Bristol Rovers make prolific Doncaster Rovers and Portsmouth striker their fourth summer signing

Bristol Rovers have confirmed their fourth signing of the summer, coming in the form of experienced League One striker John Marquis.

The 30-year-old was free to find a new club after leaving Lincoln City at the end of his short-term deal at Sincil Bank and has put pen to paper on a deal with the club.

There had been interest from Ben Garner’s Charlton Athletic as well as an ambitious swoop from AFC Wimbledon in League Two, but it is Rovers that he has decided to make his fifth permanent home.

He joins Fleetwood Town’s, Jordan Rossiter, James Gibbons from Port Vale and James Connolly from Cardiff City as the new arrivals this summer as the board continue to show their support to Joey Barton.

Marquis has been on a personal training camp out in Dubai to help prepare him for his next club and will now link up with the squad for their week long training camp in Portugal.

“I’m looking forward to starting a new challenge with Bristol Rovers and, after speaking to the manager, and seeing the training ground, I knew this was the right place to play football for the next couple of years.”

Marquis has come off a season where he scored nine goals in total for both Portsmouth and Lincoln City and makes his move to his third club of the calendar year.

He began the season with Pompey and netted four times for the Hampshire club but was allowed to join Lincoln City on a short-term contract in January, yielding a similar return of five goals in 20 matches.

Most of his career has been spent in English football’s third tier and in 233 games, he has netted 76 goals and also provided 25 assists.

His best return at this level was netting 21 goals in 44 games for Doncaster Rovers back in the 2018/19 season. He later moved on to Portsmouth and got 16 goals in 41 games in his best return at Fratton Park.

Marquis also managed to appear 41 times in the Championship after coming through the youth ranks at Millwall, but spent a lot of his career out on loan before eventually settling at his last three clubs.