Past Pirate – Mark Walters
By Darren Stobbs
Mark Walters joined Bristol Rovers in November 1999, from Swindon Town, and remained at The Memorial Stadium until July 2002, when he called time on his playing career and rejoined his first club, Aston Villa, as Academy Youth Coach.
Walters had played at the highest level with Aston Villa, for whom he made 181 league appearances, Rangers (106 appearances) and Liverpool which was a little ironic given that his middle name is Everton!
He also played for Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton before arriving at Swindon. Remarkably, he only represented England the once, against New Zealand in Auckland in June 1991. There are many who felt that this skilful midfielder/left winger should have won more caps for his country.
His first season with Rovers proved to be something of a rollercoaster ride as, for much of the season it seemed as though Ian Holloway’s side would clinch an automatic promotion place.
However, the final ten matches yielded just six points and a final day defeat at Cardiff saw the club slip out of the play off places for the first time that season. The only victory in those final ten games came against local rivals Bristol City, when Walters scored one and set up another in a 2-0 win at The Mem.
The following season saw Rovers relegated to the bottom division for the first time in their history, but Walters remained in BS7 for that first season in League Two and his class shone through in many of the matches in which he appeared and the terrace chant of ‘Wally, Wally Walters’ could regularly be heard by the Rovers faithful.
In his third and final season Rovers almost dropped out of the Football League altogether, finishing second from bottom, just above Halifax (for our younger fans, only one team dropped out of the Football League back then).
I can remember a classic Rovers song on the terraces at the time being ‘Thank God for the Halifax!’
He announced his retirement at the end of that season, having scored 13 goals in his 82 Rovers league games. As previously stated, he returned to Aston Villa but eventually went into the property business and became heavily involved with groups aiming to eliminate Racism in Football.
Walters also studied teaching and earned qualifications. He is Head of Languages at Aston Villa’s Academy. He is also one of three honorary members of the Rangers Supporters Trust.
A firm favourite during his time at The Mem, Mark is still remembered for his trademark step overs, his free kicks and his goal contributions.
Mark Walters, who made his debut in a 1-0 away win at Chesterfield on 20th November 1999, became the 645th player to represent Rovers in the Football League and has yet to receive his legacy cap.