1982–1984	130	5
Phil Purnell	England	MF	1985–1992	153	22
David Pyle	England	DF	1955–1962	139	0
Howard Radford	Wales	GK	1951–1962	245	0
Paul Randall	England	FW	1977–1978 1981–1986	240	94
Andy Reece	England	MF	1987–1993	239	17
Eliot Richards	Wales	MF/FW	2009–2014	120	15	[39][40]
Phil Roberts	Wales ‡	DF/MF	1968–1973	175	6
Thomas Roberts	England	MF/FW	1925–1930	120	6
Peter Roney	Scotland	GK	1909–1915	178	1
Bill Roost	England	FW	1948–1957	178	49
Peter Sampson	England	MF	1948–1961	340	4
Carl Saunders	England	FW	1990–1993	142	42
Bill Shaw	Scotland	MF	1909–1912	103	6
Dick Sheppard	England	GK	1969–1975	151	0
Stephen Sims	England	DF	1919–1922 1926–1927	111	18
Stuart Sinclair †	England	MF	2014–	124	7	[41]
Justin Skinner	England	MF	1991–1998	187	11
Neil Slatter	Wales ‡	DF	1980–1985	148	4
Jack Smart	England	MF	1905–1910	105	3
Michael Smith	Northern Ireland ‡	DF	2011–2014	101	1	[42]
David Staniforth	England	FW	1974–1979	153	32
Tom Stanton	Scotland	DF/MF	1968–1976	172	7
Archie Stephens	England	FW	1981–1985	127	40
Kenny Stephens	England	MF	1970–1977	223	11
Worrell Sterling	England	MF	1993–1996	119	6
Marcus Stewart	England	FW	1991–1996	171	57
David Stone	England	DF	1960–1968	148	6
Norman Sykes	England	MF	1952–1964	214	5
Nick Tanner	England	DF	1985–1988	107	3
Matty Taylor	England	FW	2014–2017	118	61	[43]
Stuart Taylor	England	DF	1965–1980	546	28
Martin Thomas	Wales ‡	GK	1977–1983	162	0
Andy Thomson	England	DF	1999–2002	127	6
Andy Tillson	England	DF	1992–2000	253	11
Geoff Twentyman	England	DF	1986–1993	252	6
Bobbie Walker	England	MF	1912–1915	107	12
Richard Walker	England	FW	2004–2009	143	46	[44]
Joe Walter	England	MF	1919–1922 1928–1929	124	9
Alan Warboys	England	FW	1973–1977	144	53
Dai Ward	Wales ‡	FW	1954–1961	175	90
Ray Warren	England	MF	1936–1956	450	28
Barry Watkins	Wales	DF/FW	1945–1957	115	7
Josser Watling	England	DF/FW	1947–1963	323	19
Arthur Weare	Wales	GK	1945–1951	141	0
Jesse Whatley	England	GK	1919–1930	386	0
Ernie Whatmore	England	FW	1923–1928	134	40
Devon White	England	FW	1987–1992	202	52
Steve White	England	FW	1977–1979 1983–1986	150	44
Brian Williams	England	DF	1981–1985	163	20
David Williams	Wales ‡	MF	1975–1985	352	66
Geraint Williams	Wales ‡	MF	1980–1985	141	8
Louis Williams	England	MF	1909–1912	106	1
Steve Yates	England	DF	1986–1993	197	0

Footnotes

• ^a Unless otherwise stated, all international caps are taken from Byrne & Jay (2003).^[45]
• ^b A player's nationality is defined as the country they have represented at the international level if they have done so; otherwise it is their country of birth.
• ^c Playing positions are taken from Byrne & Jay (2003) unless otherwise stated.
• ^d Number of league appearances for Bristol Rovers
• ^e Number of league goals scored for Bristol Rovers
• ^f Unless otherwise stated, player statistics are taken from Byrne & Jay (2003).^[46]
• ^g Matt O'Mahoney was a dual Irish international, having played for both the FAI and IFA national teams.

References

Bibliography

• Byrne, Stephen; Jay, Mike (2003). Bristol Rovers Football Club: The Definitive History 1883–2003. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7524-2717-1.
• Giles, Edward (2007). Bristol Rovers, The Bert Tann Era: A Personal Memoir. Southend-on-Sea: Desert Island Books. ISBN 978-1-905328-37-6.
• Jay, Mike; Byrne, Stephen (1994). Pirates in Profile: A Who's Who of Bristol Rovers Players. Bristol: Potten, Baber & Murray. ISBN 978-0-9524835-0-2.
• Rollin, Glenda; Rollin, Jack, eds. (2007). Sky Sports Football Yearbook 2007–2008. London: Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-7553-1664-9.
• Rollin, Glenda; Rollin, Jack, eds. (2009). Sky Sports Football Yearbook 2009–2010. London: Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-7553-1948-0.