Bristol Rovers beat Bath City 1-0 in their third friendly of pre-season, although they had a number of chances to make it a more comfortable scoreline

Daniel Hargraves Bristol Rovers reporter

20:56, 16 Jul 2025

Bristol Rovers take on Bath City in a friendly match at Twerton Park(Image: Dan Hargraves/Bristol Live)

Bristol Rovers continued their preparations for the 2025/26 League Two season with a 1-0 friendly win over local National League South outfit Bath City.

A second half goal from Bryant Bilongo was the difference at Twerton Park, Rovers’ old home, with the Gas boasting a number of opportunities to make the scoreline more dominant.

After a quiet opening, Shaq Forde came closest to opening the scoring for the Pirates on 15 minutes, firing over from close range after being played through by Promise Omochere.

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The forward came close to breaking the deadlock again just after the half-hour mark, heading over the bar after lovely work from Bryant Bilongo who delivered a pinpoint cross to the back-post. He was then denied by Bath goalkeeper Harvey Wiles-Richards after Jordan Alves fired the hosts’ best chance of the first half wide.

Darrell Clarke’s side started the second half as they ended the first as a ricochet fell to Jack Sparkes to have a shot from outside of the area, lifting the ball just over the crossbar.

The League Two visitors really should have found the net when both Omochere and Sotiriou were denied by goal line clearances as the Gas really started to turn the screw.

Seven changes just after the hour mark saw a largely different midfield and strike force as well as two new wing-backs.

One of those substitutes in Josh McEachran swiftly made a major difference, delivering a perfect free-kick from deep to find Bryant Bilongo at the back-post to fire into the net, finally opening the scoring.

The game slowly started to fizzle out once the Pirates had the lead, but Clarke’s men should have doubled their advantage when Luke Thomas squared to Ollie Dewsbury who saw a low effort excellently saved by an outstretched leg from Wiles-Richards.

Rovers had to accept victory by just the one goal despite dominating proceedings and having a number of other opportunities to score.

Next up is another friendly against National League opposition in Yeovil Town on Saturday afternoon.

The fixture at Huish Park will be dedicated to Gas and Glovers legend Marcus Stewart, and all profits made will be donated to Stewart in his fight against motor neurone disease.

Bristol Rovers XI: Luke Southwood (Brad Young 63’); Macauley Southam-Hales (Joel Senior 63’), Alfie Kilgour, Connor Taylor, Bryant Bilongo, Jack Sparkes (Luke Thomas 63’); Kamil Conteh (Isaac Hutchinson 63’), Ryan Howley (Josh McEachran 63’); Shaq Forde; Ruel Sotiriou (Kofi Shaw 63’), Promise Omochere (Ollie Dewsbury 63’)

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