Past Pirate – Andy Tillson
By Darren Stobbs
An inspirational and powerful defender, Andy Tillson arrived at Rovers on 5th November 1992 and made his league debut for the club two days later in a 5-1 defeat at Molineux, home of Wolverhampton Wanderers, when he became the 575th player to appear in league football for the club.
At the time Tillson, who was born in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, had played for Desborough Town, Stamford, Kettering Town, Peterborough United, Corby Town and Grimsby Town before making a big money move to Queens Park Rangers.
It was from the Loftus Road outfit that he moved to Rovers, for a club record fee of £375,000 and while some people believe that Tom Nichols cost more when he signed for Rovers in 2017, that wasn’t the case and it wasn’t until the arrival of Promise Omochere last summer that the record was broken, meaning that the record had stood for a remarkable 32 years.
Whilst with QPR he had played alongside many players with Rovers connections, most notably Dennis Bailey, Ian Holloway, Gary Penrice and Gary Waddock, who arrived at Rovers on the same day as Tillson.
He quickly became a firm fans favourite and, as club captain, was the Supporters Club Player of the Year in 1994/95. That season saw the side reach the play off final and Tillson skippered the side in the Wembley Final, against Huddersfield Town, a game which ended in a 2-1 defeat.
He also skippered the side for our first game back at The Memorial Stadium in the summer of 1996 and by the time he left the club, for Walsall, in August 2000, he had scored 11 goals in 253 league appearances.
After 54 league appearances for The Saddlers, there were 22 more for Rushden & Diamonds. He was appointed as player coach of Team Bath in May 2004, became Head Coach in June 2006 and after a short time as assistant manager at Weymouth in 2009, joined Exeter City as Assistant Manager/Development Coach at Exeter City in June of that year, working alongside manager Paul Tisdale whom he’d previously worked with at Bath University.
Tisdale, of course, was manager of Rovers for a short while back in 2020 and there was speculation that Andy might reunite with his former boss for a third time. However, we will never know if that might have happened as Tisdale was relived of his duties after just 15 matches in charge.
When he first signed for Rovers, Andy and his family moved to live in Bath and he still lives there. He occasionally attends games at The Memorial Stadium, but these days is more likely to be found watching his son, Jordan, playing for Bath City at Twerton Park.