Today (Saturday), sees the First Leg of the second Championship Play Off Final and, as far as we can tell, there’s a distinct lack of Gas up on Teesside where Middlesbrough take on Southampton.
There doesn’t appear to be any current Gas connections with the home side, while the only one we can find with The Saints is a certain Ben Garner. The former Rovers boss is now Assistant Head Coach down at Southampton; he was appointed in January this year.
Since leaving Rovers, in November 2020, he’s been in charge at Swindon Town, Charlton Athletic and Colchester United in the UK and was appointed to the position of Head Coach of the Right to Dream Academy in August 2024.
League One clubs also face off in the First Leg of their Play Off Semi Finals, with Stevenage hosting Stockport County and Bolton Wanderers taking on Bradford City.
They’ve very much run out of Gas at Stevenage – no current connections as far as we can see, while at Stockport we could only find Clint Hill who is now assistant manager at Edgeley Park. As a player Hill appeared in 588 first class games and his coaching career began with Fleetwood Town where he was First Team Coach under Steve Eyre and, later, Joe Barton.
He followed Barton to The Mem in February 2021 but left, for personal reasons, in August of that year. He had a short stint as assistant manager at Hartlepool before moving to his current position.
Goalkeeper Jack Bonham made 21 league appearances for Bolton Wanderers in the regular season that’s just ended and was between the posts for last weekend’s 3-2 home defeat at the hands of Luton Town, so there’s a possibility he might be involved today.
Behind the scenes at Bolton is Assistant Coach Mark Hughes, who made six appearances for us at the start of the 2021/22 season. A teammate of Bolton boss Steven Schumacher when he began his career at Everton, the pair worked together at Plymouth Argyle and Stoke City prior to taking over at Bolton.
Also in situ behind the scenes at Bolton is Senior Academy Phtsio Ali Gibb, who appeared in 64 league games for Rovers between March 2004 and August 2006.
As for Bradford City, then look no further than goalkeeper Sam Walker, who appeared in 44 of the league fixtures played by the club in the season just ended.
His career began at Chelsea and from there he enjoyed loan spells at Barnet, Northampton and Yeovil before he signed for Rovers, also on loan in August 2012. After 11 games for The Gas he resumed his travels and has since played for Colchester United, Reading, Blackpool, AFC Wimbledon, Kilmarnock and Charlton Athletic. He joined Bradford City in January 2024.
I guess there should also be an honourable mention for Tommy Leigh, who ended the season on loan at The Mem, scoring four goals in 14 league games following his arrival from Valley Parade in the January transfer window. He’s still a Bradford City player and has now returned to his parent club.