Chippenham Town v Bristol Rovers
On Friday 4th July Rovers travel to face Chippenham Town at Hardenhuish Park in their first pre-season friendly ahead of the 2025/26 season getting underway, with returning boss Darrell Clarke at the helm.
Last time Rovers faced Chippenham Town in a pre-season game was on Tuesday 12th July 2022 when we ran out 4-1 winners at Hardenhuish Park.
Manager Joe Barton fielded two sides that evening as he sent another side to Twerton Park where they were beaten 3-1 by Bath City.
At Chippenham, Rovers scored the opening goal in the first minute when a ball over the top, from the kick off, found Harvey Saunder racing down the right. He got to the byeline before pulling a pass back to newly arrived striker John Marquis and he slotted a shot past goalkeeper Will Henry.
The hosts equalised on 14 minutes, from the penalty spot. One of the three triallists in the Chippenham side was tripped inside the area and Triallist ‘C’ took the resulting spot kick and drilled the ball low into the net giving Anssi Jaakkola no chance of saving.
Marquis added his second goal of the evening on 24 minutes and again Saunders was the provider as his ball into the box was confidently steered into the net by the club’s new striker.
Five minutes later Saunders scored himself. When played in by Zain Westbrooke, he lashed the ball into the top corner of the net to make it 3-1.
Marquis suffered a dead leg in the first half and didn’t reappear after the break, but his side continued to dominate and Saunders added his second goal of the evening on 56 minutes when, once again, he was played in by Westbrooke and beat Henry at his near post.
The pace of the game slackened as the half wore on, and although Chippenham created a couple of goalscoring opportunities, there were no further goals.
Former Rovers player, midfielder Alefe Santos, was included in the Cippenham lineup for the game.
Bristol Rovers: Anssi Jaakkola, Jamie Egan, Trevor Clarke, Sam Heal, Ryan Jones, Paul Coutts, Zain Westbrooke, Jerry Lawrence, Harvey Saunders, Harvey Greenslade, John Marquis (Lucas Vaughan, 46).
Substitutes: Charlie White, Olly Phillips, Josiah McKayle, Lewis Pinchard, Charlie Perkins
Chippenham Town: Will Henry, Eddie Jones, Ethan Hill, Spencer Hamilton, Triallist A, Joe Hanks, Will King, Joe Parker, Alefe Santos, Triallist B Triallist C.
Attendance: 343
We also faced Chippenham back in July 2006 when, on the 24th of the month Paul Trollope took a side to Hardenhuish Park and the manager was the only senior player to be included in the starting XI for a match that his side won 2-1, the goals being scored by Sean Rigg and Cai Yin Juan.
Rigg’s goal arrived in the tenth minute when he stooped low to meet a Chris Lines corner and headed past goalkeeper Steve Perrin.
The lead was doubled ten minutes later when Lines picked out Cai Yin Juan with a superb 40 yard crossfield pass. The youngster ran on with the ball before cutting inside defender Kevin Halliday and firing a low left foot shot past Perrin.
The home side pulled a goal back with 15 minutes remaining when substitute Alan Griffin headed past Mike Green from a Sean Seavill corner.
Former Rovers striker Dave Gilroy was in the Chippenham starting XI for this game while Darren Mullings and Lewis Powell would play for Chippenham later in their careers.
Bristol Rovers: Mike Green, Tom Godsell (Stuart Nelson, 65), Tom Parrinello, Paul Trollope, Alex Kite (James Palmer, 82), Ollie Barnes, Sean Rigg, Chris Lines, Lewis Powell, Cai Yin Juan Matt Groves, 61), Darren Mullings.
Substitutes: Luke Owen, Charlie Reece, Lewis Clare
Chippenham Town: Steve Perrin, Andy Robertson (Kye Holly, 55), Kevin Halliday, Ross Adams, Steve Jenkins, Iain Harvey (Simon Charity, 55), Sam Allison (Matt Rawlins, 55), Ian Herring, Dave Gilroy, Paul Milsom (Alan Griffin, 59), Chris Taylor (Mark Badman, 46).
Substitutes: Sean Seavill, Alex Stanley, Nick Stanley
Marquis and Chippenham action photo courtesy of Richard Chappell