On Tuesday evening Bristol Rovers and Shrewsbury Town will meet for their 6th meeting in the league, with Rovers having won 31 of the previous 67 encounters to Shrewsbury’s 20. Sixteen games have been drawn while Rovers have scored 100 goals to Shrewsbury’s 79.
The clubs first met back in 1951/52 in the old Division Three (South) and played out a 3-3 draw at Eastville on 25th August 1951. The return fixture at Shrewsbury on 22nd December that year saw a 2-1 win for Shrewsbury.
Last season John Marquis, now a Shrewsbury player and who was sent off last Saturday, and Aaron Collins were on target for Rovers in our 2-0 win at The Croud Meadow on16th September 2023, while the return fixture at the Memorial Stadium on 1st April 2024 ended goalless.
In this season’s game at The Mem, on 22nd October last year saw Rovers win 1-0 courtesy of a Jamie Lindsay goa, the 100th we have scored against The Shrews in the league
Managerial/coaching connections between the clubs are many; Ian Atkins and Graham Coughlan played for Shrewsbury and later managed Rovers in their careers, as did Andy Mangan, though his tenure in the Rovers hotseat was in a caretaker capacity.
Steve Cross played for both clubs and had a three match spell as Rovers’ caretaker manager while Chic Bates enjoyed three spells as Shrewsbury boss as well as appearing in 294 games for them in two spells as a player. He also found time to play in 29 league games for Rovers!
The current Shrewsbury squad includes four former Rovers players in Marquis, Luca Hoole, Jamal Blackman and Jordan Rossiter, though he is now on loan at Oldham Athletic. They, alongside Cross and Bates, means the total number of players to have turned out for both clubs stands at 40. That’s far too many to mention here, but the total that also includes Trevor Challis, Jamie Cureton, Craig Disley, Joe Jacobson, Richard Walker and Alex Rodman.
I make it that 12 players have made their Rovers league debut against Shrewsbury, the last of whom was James Daly whose debut came in a 1-0 defeat at The Memorial Stadium on 29th February 2020.
Shrewsbury’s 3-1 defeat at Peterborough last Saturday sees them looking up at the rest of the League One sides from their position at the foot of the table, with 27 points from their 34 games.
Rovers defeat at the hands of Rotherham United has left us in 20th place with 35 points from our 33 games and if ever there was a must win game, then this is it…for both clubs!
Shrewsbury have won just five of their 17 home games this season, while Rovers have won only three of their 17 away matches, so It’s definitely time to make it four wins on our travels!
We wish all travelling Gasheads a safe journey to and from the match and hope you see a Rovers victory!