As Bristol Rovers get ready to travel to Cheltenham Town in Sky Bet League Two, here are five players who have played for both teams.
The Pirates will be looking to end their six-game losing run in the fourth tier with a victory against the Robins, having already had success at the EV Charger Points Stadium.
Rovers beat the Robins 1-0 on the road in the Vertu Trophy as part of their unbeaten effort in the group stages, with Luke Thomas scoring a superb second-half goal from the edge of the box.
Cheltenham showed great spirit to come from two goals behind to level the score at 2-2 against Tranmere Rovers in their last outing before falling to a 3-2 defeat. The Robins have lost back-to-back fixtures in the fourth tier after a great start under Steve Cotterill, where they collected 10 points from the first 12 available under their new manager.
Read about five players who have played for both teams below...
Josh Griffiths
Griffiths was a fan's favourite at Rovers and Cheltenham. A product of West Bromwich Albion's academy, the shot-stopper made his first-ever loan move away from his boyhood club to the Robins, making an immediate impact, keeping a clean sheet on his professional debut against Peterborough United in the Carabao Cup.
The goalkeeper played 50 times for Cheltenham and kept an impressive 23 clean sheets, helping his team to the 2020/21 Sky Bet League Two title and earning the Robins' Young Player of the Season award.
Temporary spells at Lincoln City and Portsmouth followed before returning to West Brom from Pompey for the second half of the 2022/23 term, playing ten times.
Griffiths then spent the following campaign on loan at the Gas, keeping eight clean sheets in 33 games before being recalled by the Baggies on February 3 2025. He has since been a regular starter for West Brom and has played x times for the club.
Liam Sercombe
Sercombe played a significant number of games for Rovers and Cheltenham, earning the Player of the Year award at both teams. The midfielder played a massive 263 matches for his boyhood club, Exeter City, between 2007 and 2015, helping the Grecians gain promotion from the Conference Premier (now known as the National League) to Sky Bet League One.
He then departed Exeter for Oxford before the start of the 2015/16 campaign, helping the U's gain promotion to the third tier in his first of two campaigns at the club. Sercombe played 101 times for Oxford across all competitions before moving again, this time to the Pirates. The now 35-year-old won the Rovers Player of the Year award in his first season and played consistently for the following two campaigns before leaving for Cheltenham.
Sercombe helped the Robins to promotion to Sky Bet League One in his debut campaign at the club, but his most memorable individual campaign was his fourth and final one at Cheltenham. He led their scoring ranks, netting 11 league goals in the 2023/24 campaign, which helped him to their Player of the Year award. Sercombe now plays for Forest Green Rovers in the National League.
Taylor Moore
Moore is a current Rovers player who has also represented Cheltenham. Born in England, the defender moved to France when he was seven years old and joined Lens' academy at 12. He played 12 times for the French outfit, including four times in Ligue 1, but could not nail down his place and returned to England when he signed for Rovers' rivals, Bristol City, in August 2016.
Despite making 60 appearances for City, more than any other team in his career, he spent much of his time out on loan, leaving the club six times for temporary spells away. His second loan was to Cheltenham, playing 38 times across all competitions in the 2017/18 campaign.
Moore left City permanently in July 2023 for Valenciennes, spending one campaign at the Ligue 2 outfit before moving to Rovers, where he has played XX games across all competitions. Off the pitch, the centre-back also started the 5k Your Way initiative, earning him the EFL Community Player of the Year at the 2025 EFL Awards.
Joe Day
On the reverse, Cheltenham also have a current player who used to appear for the Gas. Like many goalkeepers, Day spent much of his career on loan to gain first-team football, going on five separate temporary moves away, whilst at Rushden & Diamonds and Peterborough United, before finding a permanent home at Newport County in December 2014.
The shot-stopper made over 200 league appearances across five seasons at the club and reached the Sky Bet League Two play-off final in his final season, with Newport losing to Tranmere Rovers.
Day moved to Sky Bet Championship team Cardiff City in June 2019 but only played twice for the Bluebirds. He went on loan to AFC Wimbledon during the 2019/20 season before another spell away at Rovers the following campaign, where he played 20 times and kept three clean sheets.
The shot-stopper then returned to Newport on a permanent deal for a further three campaigns and reached 305 games in all competitions but did not play for them in his final campaign at the Exiles, going on loan to Woking and Yeovil Town.
In June 2024, Day joined Cheltenham as a player/goalkeeping coach and has made XX appearances for the Robins.
Steve Elliott
Elliott made a combined 449 appearances for Rovers and Cheltenham across all competitions. The defender began his career at Derby County, playing 72 times for the Rams before signing for Blackpool, where he was part of the Seasiders' 2004 Football League Trophy Final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
However, his stay at Blackpool was short, with Elliott moving down to Rovers in the summer. Appearing 48 times across all competitions for the Gas in his first campaign and 50 in his second, he played even more times in the 2006/07 term. Elliott played 53 times and was part of the team that reached the final of the Football League Trophy and won the League Two playoffs, playing in both legs of the semi-final against Lincoln and the final versus Shrewsbury Town.
Elliott played 255 times for the Pirates before moving to Cheltenham in 2010, featuring regularly again. Another playoff final was on the cards in his second season at the club, but this time he was on the wrong side of the result as the Robins lost to Crewe Alexandra. Across his career, Elliott played 565 club games and scored 27 goals, also appearing twice for England U21s.
