If 23rd August 1986 was a memorable day in the history of Bristol Rovers, being the day we finally drew a line under Eastville and relocated to Twerton Park, then 31st August 1996 was a momentous day in our history.

It was the day we came back to Bristol after ten years in exile at Twerton Park, in Bath.

The reasons for the move to Bath are well documented, and there's no need to go over them again.

Some of my memories from those days are priceless. I first stood on the pitch prior to that 1986/87 season looking at a set-up that was not very Football League, to say the least, but with a sense of complete relief that we were still in business to play football in the Third Division. So near had we come to extinction in the previous few weeks.

Whatever it looked like, at least we had a ground to play on and, with the help of many of our supporters armed with paint pots and brushes, we set about making the place more presentable to stage league football.

Jackie Pitt was our groundsman, and he faced a mammoth job as he beavered away to make the pitch acceptable for our needs. To make matters worse, he had to do that with the aid of water from a single ordinary hose because the water supply was that bad. He frequently had to request the fire brigade to hold practice on the pitch so that we could get more water into the ground.

Contrast that to the winter a few months later when Bobby Gould was pictured almost shin deep in mud between the goalposts at the bottom of the hill. Incidentally, it was Bobby who coined the name Azteca Twerton, a name that stuck for a long time!

All in all, we had a remarkable time at Twerton. We experienced a brilliant few seasons with Gerry Francis as our manager, and in 1999/2000 promotion was achieved to the second tier of English football.

Gerry's characteristic baggie old grey tracksuit added to his description of 'Ragbag Rovers', a name I thought unfair to Ray Kendall, God bless him, who unfailingly kept us all together during those darkish days, and not only by doing his job as kit manager. How he achieved his workload was a minor miracle in my eyes.

Towards the end of our ten-year exile, though we'd had some wonderful times, I remember beginning to feel tired of the place as if we'd outstayed our welcome, particularly since our opponents' grounds were all tending to get better and better and leaving us well behind. Something had to happen, and it did.

We had the opportunity to move back to Bristol, to the Memorial Ground, as tenants of Bristol Rugby Club. Moving back to Bristol was a godsend and I remember going down there before we signed up and staring with awe at what I thought was a massive stand, and I suppose it was compared with Twerton.

Shortly after that we had what is known as the West Stand on the opposite side, looking more like an expensively built cricket pavilion than a football stand. However, beggars couldn't be choosers, and at least we were back where we belonged, in Bristol.

It wasn't long before the Rugby club found themselves in financial difficulty, faced with selling the ground to survive. Bristol Rovers were able, in competition with others, to buy the freehold of the Memorial Ground.

As a gesture of goodwill, the rugby club retained 50 per cent provided we both signed up to an agreement that if either club went into liquidation the other club would take over full ownership of the ground. The rugby club later got themselves into further financial difficulty and the ground was taken over, wholly owned by Bristol Rovers, and renamed the Memorial Stadium.

The twelve years or so since we moved from Twerton have been topsy-turvy, to say the least. In season 2000/01 the club was relegated to the basement division of the Football League for the first time in its history. This devastated me, and it was the worst night in football, ever, for me.

After six or seven years of misery, seasons 2006/07 and 2007/08 proved to be very good for the club. We played at both the Millennium Stadium and the new Wembley in the same season, a Football League record I think that cannot be broken. We also achieved promotion to what is now League One, with ambition to get to the Championship very soon, and we reached the quarter-final of the FA Cup.

The Memorial Stadium is looking a bit tired these days, with the revenue earned from within the stadium not sufficient to sustain our league ambition, so the club needs to move on again. Our ambition is Championship football in a brand new 18,500 all-seater state-of-the-art stadium. This is currently being worked on, and we should achieve our aim for the start of season 2010/11.

In the meantime we need to face another shorter period in exile so that the new stadium can be built on the old site. My feeling after going through the last 22 years is that, with the help of our magnificent fans, we can do two more years standing on our head.

The new ground will provide tremendous facilities for players, fans and the local community, as well as giving the city of Bristol the kind of top sporting arena it deserves. It is necessary for us to leave Horfield for the work to be undertaken, and a lot of time and effort went into choosing our temporary home.

We decided Cheltenham represented the best option for our fans in terms of travel and distance, and the top quality playing surface was also a factor in our decision because a decent pitch will undoubtedly suit our style of play.

We do appreciate that it may be difficult for some to make the journey up the M5 for all our home games, but we would like to encourage as many of our loyal fans as possible to continue to support us during our time away from Bristol.

Last season in the league we started brightly and proved that we were not afraid of playing at a higher level. Although results did not always go our way, we played some good football and have rarely been outclassed in this division.

Next season we are hoping to build on this positive start and keep the momentum going while we are away from Bristol. The management team will be working hard over the coming weeks to strengthen the squad in key areas, and I am very excited to see what Bristol Rovers can do next season.

As I have said, we are an ambitious club, and hope to be playing Championship football in our new stadium.

Ron Craig