Part four of our caps catch up takes in five more members of the current squad.
Sil Swinkels joined Rovers, on loan from Aston Villa, on 3rd February this year and whilst he had yet to break into Villa’s first team, he had made 22 appearances for their U-18 side and played 38 games in Premier League Two.
Being able to play as a central defender or as a full back or wing back has proved to be beneficial to the young defender as he has appeared in 13 league games during his time in BS7 and scored two goals.
The first of those goals came in a dramatic league debut for Rovers, against Stockport County at The Mem, when he scored a last minute equaliser to earn his new club a point from a 1-1 draw.
One of 19 players to make his Rovers league debut this season, his cap bears the number 1,024.
Coming at number 1,021 is Romaine Sawyers, another recent addition to the squad as he arrived at The Mem in early January.
The vastly experienced midfielder turned professional with West Bromwich Albion in July 2009, but was released before making a first team appearance, and has since played for; Port vale, Shrewsbury Town, Walsall, Brentford, West Bromwich Albion (who resigned him for a fee approaching £3m), Stoke City, Cardiff City and AFC Wimbledon.
He has won 49 full caps for St Kitts and Nevis and scored seven international goals, including one against Cuba just a few months before joining Rovers.
His Rovers debut came in the 3-1 win against Barnsley, at The Mem, on 18th January this year though he already appeared in a first team game, the FA Cup tie against Ipswich Town at Portman Road a week earlier.
The only goal in his 12 game Rovers league career to date came in the 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Mansfield on 29th March.
Rovers allegedly paid Watford a fee in the region of £200,000 to secure the services of Shaq Forde on transfer deadline day last summer.
Whilst at Vicarage Road, the forward had made loan appearances for Kings Langley, York City and Leyton Orient, where he was a team mate of Ruel Sotiriou.
The 1,020th player to appear for Rovers in the league, Shaq made his debut in a 2-1 defeat at Barnsley, at Oakwell, on 7th September last year.
To date he’s scored two league goals, one of which was against Lincoln City in Matt Taylor’s final game in charge, in 31 league games for Rovers and has picked up two red cards along the way.
Matt Butcher was signed in January this year, on loan until the end of the season, from Wycombe Wanderers.
After signing professional forms with Bournemouth in 2015, he spent time on loan with Gosport Borough, Poole Town, Woking, Yeovil Town and St Johnstone prior to completing a permanent move to Accrington Stanley in August 2020. Two years later he joined Plymouth Argyle and from there he joined Wycombe Wanderers, in January 2024.
Prior to joining Rovers he had appeared against us on five occasions, one of which was our 6-1 defeat at The Crown Ground, Accrington where Stanley enjoyed taking all three points.
He was on the losing side in successive Football League Trophy Finals at Wembley, in 2002 with Plymouth Argyle and in 2023 with Wycombe Wanderers, being on the losing side on both occasions.
His Rovers league debut arrived on 2nd February this year when we were beaten 3-2 by Peterborough United at The Mem and he became the 1,022nd player to don the quarters.
Yet to score his first goal, he has appeared in 17 league games to date.
And so we come to the enigma that is Michael Reindorf, who joined us on loan from Cardiff City on the final day of the January transfer window.
He wasn’t a complete unknown to Rovers fans as he played for Cardiff against us in the First Round Carabao Cup Tie at the Cardiff City Stadium earlier this season.
He had made two substitute appearances in the league for the Welsh side and had previously played for Norwich City and Kettering Town.
His Rovers debut came on 3rd February 2025 in the 1-1 draw with Stockport Count at The Mem when he became the 1,023rd player to turn out in league football for us.
Since then, he’s made just two more substitute appearances and often not even made the matchday squads, hence the enigma tag as we really don’t know how good, or bad, he is!