How Bristol Rovers season compares to their last League Two promotion year - league standings, form & players

The 2021/22 season is Joey Barton’s first full season in charge of Bristol Rovers after taking over from Paul Tisdale in February of last year.

Barton oversaw the Gas’ relegation from the third tier, which saw more than 16 players leave and almost a whole new squad assembled.

That is in complete contrast to the last Rovers team that went for promotion to League One, as under Darrell Clarke, they were newcomers to the division after being promoted from the National League.

With the season almost to a close, we compare their current standings to the last season they were vying for promotion.

League standings

At the half-way stage of Rovers season in 2016, they had accumalated 37 points from a possible 63, putting them in eighth. Compare that to the first part of this season and this side were 15th and had picked up 30 points from 23 matches.

The Gas currently sit fifth in League Two after a goalless draw with Forest Green Rovers who were promoted at the Mem at the weekend.

Rovers are in between chasing an automatic spot and securing their place in the end of season playoffs and their future will be clearer come the end of this week.

They are two points off of third placed Northampton Town and fourth-placed Port Vale with it currently separated by goal difference.

Sitting in the middle are Rovers, who are two points ahead of Mansfield Town, but can be overtaken if they win their game in hand.

After 44 games in their last promotion campaign in 2016, Rovers were in fourth place with five more points.

Back in 2016 with just two games remaining, Rovers had 79 points on the board and were sitting a point off of third-placed Oxford and two off of second placed Accrington.

Form and their run-in

Just like in April 2016, there were six games to play in the business end of the season and back then, they won all their games, winning four out of the six and drawing the other two. Currently there are three wins with a win against Rochdale potentially repeating that feat.

With two games left to make their season, Rovers play away at 18th-placed Rochdale and already relegated Scunthorpe United, who are rock bottom of the division.

In 2016, it was a trip to 23rd placed York City who Rovers came up against in their penultimate fixture and they escaped any kind of upset, winning 4-1, putting them on 82 points but still outside the automatic spots.

Their final league game then came against Dagenham, who after their win against Crawley Town, put them into 23rd after York’s loss.

Two automatic promotion spots were still available with Oxford United, Rovers and Accrington Stanley all in the mix.

Accrington were held to a goalless draw by Stevenage but Oxford won 3-0 against Wycombe Wanderers. That left it to Rovers to come back from a goal down, scored by Aston Villa man Matty Cash who was at Dagenham at the time.

Billy Bodin immediately responded with an equaliser and then in the 92nd minute, Lee Brown scored the goal that clinched promotion in front of an 11,130 crowd at the Memorial Stadium.

Players

There is a major difference in the promotion campaign in 2016 and the hopeful one now and that is that there was an out-and-out goal scorer that was by far head and shoulders above the rest. Matty Taylor scored 27 goals in the 44 matches, making him the divisional top scorer.

Compare that to Aaron Collins, who doesn’t fit the mould of an out-and-out striker but instead more like Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino by Joey Barton’s admission. Collins still has a career best this year but 11 goals are someway off of what Taylor achieved.

In between the sticks, there were two goalkeepers in that season, first Lee Nicholls who played 15 games, before returning to Wigan.

Nicholls had four clean sheets before his return to the DW Stadium, but fortunately there was a safe pair of hands in Steve Mildenhall.

Mildenhall himself made 26 appearances and had eight clean sheets, so whilst there was some defensive solidity, it wasn’t as strong as it is now.

Belshaw has been the number one choice throughout the entire campaign and has kept 16 clean sheets, which is more than what Mildenhall and Nicholls had combined.