Opening Day Debuts

Aug 9, 2024 | News

The opening day of a new season sees many players make their league debuts for new clubs; inevitable, really, given the number on the move after a year or two at one club.
Looking back over the years, to when Rovers first competed in the league, way back in 1920, it’s interesting to note how many made their first appearance for the club on the opening day, leaving aside the eleven who appeared in that first ever match, against Millwall on 28th August that year.
From then until the last pre war season, there was a steady stream of opening day debuts; there were six against Portsmouth (1922) Charlton (1925),Bournemouth (1931) and Millwall (1936), while eight made their first appearance in a Rovers shirt in 1932.
The most opening day debuts, though, came about in 1930 when Arthur Attwood, Christopher Ball, George Berry, Norman Dinsdale, Joseph Pointon, Walter Price, John Richardson, John Scott and Herbert Young were in the side that faced Northampton Town, who we play on the first game of the new season on Saturday.
Unfortunately, The Cobblers were 4-1 winners that day, though Pointon did have the satisfaction of making a goalscoring debut, netting Rovers’ goal from the penalty spot.
The first post war season (1946/47) saw seven new players in the side that faced Reading and they included Harry Bamford, Vic Lambden and Jackie Pitt.
There was nothing to match that through the 1950’s and 1960’s and in fact there were none in 1967/68 Frankie Prince was the only player to make his league bow during that season and that was in the penultimate game, against Swindon.
It was a similar story throughout the 1970’s and it wasn’t until 1985/86 that we saw five new players turn out for Rovers on the opening day. That was against Darlington, at their Feethams Ground when Steve Badock and Byron Stevenson made goalscoring debuts in a 3-3 draw.
That figure wasn’t beaten until 8th August 1998 when eight new players made their debut in an opening day 2-1 defeat against Burnley at Turf Moor. Trevor Challis and Jason Roberts were two of the players who appeared in the blue and white quarters for the first time that day.
That number was equalled in August 2004 when Ian Atkins also handed opening day debuts to eight players, among them Stuart Campbell, Steve Elliott, Craig Hinton and Richard Walker. Two Junior Agogo goals sealed victory against Mansfield, at Field Mill on that occasion.
And then we come to 2011, a game we will touch on again later this week. Newly installed manager Paul Buckle came with a new broom and out went many former players, allowing the new boss to hand starts to no fewer than 10 new players as Rovers took on AFC Wimbledon at Kingsmeadow.
The only starter from the previous season was Byron Anthony, although Chris Lines and Jo Kuffour did appear in the second half as did another making his debut, Mustapha Carayol making it the same number of opening day starters as in that first league game in 1920.
Rovers won 3-2 and, not surprisingly, there were three goalscoring debuts, from Scott McGleish, Matt Harrold and Adam Virgo.
Northampton Town feature again as, on opening day 2015 as Rovers celebrated a return to the Football League following a year in what was then known as The Conference. Eight players made their Gas league debut that afternoon including Billy Bodin, Stuart Sinclair and Matty Taylor, the latter two having been prominent members of the Conference side.
There was no happy ending that day John-Joe O’Toole, a former Rovers player of course, scored the only goal of the game to give The Cobblers victory.
Graham Coughlan handed out six opening day debuts at Blackpool on 3rd August 2019 (we lost 2-0) while Ben Garner went one better on the opening day of the 2020/21 campaign when seven new players took to the pitch at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland (we drew 1-1).
In 2021/22, for the third season running, Rovers had another new manager in charge on the opening day and Joe Barton selected nine new players for the trip to Mansfield where Rovers were beaten 2-1. Cian Harries made a goalscoring debut and Paul Coutts was red carded on his first game for The Gas.
And now, for the third time in our league history, we face Northampton Town on the opening day of a new season. With 12 new signings having been made at the time this article is written (with a few days to add a couple more!) will current boss Matt Taylor beat the record of handing debuts to more than eleven players?
Watch this space!

Matt Taylor is likely to hand debuts to Promise Omochere and Taylor Moore on Saturday