Bristol Rovers travel to meet Colchester United tomorrow, in search of a fifth consecutive league win.
If achieved, it would be their best winning sequence since March 2016 when, under the stewardship of Darrell Clarke, they recorded six consecutive league victories between 1st and 24th March.
Tomorrow will be the 31st league meeting between the clubs, with Rovers having won 13 of the previous 30 encounters, Colchester nine while the remaining eight have ended all square. Rovers have scored 51 goals compared to the 34 recorded by Colchester.
Of the 15 away games against tomorrow’s opponents, Colchester have the advantage, having won on eight occasions.
The last league meeting between the sides took place at The Memorial Stadium on 15th March 2022 when Rovers were 1-0 winners thanks to an Elliot Anderson goal. We have met since then, though, in the Football League Trophy in November 2022 when we ran out 2-1 winners.
Tomorrow’s game should see Alfie Kilgour make his 100th league appearance for Rovers. To date he’s made 89 starts and has appeared in 10 games as a substitute, scoring four goals. He’s also appeared in 32 other Rovers games (FA Cup/League Cup/Trophy), scoring three goals
By our reckoning he will be the 148th player to reach a century of league games for the club; just hope he’s selected now that stat has been mentioned!
There could also be a record achieved by Colchester’s Jack Payne as, if he plays, he will equal Anthony Grant’s record of opposing Rovers with eight different sides in the League.
Our recent excellent run of results has seen us move up to ninth place in the league standings while Colchester, beaten 1-0 at Accrington last Saturday, are in 19th place 1ith seven points from their eight games to date.
Saturday is a great opportunity against a very good Bristol Rovers team,’ said U’s boss Danny Cowley, who added; ‘I think they have won five on the spin and to do that I this league is not easy.
‘It is such a tight league there is so little between the teams, so it’s a brilliant achievement in itself. I think they have a very good team who got relegated last year, but they brought a lot of good players down to League Two.
‘They were aggressive with their recruitment in the summer, so we understand the challenge in front of us. But, ultimately, it’s not about Bristol Rovers, it is about us getting back to us.’
Speaking ahead of the game Head Coach Darrell Clarke said this on the club’s website; ‘There are different teams that give you different problems and different physicality. There are some possession based teams as well. So, every game brings a different challenge in League One and League Two, to be honest with you.
‘So, we just have to be prepared and work hard through the course of the week to be ready for the next game, which is Colchester. It has been a good week; we had a bounce game against Cheltenham, so we got some minutes into the boys on Tuesday, which was important. It was a really good workout, Ollie Dewsbury scored a couple of goals, and that was pleasing. It was a great win for the Academy as well in the evening, playing against Bristol City. So, it has been a positive week with Saturday, but we want to build on to the final part, the key part, and that is obviously Colchester away.’
It’s a long way to travel to the Jobserve Community Stadium, but we wish all travelling Gasheads a safe trip to the game and back
