History of Bristol Rovers F.C. - The 2000s

The 2000s

Until the end of the 2000–01 season, Bristol Rovers had been the only team in the Football League never to have played in the first or the fourth levels of the league. This record ended when the team were relegated to Division 3 for the 2001–02 season. Holloway resigned at the halfway point of the season, and Garry Thompson took over for the rest of the campaign, but was unable to prevent relegation. Gerry Francis returned to the club and oversaw a good start that saw them top the division at the end of August; results soon faded however, and it became clear that Rovers were not going to get out of the division at the first attempt. Francis resigned due to personal issues in December with the side in 20th place, leading to Garry Thompson being reinstated as manager. Despite masterminding a cup upset against Premier League opponents Derby County, Rovers' League form remained poor, and the club hit its lowest ebb, finishing second bottom of the whole League and only surviving due to a truly awful season by bottom-placed Halifax Town.

With the League introducing two relegation places from Division Three the next season it was obvious that Rovers would have to improve quickly, and Thompson was duly sacked and replaced by former player Ray Graydon. While Graydon had experienced promotion success twice with Walsall, he failed to significantly improve Rovers' form, and the next two seasons were also spent fighting relegation to the Conference. Soon, Graydon was gone, and Ian Atkins took the hotseat. A slight improvement resulted, resulting in Rovers hovering in mid-table; this was far from what the board and fans wanted however, and after just over a season in charge Atkins was dismissed, and in his place the club appointed Paul Trollope as player-manager, aided by director of football Lennie Lawrence. Trollope's first season in full charge (2005–06) saw the club briefly contend for the play-offs, but eventually resulted in another mid-table (12th place) finish.

Things were needing improving and so they did.During the 2006–07 season, Rovers reached the final of the Football League Trophy for the second time in the clubs history. The team were beaten 3–2 by Doncaster Rovers after extra time, having drawn 2–2 after 90 minutes at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Richard Walker and Sammy Igoe putting Rovers back on level terms, after Jonathan Forte and Paul Heffernan scored early goals for Donny. Graeme Lee's header after 110 minutes settled the game in the opponents favour.

The team also managed to qualify for the playoffs, finishing 6th in the final table (the last play-off spot awarded to a team) where they played 3rd placed and tie favourites Lincoln City. Rovers qualified for the final at the new Wembley Stadium after a 7–4 aggregate win over Lincoln. In the final at Wembley Stadium they faced Shrewsbury Town. In front of 40,000 "Gasheads" and 20,000 "Shrews", Bristol Rovers won by three goals to one in what was a thrilling match. Richard Walker and Sammy Igoe were the Wembley heroes once again, despite Stewart Drummonds goal inside the first three minutes. The game was marked though, by the home match atmosphere created by the huge Rovers' support and their almost endless singing of their signature song "Goodnight Irene". Rovers also became only the second team, behind Chelsea to have played at both Millennium Stadium and Wembley Stadium in the same season. It turned out to be a great season for the city, as Rover's arch rivals Bristol City were celebrating their own success, finishing second to Scunthorpe United in their own league, securing promotion to The Championship for the 2007–08 season.

Honours

• League Two Play-Off winners – 2006–07

2007–08 saw Rovers survive in League One as they finished 16th, with the prospect of relegation never really finding its way around the club, however, top 6 was always a bit ambitious and it proved to be a transitional season for the club, just to find their feet amongst the division. A run in the League Cup was halted by premier league West Ham United in just the second round, Craig Bellamy scoring two first-half goals for the East-Londerners. Rovers had got through to this game as a result of an un-fancied win against Crystal Palace at the Memorial Stadium, thanks to Craig Disley sending the tie into extra time with a 63rd minute equaliser,setting the impetus for Rovers to go on and win 4–1 on penalties. However the big news of the season was a brilliant run to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, where they were finally eliminated 5–1 at the expense of high-flying Championship side West Bromwich Albion.

Throughout this run, Rovers had seen off the challenge of League-one rivals Leyton Orient, where after two draws Rovers won the tie 6–5 on penalties, Non-League Rushden and Diamonds, Premier League side Fulham (5–3 on penalties), League two strugglers Barnet (a comfortbale 2–0 success) and Coca-cola Championship outfit Southampton, where an 85th minute free-kick from Rickie Lambert (on his 26th birthday) saw Rovers into the last eight. There was to be no repeat however, the following season, a season that saw Rovers knocked out by League Two side AFC Bournemouth in the very first round of the competition's proper. Rovers were also knocked out in the first round of the other two competitions. Despite this setback Trollope's men went on to finish a comfortable 11th in the table as 29-goal hero Rickie Lambert played what was to be his last season in the blue and white shirt.

These 29 goals all came in the domestic league and Lambert shared this tally with Swindon Town's Simon Cox, who just like Lambert was playing in his last season for his club, moving to West Bromwich Albion of the Coca-cola Championship. Despite the loss of striker Lambert, a fine start to the 2009–10 season pushed Rovers into 3rd place in the table at the start of October, which included a thrilling 3–2 victory away to Southampton on 29 September in which a last minute (96th to be precise) goal by Andy Williams saw Rovers clinch victory and go four points clear of 4th placed Colchester United. A run of five successive defeats, however, including 5–1 and 4–0 defeats to Norwich City and Leeds United respectively, saw Rovers drop out of the play-off places. Rovers maintained a very consistent level of performance throughout the remainder of the season, never falling out of the top 10 positions in the league table. Eventually, on 10 April 2010, Rovers' play-off hopes were put to an end for another season after losing 2–1 away to Oldham Athletic. The side finished the season in 10th place after gaining only one point from their last six games.