John Kelly

Right Midfielder - Bristol Rovers
29 Sep 2026
Tuesday
Process

Marked for John Kelly

8 Edition

The Bristol Rovers Courier

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Bristol Rovers bow out of the cup

Grimsby Town go through and Bristol Rovers go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

Player ratings

Harry Anderson scores twice — 8.32

Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Shaq Forde

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Bristol Rovers

Connor Ogilvie was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

Bristol Rovers get the job done against Gillingham

A 2‑1 win over Gillingham, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

No hiding place for Tom Lockyer

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tom Lockyer, and the manager let it.

Squad

12 new faces, and Bristol Rovers are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

Squad

Luke Southwood knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luke Southwood trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

The shop window has Ryan Howley in it

Bristol Rovers have let the market know Ryan Howley can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

In brief