The latest from Bristol Rovers Chairman Nick Higgs
Most of you will by now know that it is our intention to take Sainsbury’s to the High Court regarding their contract to purchase the Memorial Stadium site.It is with regret that we find ourselves in a position where it is necessary to resort to High Court action to complete our contract with Sainsbury’s. However, this course of action is unfortunately unavoidable if the Club is to be in a position to invest in our new stadium at UWE.
I'm afraid I am unable to make any further comment on the situation at present, because of the ongoing legal action, but once there is any further information I am able to share with you then I will do so.
Since my last notes Darrell has brought two new players to the club in Jermaine Easter on a permanent deal from Millwall, and Leicester City's Adam Dawson on loan.
Both are exciting players, at different stages of their careers, who have shown a willingness and a desire to play for Bristol Rovers, and I wish them every success during their time with us.
As I have said before, we will continue to back, and support, Darrell as he moves to strengthen his squad as they prepare for the final 15 games of the season.
Two more players, Bradley Goldberg and Ryan Brunt, have left the club in the last week. Bradley has returned to Dagenham & Redbridge, his parent club, while Ryan has joined Plymouth Argyle in a permanent deal and I wish them both every success for the future.
A week ago we travelled to play Woking at the Kingfield Stadium and returned home with a hard earned point from a goalless draw.
Over 2,000 of you made the trip to watch the game but, unfortunately, the official away attendance of 1,869 reflects the fact that some of you were unable to gain entry to the stadium.
Attempts were made, on the day, to see if it was at all possible to allow those of you unable to gain admittance to watch the match from another area of the ground, without success.
Officials at Woking have since told us that, under the terms of their safety certificate, the maximum number of away fans the club can accommodate is 1,900 and that the police took the decision to close the gates with the number of away fans inside the ground being just 31 short of that total.
In addition, Woking's safety certificate forbids the mixing of home and away supporters when the game is designated to be a segregated one, which is why those of you unable to gain access were left outside the ground.
I can understand the frustration felt by those of you who travelled to the game and were unable to gain admittance but regret that the situation was beyond our control.
We will continue to liaise closely with all of the teams we face in our remaining seven away games this season, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the situation we saw at Woking.
It's a shame that we don't have a game this weekend because we have been on a fantastic run and lost only one of our last 24 league games. Having reduced the gap between ourselves and league leaders Barnet to just five points, it's slightly frustrating that we aren't in action again until next Saturday when we travel to play Dartford.
However there is one Bristol Rovers side in action at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday as our highly rated U-18 side take on Portsmouth (kick off 11.00am). I hope as many of you as possible will take the opportunity to come along and see them in action as they would welcome your support.