List Of Bristol Rovers F.C. Players
Bristol Rovers F.C. is an English professional association football club based in Bristol, who play in Football League Two, the forth tier of the English football league system, as of the 2010–11 season. The club was formed in 1883 under the name Black Arabs F.C. playing their home games at Purdown in Bristol, but they used the name for only a single season, becoming Eastville Rovers and moving to a site known as Three Acres in 1884. Eastville Rovers were somewhat nomadic, moving home in 1891 to the Schoolmaster's Cricket Ground, in 1892 to Durdham Down, and in 1894 to Ridgeway, before finally settling at Eastville Stadium and changing their name to Bristol Eastville Rovers in 1897. Two years later they adopted their current name of Bristol Rovers when they became founder members of the Southern League. They remained at Eastville Stadium for 99 years, before leaving in 1986 when financial pressures meant that they could no longer afford to pay the rent, whereupon they moved to Bath City's Twerton Park, a move that saved the club £30,000 a year. After playing for ten years in Bath, the club returned to Bristol in 1997 when they agreed to share Bristol Rugby's Memorial Stadium. Since joining The Football League in 1920, when the top division of the Southern League effectively became the Football League Third Division, Rovers have spent most of their time in the second and third tiers of the English football league system; the team has never played in the top flight and spent six years, 2001 to 2007, in the fourth tier.
In the club's early history the appearance record was held by goalkeeper Arthur Cartlidge, who played in 258 Southern League games between 1901 and 1909. His record stood until it was broken by another goalkeeper, Jesse Whatley, who played 14 times in the Southern League and a further 372 in The Football League, making a total of 386 overall. Following the Second World War the Bristol Rovers board introduced a no-buy/no-sell policy, which remained in force until the abolition of the maximum wage in football in 1961; as a result some players in that era had a high number of appearances for the club. Eight of the top nine most-used players played during this time, each making over 400 appearances. These eight were Bobby Jones (421 appearances), Alfie Biggs (424), Ray Warren (450), Harold Jarman (452), George Petherbridge (457), Geoff Bradford (462), Jackie Pitt (466), and Harry Bamford (486). The club's all-time leading appearance maker, Stuart Taylor, played in 546 League games between 1965 and 1980. The club's highest goalscorer by a wide margin is Geoff Bradford, who scored 242 times in The Football League, exceeding the next-highest scorer Alfie Biggs by 64 goals.
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