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Bristol Rovers had left their long standing home at Eastville in 1986. Our last game there was in 1970, pre-dating my travelling days by a fair distance, so my experience of away games against ‘The Pirates’, (official nick-name) or ‘The Gas’, (reflecting the original ground’s location next to a gasworks), involved trips to Twerton Park, Bath. The move back to the city of their name came in 1996, after a decade away.

And County had the honour of being the first visitors to the Memorial Ground in late August 1996. We shouldn’t have been the first – Peterborough were scheduled to be the debut opposition for the new home. Not a new ground of course – it was shared with Bristol RFC for a fair while, and much work needed to be done. And it wasn’t completed in time so the Posh headed for the final game at Twerton Park instead.

And if the ground wasn’t ready a fortnight before our trip it hardly was when we travelled down on a very pleasant late summer day. Two sides were fine, but the rest of the ground was a building site, and preparations for the game were rushed. So rushed in fact that the goalpost at one end was higher than it should have been! Leading to questions as to the real validity of the two goals that were scored.

Rovers took the lead 12 minutes into the game as a looping header evaded Paul Jones’ clutches and inched under the bar. Arguably if the bar at been set at the right height it would have gone over. So potentially hard done to. But things were equalled up in the second half when sub John Jeffers took a long range shot and it sailed in, once again just under the bar! And that’s the way it ended. It was of course the early stages of the ‘annus mirabalis’. There was no sign at that point that the 1996/97 season was to be the best in my 57 years watching County. That entertainment; excitement and achievement lay in the forthcoming months.

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Memories of trips to the Memorial Ground

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THE GAMES

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Where the date is in bold click for highlights of the game

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	Date	Venue	Ground	Competition		F	A	Att:
Sat	20/11/93	h	Edgeley Park	Endsleigh League Division 2 (Tier 3)	L	0	2	5,250
Sat	30/04/94	a	Twerton Park	Endsleigh League Division 2 (Tier 3)	D	1	1	4,189
Sat	03/09/94	a	Twerton Park	Endsleigh League Division 2 (Tier 3)	D	2	2	4,245
Tue	07/03/95	h	Edgeley Park	Endsleigh League Division 2 (Tier 3)	W	2	1	3,580
Sat	27/04/96	h	Edgeley Park	Endsleigh League Division 2 (Tier 3)	W	2	0	6,935
Sat	31/08/96	a	Memorial Ground	Nationwide Football League – Division 2 (Tier 3)	D	1	1	6,380
Sat	05/04/97	h	Edgeley Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 2 (Tier 3)	W	1	0	5,689
Tue	06/12/05	h	Edgeley Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	L	0	1	3,460
Sat	18/02/06	a	Memorial Ground	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	D	2	2	5,990
Sun	03/09/06	h	Edgeley Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	W	2	1	4,846
Tues	20/03/07	a	Memorial Ground	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	L	1	2	4,725
Sat	20/12/08	h	Edgeley Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1 (Tier 3)	W	3	1	5,364
Sat	28/03/09	a	Memorial Ground	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1 (Tier 3)	L	0	2	6,214
Sat	15/08/09	h	Edgeley Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1 (Tier 3)	L	0	2	4,084
Tues	02/03/10	a	Memorial Ground	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1 (Tier 3)	L	0	1	5,322

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