On Tuesday evening Bristol Rovers travel to face Charlton Athletic at The Valley for what will be the 68th league meeting between the sides and honours are fairly even as both sides have won 24 of the previous 67 games, with 19 ending in a draw. Rovers have scored 105 goals, Charlton 115.
The first ever league meetings took place in 1921/22 when Rovers were 4-2 home winners against Charlton on 10th September 1921 while Charlton won 2-0 in the return fixture a week later.
Rovers did the double against Charlton last season, winning 2-1 at The Valley on 15th August 2023 and winning by the same scoreline in the home fixture on 29th December. We also came out on top in this season’s meeting at The Mem, on 1st October 2024, when goals from Scott Sinclair, Jamie Lindsay and James Wilson saw us win 3-2. Alex Mitchell and Matt Godden scored for Charlton.
Among the players who have turned out for both clubs are; Bradley Allen, Joe Anyinsah, Dennis Bailey, Leon Clarke, Chris Dickson, Bill Dodgin (Snr), Neil Etheridge, Tom Lockyer, Scott McGleish, Erhun Oztumer, Dick Plumb, Scott Sinclair, David Whyte and Steve White.
With regard to players who have made their Rovers league debut against Charlton, there were six on the opening day of the 1925/26 season, namely; Alexander Crichton, Andrew Dick, James Gardner, Charles Heinmann, Jonah Wilcox and William Wilson.
Ronnie Dix who, at 15 years and 173 days old, remains the youngest ever player to turn out for Rovers, made his debut in a 2-1 win against Charlton on 25th February 1928.
Some13 players have made their Rovers league debut against Charlton in the post war period, the last being Chelsea loanee Harvey Vale who became the 997th player to make his Gas debut at The Valley on 16th August 2023. Five of the 13 are goalkeepers; Bernard Hall, Martin Thomas, Gavin Kelly, Adam Smith and Joe Day.
There are also a number of managerial connections between the clubs; Bert Tann who, in six pre war seasons, scored twice in 19 league games for Charlton and later in his career spent 18 years as Rovers manager.
Fred Ford, who knew Tann well, was also on Charlton’s books before the war and succeeded him as Rovers manager in April 1968. Ford’s successor as Rovers manager was Bill Dodgin Senior who had played for both clubs before the war and was manager at Eastville from August 1969 – July 1972.
And then there’s Malcolm Allison and Lennie Lawrence – Allison played just two games for Charlton during six years at the club and was Rovers’ boss from November 1992 until March 1993.
Lawrence was Charlton manager from 1982 until 1991 and led them into the First Division in 1986, even though they were homeless at the time, having left The Valley in 1985.
He became Director of Football at Rovers between 2006 and 2010 when he was, in effect, a mentor to First Team Coach Paul Trollope and the two of them guided Rovers to the JPT Final in 2007 and a Wembley play off victory just a few months later.
At the time of writing, the only new players signed by either club during the current transfer window is Romaine Sawyers, who arrived in BS7 after a short spell with AFC Wimbledon. Three Charlton players have left the club recently; midfielder Terry Taylor has joined Northampton Town on loan, while Tayo Edun and Nathan Asilmwe have signed for Peterborough United and Walsall respectively in permanent deals.
Last Saturday, while Rovers were losing 2-0 at Wigan, Charlton recorded a 1-0 home win against Shrewsbury Town, thanks to a 90th minute Thierry Small goal.
Those results see Charlton in 10th place with 40 points from their 26 games, while Rovers are in 18th place with 28 points from the same number of games.