End of Season Record

 

NINE UNBEATEN

By Dave Rogers

When Ellis Harrison scored that superb hat trick against Cheltenham in April, and Shaq Forde rounded off a perfect day with a deftly taken fourth goal, Rovers gained an eighth successive League win for the first time since 1953.

The sun was shining, manager Steve Evans celebrated with the fans in the Thatchers End, and a home campaign that had been so miserable for so long ended in buoyant style. Much was made of this historic achievement, and rightly so, but when Harrison rifled home Tommy Leigh’s immaculate pass at Meadow Lane just a week later another Rovers landmark was about to be set, which initially appeared to go under the radar.

That goal on the banks of the Trent was wildly celebrated by 1,800 Gasheads, and it not only stalled Notts County’s promotion hopes, but it also meant that Rovers remained unbeaten for the final nine games of a regular Football League season for the first time ever.

I couldn’t recall a better finish than that in my 50+ years as a Rovers fan, so I decided to check the club history books, so diligently researched and written by Mike Jay and Stephen Byrne, and then topped that off by looking online for the most recent campaigns.

My hunch was right: after perusing the results at the end of every season going back to our debut Football League campaign in 1920/21, this was a unique achievement in Gas history. The best finish before Steve Evans’ astonishing resuscitation of the club’s fortunes was eight, which was first achieved just before the Second World War, in 1937/38. This remained unequalled until Paul Trollope’s eight game unbeaten sequence

en route to promotion in 2006/07, when Rovers didn’t lose a single game after a defeat at home to Wrexham, and then had three straight wins in the play offs to complete a memorable climax to the campaign.

Rovers fans have been treated to some stirring finishes to recent campaigns, with a run of seven games unbeaten at the end of each of the 2015/16 and 2021/22 promotion seasons, under Darrell Clarke and Joey Barton respectively. Bizarrely, Rovers suffered a final defeat of the season at Carlisle on both occasions. The Pirates first finished with no defeats in their last seven in 1926/27 and then managed it again in 1983/84 under David Williams.

Particular credit must be given to Don Megson’s battling Rovers team of 1976/77, which was competing against huge clubs with comparatively massive budgets. Despite these disadvantages, Rovers recovered from a 3-2 defeat against Southampton on Easter Saturday at Eastville, to notch up an inspiring seven game unbeaten finish, which included a draw against Nottingham Forest, who were League Champions a year later and conquerors of Europe in 1979. This remains the longest undefeated run at the end of a second tier season in Rovers’ history.

Somewhat ironically, two of the best seasons in Rovers’ history finished in stuttering fashion. Bert Tann’s Rovers side of 1952/53 achieved a 27 match unbeaten run from September until March, which included that celebrated 12 match winning sequence. It was the bedrock of Rovers’ first ever promotion; the Pirates needed to win the title as in those days of the Third Division (South) only the champions went up. This they duly did, but they made hard work of it, by losing five of the last nine games.

Rovers’ next promotion in the 1973/74 season also saw a 27 match unbeaten run, this time from the very start of the campaign, and the club earned national headlines, partly due to the televised 8-2 win at Brighton. However, an injury to star striker Alan Warboys (pictured right) contributed to a jittery finish, with only four wins from the last 12 games, and the Division Three title – which had seemed in the bag – was allowed to slip into the hands of Oldham Athletic.

Some of the best football I have ever seen from a Rovers side came under Ian Holloway in 1999/2000, as Jason Roberts and Jamie Cureton scored goals galore, and after a springtime win over Chesterfield at the Mem it seemed only a matter of time before a return to the second tier was confirmed.

However, Rovers then proceeded to take just six points from the last available 30, which equated to the worst ten game finish in the club’s history at the time. Rovers not only missed out on automatic promotion, but also conceded a play off place, despite amassing 80 points. A year later, another grim ending saw Rovers lose six out of the last nine, as – in the last year of only one club being relegated from the fourth tier – only the ineptitude of Halifax Town saved Rovers’ Football League status.

Rovers had an even worse finish in 1963/64, when the team lost seven out of the last nine games, which was equalled at the end of Rovers’ abysmal League One relegation season in 2020/21. However, that was surpassed under Inigo Calderon four years later, when the Pirates took just one point from the last ten games, and to maintain the historical comparison, the team lost eight of the last nine games.

In the unforgettable spring of 2026, as Tommy Leigh was getting into the heads of Crewe players and fans, Joe Quigley was overcoming the most acute of angles against Fleetwood and Yusuf Akhamrich was driving defenders dizzy at Tranmere, the cumulative effect was to create something really special in the history of our beloved club. Those moments, along with fearless goalkeeping by Brad Young, defensive resilience, midfield dominance and dazzling wing play saw Rovers transform the club’s worst nine game finish in 2025 to a historic best ever end to a season just 12 months later.