Andrew Stephen’s Hot Off The Habbin article for the CUFC v Bristol Rovers match on 14th February 2026.
“The future depends on what you do today.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Football at its best is gloriously unpredictable. If you look at our history against Bristol Rovers, it doesn’t make pleasant reading. They have beaten us much more often than we’ve beaten them, but each game is a new game and there to be won. In addition, Rovers are having a poor season. Only 8 wins, 3 draws and 19 defeats. That is why they’ve appointed Steve Evans until the end of the season, knowing that he makes teams hard to beat and physically competitive. We were on a wonderful run, until going to Harrogate who hadn’t won since September , and lost to a combination of determination, bad weather and maybe a little touch of complacency. The first goal we conceded there was wonderfully struck. On another day it might have gone anywhere but, inspired by that, Harrogate fought like demons and we must give them full credit for that. We all know that all runs come to an end but it feels like a critical week for us. We need to do as well against Rovers as we did against Crawley, an eloquent response to the ever ready doubters. Good results will see us well on the way to promotion and, to be fair, we deserve it. We need fear no one if we play as we can. If we play like Harrogate did in all our remaining games, we’ll be back in League One next season, a real achievement after relegation, especially when you consider how the other three teams to go down have fared. Momentum is so important.
I often used to wonder how anyone could support a team nicknamed the Gas, until I realised the link with Eastville and the kind of traditions that all genuine football fans love. I was intrigued by the fact that the blue and white quartered shirts still worn by Rovers first appeared in the 1930’s. They are unique in league football and we all like things which we can identify with. Rovers have had some great times. Their attack of Bannister and Warboys was feared and before them they were the first ever winners of the Football League Cup, when they beat Fulham over two legs. They’ve had some great managers too, although the legend that is Ian Holloway didn’t do so well there. He is still making waves and talking like a pirate now at Swindon Town all those years later. One record they won’t like was being on the end of a 12-0 defeat by Luton Town. Joe Payne scored 10 of them, which is still a league record for goals scored by one man in one game. Like us, they dropped into the Conference, for two seasons after 2014. Before that, life was a struggle when the lease ran out at Eastville which had been their ground for many decades. For ten years they played at Bath City’s Twerton Park before ground sharing with the rugby team at the Memorial Stadium. It was wonderful for them to be back in Bristol and now the ground is their own.
A number of players have turned out for both teams, including Ryan Loft, George Williams and James Gibbons. Loft came here with great hopes which were never realised, as did Rory Gaffney, who left the Abbey under a cloud, having engineered a move to Rovers after claiming that he loved it here. Can’t win them all. Most famously, we gave Rovers £100,000 and John Taylor in return for Devon White. He played for me in a school team in Nottingham, where he impressed me with his speed, strength and determination. I played him at left back but he preferred to surge up front, convinced that he was a great striker. I always felt that he missed too many chances to be the centre forward he wanted to be. He always gave 100% though and was a real handful for defenders but it never really worked out for him here. Football owes a great deal to fortune, endeavour and skill. This feels like our time.
Andrew Stephen