Written by Keith Brookman...
As Bristol Rovers head to Scotland for a training camp and games against Dundee and Burnley U21s, perhaps this is an appropriate time to look back at some of the games we have played against Scottish sides over the course of the last 50 years.
In 1975 plans had been made to play Hamilton Academicals, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock, but the opportunity of hosting League Cup winners Aston Villa meant that the Kilmarnock match was cancelled! The match against Hamilton, on 30th July, ended in a 1-1 draw, with Bruce Bannister scoring Rovers' goal from the penalty spot, while the game against St Johnstone three days later ended goalless.
Fast forward to 1982 and Rovers played pre-season games against Partick Thistle, Falkirk and Ayr United. A crowd of 500 saw Rovers register a 2-1 win against Partick, thanks to goals from Errington Kelly and a Brian Williams penalty.
Bobby Gould’s side then beat Falkirk 3-2, the goals coming from Micky Barrett, Geraint Williams and Archie Stephens. 24 hours later, on 10th August, Rovers beat Ayr United 4-1 with Paul Randall (2), Kelly and Barrett on the scoresheet.
One year later, Rovers were back in Scotland, with David Williams in charge, where they played another four friendly matches. They slipped to a 2-0 defeat at Morton on 6th August and two days later drew 1-1 against Airdrieonians, where Randall was on target.
They then cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win against Hamilton Academical on August 10th. Aidan McCaffery gave Rovers the lead in the 63rd minute and Ian Holloway added a second shortly afterwards. Brian Williams scored the third goal, from the penalty spot, after Paul Randall had been fouled in the area. A fourth game was played in Scotland three days later when a 2-1 win against Kilmarnock was achieved thanks to goals by the manager and Aidan McCaffery.
Ray Graydon took his squad to Scotland as part of their pre-season preparations for the 2003/04 campaign and saw his side defeat Ayr United 5-0 on 22nd July when Paul Tait (2), Ijah Anderson, Junior Agogo and Wayne Carlisle were on target. However, Graydon’s side were beaten 1-0 in their second game, going down 1-0 against Clyde in what was deemed to be a disappointing display.
Four years later, Paul Trollope took Rovers on a three-match Scottish tour that took in games against Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath and Airdrie. His side took on Dunfermline at their East End Park home on Tuesday 24th July, where a crowd of 1,233 saw an entertaining 2-2 draw, Rovers' goals being scored by Rickie Lambert and Richard Walker.
Two days later it was off to Central Park where they took on Cowdenbeath and won 2-1 thanks to second half goals from triallist Danny Rose and Walker. The final match in Scotland was played against Airdrie at the Excelsior Stadium on July 28th and kicked off at 1pm to enable the squad to fly back to Bristol afterwards, and Rovers played out their second 2-2 draw in a week, and it was the strike duo of Walker and Lambert who were again on target.
Trollope again took his squad to Scotland in 2010 for games against Morton and Partick Thistle. Two goals by Jo Kuffour and another from Jeff Hughes saw them to a 3-1 win against Morton in front of a crowd of 1,037, while there were 936 hardy souls at the game against Partick and they saw a 2-0 Rovers win achieved by goals from Wayne Brown and Eliot Richards.
As for home games against Scottish sides during the same period, we can track down these: a goalless draw against Dundee at Eastville on 30th July 1980, the other being a 2-2 draw against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, managed by Terry Butcher, at Twerton Park on 14th July 2011 when Rovers’ goalscorers were Scott McGleish, from the penalty spot, and Kayne McLaggon.
