We might have been bad last Saturday, but thanks to another cracking goal (we only score “worldies” unfortunately), this time from Ade Adeyemo, we did better than “The Gas” who lost 5-0 to Lincoln, so who knows what we will get this week, a 0-0 draw probably? I would though just like to wish Rob Elliott well in his future endeavours. Maybe something a bit more achievable than he took on with us with our paper thin and inexperienced squad.

3rd September 2011 Bristol Rovers at Broadfield

Looking back to our first EFL season, 2011/12, we played Bristol Rovers early that campaign, on 3rd September 2011 at Broadfield. Unusually, the Red Devils – so used to winning in our all-conquering Conference success of the previous season – came into this game having lost three games in a row. Defeats at Crystal Palace (League Cup, 2-0), Cheltenham Town (EFL2, 3-1, Tubbs) and also at Southend United in the JPT round one (1-0) meant the Bristol Rovers game was a test of whether our previous air of invincibility had been shaken.

Thankfully, in front of a decent attendance of 3,673, we got back to winning ways with a comfortable 4-1 win (Tyrone Barnett, 2, Ben Smith, Matt Tubbs) over The Gas that took us back to the top of the table on goal difference.

Bristol Rovers thumped 4-1 programme spread

You may notice that in the Bristol Rovers team was one Matt Harrold (he can be seen in one of the pictures, soaring above Kyle McFadzean), future goalkeeping star for the Red Devils against MK Dons in an EFL League One match in 2014/15. Also featuring for them was Mustapha Carayol, who had played a number of games for us in our 2007/08 Conference season on loan from MK Dons.

Sadly, our return to winning ways was short-lived as, with pretty much our whole first-team defence (Dean Howell, Kyle McFadzean, Pablo Mills and John Dempster) missing, we would travel to Morecambe the next Saturday for a top-of-the-table clash – and get thumped 6-0. It got worse the following Tuesday, 13^th September, as Paolo Di Canio’s Swindon Town came to Broadfield and outplayed us to go home with a 3-0 victory.

Thankfully, though, that was as bad as it got for some time as we went on a long unbeaten run that saw us still in the FA Cup at Christmas. That run was only halted on Boxing Day 2011 when, in an EFL League Two fixture, Gillingham ran out surprise 2-1 winners (Tubbs). However, we quickly got over that defeat with a hard-fought 1-0 win (Barnett) at home to Barnet on 30^th December 2011, and followed that on Monday 2^nd January with a 1-1 draw away to Oxford United when we finally managed to take one of many chances and saw Barnett equalising in the 90^th minute, resulting in mass celebrations amongst the 621 travelling Red Devils supporters.

Next up was the FA Cup third round on Saturday 7^th January 2012 when, coincidentally, we had been drawn at home to this week’s opponents’ local rivals, Bristol City of the EFL Championship. Even more of a coincidence, the following week we would travel to Bristol Rovers for the return EFL League Two fixture!

Two Bristols January 2012 and City FA Cup programme

Two Bristols January 2012 and City FA Cup team sheet

Firstly Bristol City, on a bitterly cold day, and a game we dominated from the start. We hit the woodwork twice in the first half through Matt Tubbs and Josh Simpson, but it was late in the second half before we scored the winning goal when Tubbs ran on to a through ball and slipped it past former England keeper David James for a well-deserved win in front of 3,779 fans.

That set us up with a tough away tie in the fourth round, away to Championship promotion challengers Hull City, on 28^th January 2012. However, as was routine in those days, a second-half Tubbs goal (his last for the club before signing for Bournemouth) gave us another deserved victory and a home tie against Premier League Stoke City in our second visit to the fifth round in two seasons.

Reds Tame Tigers

Sadly, our FA Cup journey would end in a 2-0 defeat as England International Peter Crouch made the crucial difference with his aerial prowess on a day when Stoke also had Rory Delap sent off. The sending-off was a bone of contention between the two managers, Steve Evans and Stoke’s Tony Pulis, who claimed Delap got the ball in a tackle with David Hunt (who as a result was out injured for several weeks). Aside from that incident it was also a question of penalties given (to them) and not given (to us, when a Stoke player used his arm to stop a goal-bound Barnett effort) that helped decide the tie. Needless to say, Steve Evans wasn’t happy with the referee. (Has he ever been?!)

Between the Bristol City and Stoke games, though, we had the aforementioned league game away to Bristol Rovers on 14^th January, which ended 0-0, before another long trip down to the west country the following Saturday, 21^st January, for a league game against Plymouth Argyle, which also produced a draw, the result this time 1-1 (our goal a fairly rare Pablo Mills effort).

Bristol Rovers 14th January 2012 drew 0-0

I was reading about Steve Evans’s sadness at the loss of Tubbs to Bournemouth, after they met our asking price for such an outstanding goal-scorer, and how we couldn’t stand in his way, especially as he was joining his local club. Steve also mentioned being happy with his transfer window business, although, in hindsight, I wonder if that was the start of him getting itchy feet as we swapped a Tubbs for Sanchez Watt and Karl Hawley (remember him, anybody?). Having said that, the signing of Billy Clarke from Championship side Blackpool on deadline day for a fairly sizeable fee would turn out to be a very decent investment.

With our FA Cup exit and loss of Tubbs, the last few months of 2011-12 were less free-scoring and dominant, and when Evans jumped ship to join Rotherham before the end of the season, there was a real chance we would miss out on promotion to League One – which had looked  a foregone conclusion in that golden January.

Thankfully, with Craig Brewster stepping up as interim manager and steadying the ship, we staggered over the line with a narrow and famous away win at Accrington Stanley on the last day of the season with a second-half goal from Scott Neilson in front of over 600 travelling fans. All that, though, had been preceded the week before by what looked a routine and potentially promotion-clinching win over a Hereford United side almost certainly destined for relegation to the Conference. However, reserving our worst performance of the season for that crucial game in front of a big Broadfield crowd, we were thrashed 3-0 to set up the nail-biting day at Accrington.

Accrington Stanley May 2012 Celebrations

Thankfully, though, we came good in the north west on 5^th May, and were able to celebrate promotion to League One and look forward to another step on our upward journey. That first season in League One would see us led by new manager Richie Barker, father of our current captain Charlie, and would result in an outstanding tenth place finish in 2012/13, though even that was met with some disappointment from Red Devils fans as our expectations had been raised to unsustainable levels by the success of the previous seasons.

May 2013 10th place League One but budget cuts a sign of struggles?

In fact, looking at a press cutting (pictured) from May 2013, it would seem that financial constraints were starting to bite, making Barker’s job to build a competitive side for the future extremely difficult. That seemed to signal the start of the slide back to League Two, although we did retain our status for a couple more seasons before relegation in 2014-15 and several seasons of mediocrity – hopefully not something that will be mirrored if (or when more likely) we are relegated this season . . .

Mick Fox – mjfjo@yahoo.co.uk