Reflecting on Bristol Rovers' brilliant history, the Gas has an impressive record with players whose family name begins with the letter B.
Let’s go back to 1903 when Southern League Rovers signed Billy Beats, an England International from Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Pirates finished third in the Southern League in 1903–04 before winning the championship by a five-point margin in 1904–05. They finished a disappointing eighth in 1905–06. Beats scored 44 goals in 94 games in his three years at Eastville.
Fast forward to the 1950s, and here is the only player to have won an England cap whilst representing Rovers, Geoff Bradford. The most successful player in the history of Bristol Rovers, holding the record for most goals. Over the course of his 15-year career with Rovers, he played a total of 626 competitive matches, including 14 representative matches, 10 Western League games and 73 reserve team games, scoring a total of 355 goals, which included 24 hat-tricks and goals in 15 consecutive seasons.
He also played in every outfield position for the club. Geoff made his first appearance in the 1949-50 season and his final appearance in the 1963-64 season.
A player whose career largely paralleled Bradford’s was Alfie Biggs, starting in 1953-54 and finishing in 1967-68 (with a sojourn in the 1961-62 season which he spent at Preston North End), ‘The Baron’ notched 197 goals in 463 first team appearances.
Hailing from the City heartland of Knowle West, he was courted assiduously by the Robins as a promising teenager, but when he turned up at Ashton Gate to sign a contract, he was kept waiting so long that he hopped on a bus and joined Rovers instead. It was a snap decision he was never to regret. His most fruitful season was 1963-64, during which he scored 37 goals.
Next up, we arrive at a double B, Bruce Bannister. Bannister was a Yorkshireman who played a key role in one of the most successful Rovers teams ever. Forming half of the legendary "Smash & Grab" partnership with Alan Warboys, the pair bagged 133 goals for the club between 1971 and 1976. During this spell, Rovers had their only ever national cup competition win when they picked up the Watney Cup in 1972, and in 1974, they won promotion for only the second time.
In all, Bannister played 206 league matches for the Gas, scoring 80 goals in the process and making a name for himself on the national stage. He was the club's top goal scorer during the 1972–73 and 1975–76 seasons, and his tally of 25 goals in the former is one of the highest single-season totals the team has ever seen. In fact, no one scored more goals in a single campaign after that season until Rickie Lambert's 29-goal haul in 2008–09.
We now come to another double B, Billy Bodin. Bodin signed for Rovers in July 2015 on a short-term deal following a successful trial. He scored his first goal for Rovers in a 3–0 away win against Hartlepool, his second against Morecambe in a 4–3 win away from home, and his third, a spectacular effort, in a 4-1 loss to Newport County. He also scored against Dagenham & Redbridge and high-flying Plymouth Argyle, finishing the season with five goals to help the Gas to achieve promotion to League One.
Bodin did not score in the 2016–17 season until a volley in a 3–2 defeat to Chesterfield in November. By the turn of the year, he was on four goals, thanks to a Boxing Day hat trick in a 4–1 victory over Coventry City, all scored with his left foot: a shot from the edge of the box into the far top corner, a long shot from 25 yards and a penalty. He also scored a fine goal against Northampton Town during a 5–0 thrashing.
Bodin scored his first two goals of the 2017-18 season with a brace on 8 August 2017 in a 4–1 EFL Cup victory over Cambridge United, his second match of the campaign. His first two league goals of the season came in a 3–2 victory away to Bury: a header from a cross from Joe Partington to make it 2–0 and a close-range effort to make it 3–0. On 7 October 2017, Bodin opened the scoring as Rovers defeated his former club Northampton, 6–0 away from home.
He departed the club on 3 January 2018, having scored 13 goals in the first half of the season for the club. He scored a total of 35 goals in 95 appearances.
Finally, Bryant Belongo, a full-back who likes to go forward. He made his debut for the club on the opening day of this season. His 92nd-minute winning goal against Northampton provided Rovers' first opening-day victory in thirteen years. Following the match, he described it as the highlight of his career to date.
