Tomorrow, at the Memorial Stadium, Bristol Rovers take on Shrewsbury Town in what will be the 67th league meeting between the sides.
To date, Rovers have won 30 of the previous 66 encounters, Shrewsbury 20 and the other 16 games have ended all square.
Rovers have scored 99 goals to Shrewsbury’s 79 so there’s a chance that we can manage the 100th league goal against The Shrews tomorrow!
The first meetings between the clubs came in the 1951/52 season when the sides played out a 3-3 draw at Eastville while Shrewsbury won the return fixture 2-1.
Last season we were 2-0 winners at the Croud Meadow, while the return fixture at The Mem ended goalless.
Paul Hurst, the current Shrewsbury boss, was in charge of Grimsby when we beat them in the Conference Play Off Final at Wembley in 2015, while former Rovers managers Ian Atkins, Graham Coughlan and Andy Managn (caretaker) all played for Shrewsbury.
Steve Cross played for both clubs and was also caretaker manager for three games at Rovers, while Chic Bates is another to have turned out for both clubs; he appeared in 294 games as a player for Shrewsbury as well as managing them on three different occasions.
Former Rovers players John Marquis and Jordan Rossiter played in Shrewsbury’s last game, a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Exeter City while another former Rovers player, Luca Hoole, has appeared in 11 games in all competitions for the Shrews so far this season.
The last Rovers player to make his Rovers league debut against Shrewsbury was James Daly, who first appearance for the club ended a in a 1-0 defeat at The Mem on 29th February 2020.
Rovers, of course, were 3-1 winners against Shrewsbury at Wembley in the 2007 play off final at Wembley and no one there will ever forget the third Rovers goal, scored by Sammy Igoe in the last minute of the game. Strange, really, because Richard Walker scored two outstanding goals, and yet we all remember Sammy’s goal more!
Rovers are currently in 18th place in the league standings, with 13 points from their 11 games, while Shrewsbury are down in 21st place with eight points from 12 games.
Home form could well be crucial for Rovers this season and three points tomorrow would boost confidence ahead of Saturday’s trip to Reading
It would also mean three wins from the last four league games and would help erase the memory of a dreadful first half at Huddersfield last Saturday.