Before the end of the season representatives of the Supporters Club, Clive Marshall and Keith Brookman, along with Chairman of the Former Players Association Tony Mills, were invited to The Quarters to present what have become known as legacy caps to a number of the first team squad.
Today we feature two players who received their caps on that occasion, namely Fabrizio Cavegn and Riley Harbottle.
It would be fair to say that few, if any, of us had heard of Fabrizio Cavegn prior to him joining the club on 1st August last year.
Born in Ilanz, Switzerland on 28th August 2002, he quickly became a firm crowd favourite and ended the season with 15 goals in all competitions, a total that included a New Year’s Day hat trick against Shrewsbury Town.
His career before his move to these shores took in; FCO Südostschweiz; 2018 Chur 97 (professional, 07/09/2020) [12apps,3goals]; 01/07/2021 FC St Gallen (free) [4,0]; 01/07/2023 FC Vaduz (free) [73,25].
A Romansch speaker from a small town one hundred miles from the Italian border, the striker was a surprise signing by Darrell Clarke.
The younger brother of Schleuin Ilanz striker Marino Covegn, he had risen through the ranks in Swiss football and scored nine times in 11 games for Switzerland at U-18 level before winning two U-21 caps against Finland and Montenegro.
From second tier Chur, he featured heavily for the reserve side at St Gallen, scoring 42 times in 53 games, including a hat trick against FC Bulle in October 2022, and added a goal for the first team in the Swiss Cup.
Moving across the border to Liechtenstein, he made his name with Vaduz, scoring 37 goals in 86 games in all competitions. In addition to scoring freely in the Swiss Challenge League, he won successive Liechtenstein Cups with that side; in May 2024 they defeated Triesenberg 5-0 in the final and, with Cavegn having scored three times in the opening 20 minutes of a 10-0 thrashing of the same opposition in the quarter finals.
The May 2025 final was won 3-2 against Balzers, Vaduz recovering from being two goals behind, with Cavegn scoring after 65 and 79 minutes. He opened the 2025/26 season by playing in Vaduz’s opening League fixture, a 2-1 victory over Yverdon, and against Dungannon Swifts in the Europa Conference League, before arriving in Bristol.
His Rovers league debut came in our 2-1 defeat at Fleetwood on 9th August last year when he became the 1,030th player to appear for the club in league football. His first goals for the club arrived in a Vertu Trophy match against Tottenham Hotspur’s U-21 side on 26th August when he scored twice in a 4-4 draw, while his first league goal for the club came in a 2-1 home win against Barrow on 13th September, the first of four consecutive league games in which he scored.
To score 15 goals in a side that struggled in the first half of the season was some achievement for a player who had never before played in this country. The physical nature of the games saw him struggle a little bit as the season drew to a conclusion, and his game time was limited towards the end of the campaign.
The winner of the Supporters Club Young Player of the Year, he will no doubt be looking to be back on the goal trail come the start of the new season.
Central defender Riley Harbottle arrived in the January transfer window having already made 12 league appearances this season for League One side AFC Wimbledon.
The 25 year old Nottingham born defender can boast of having the following clubs on his CV; Nottingham Forest (professional, 08/10/2017); 19/03/2021 Wealdstone (loan); 16/07/2022 Mansfield Town (loan) [29+3 apps, 6 goals]; 18/07/2023 Hibernian [1,0]; 23/012024 Colchester United (loan) [8+4,0]; 15/08/2024 AFC Wimbledon [27+10,0].
Riley’s father Dave and uncle Mike Harbottle had both been on the books of Notts County before enjoying a spell at Ilkeston Town, but his career started off at rivals Forest, where he appeared in League Cup ties against Bradford City and Wolves in August 2021.
Sent out on loan, his 11 National League games for Wealdstone kicked off with a 4-0 defeat at Weymouth in March 2021. His teammates at Mansfield included Ollie Clarke, John-Joe O’Toole, Hiram Boateng and Alfie Kilgour, he scored for the Field Mill outfit both home and away against Tranmere Rovers and his future club AFC Wimbledon.
Whilst his Hibs career lasted 65 minutes of a 3-2 defeat to Livingston, plus a League Cup game against Raith Rovers and appearing on the bench in the UEFA Conference League, he achieved minimal success at Colchester, alongside Harry Anderson and John Akinde, where only three of his 12 League Two outings were won.
He was in the AFC Wimbledon side knocked out of the FA Cup by non league Dagenham & Redbridge in November 2024, but regular football with that club, where he was reunited with O’Toole, saw the popular defender score a play off semi final goal against his father’s old side, Notts County.
Riley played at Wembley in the May 2025 League Two play off final, in front of a crowd of 50,947, as AFC Wimbledon defeated Alfie Chang’s Walsall side 1-0 to gain promotion.
He was one of four players to make his Rovers league debut on 17th January, when Rovers suffered a 1-0 defeat against one of his former clubs, Colchester United.
The only goal he scored in his 15 league appearances for Rovers to date, arrived in the 2-0 home win against Accrington Stanley on 28th March.
A commanding presence at the heart of defence, alongside Alfie Kilgour for some of those 15 games, he also skippered the side in Kilgour’s absence and will no doubt be looking forward to his first full season in a Rovers shirt.
Photos courtesy Bristol Rovers FC
