Taylor Moore lays down the gauntlet as defender produces timely best Bristol Rovers moment

Taylor Moore scored his first goal in over five years in Bristol Rovers’ 1-1 draw at Wrexham on Good FridaySport

Daniel Hargraves Bristol Rovers reporter

09:45, 19 Apr 2025Updated 09:48, 19 Apr 2025

Taylor Moore celebrates scoring for Bristol Rovers against Wrexham(Image: Cody Froggatt/PA Wire)

On the week he was nominated for his latest EFL award for his outstanding work in the Bristol community, Taylor Moore produced his biggest moment on the pitch for Bristol Rovers since his arrival last summer in the Gas’ 1-1 draw at Wrexham on Good Friday.

The defender has had to wait five-and-a-half long years to get himself on the scoresheet, making his header against the Red Dragons a collector’s item. Goals for Bristol City against Preston North End and for Southend United versus Gillingham in 2019 are the only other times the 27-year-old has put the ball into the back of the net in a competitive match.

Rovers haven’t taken advantage of the powers set-pieces behold frequently enough this campaign with only Crawley Town (three) scoring fewers goals from such situations than their eight. However, a delightful corner delivery from Matt Butcher was met with a header accurate enough from Moore to turn past Arthur Okonkwo to hand the Gas a crucial lead away at the promotion contenders.

It was so very nearly the perfect away display from Inigo Calderon’s side in North Wales; how often have Rovers been able to say that this season? A controversial equaliser from ex-Bristol City midfielder Matty James in the 76th minute eventually broke the Gas’ resistance and, although they had to settle for the draw having taken the lead, it could prove to be an immensely valuable point come the end of the season and Moore could be looked back on as one of the heroes that helped Rovers secure League One survival.

“Honestly, I’m really upbeat,” the center-back confessed post-match. “It’s a good point. Every point matters from now until the end of the season, we know that, and we knew that coming away to Wrexham and being the club that they are at the moment, in the form that they’re in, it was incredibly important that we put in a performance, but more importantly, we got a result.

“We didn’t win the game, so there is a side of frustration there. We consider the goal to be a little bit sloppy. We probably should have done better, especially after battling as well as we did for the majority of the game. It’s a bit of a sloppy goal to concede, but we are looking at it from a positive point of view where we can actually take a lot from that game, from that performance, from the fans that were here as well, like the momentum going into Monday.”

On his first goal for the club, the defender added: “What a time to get it. [It was] just something we probably mentioned during the week – the set-pieces we’re going to be key today. We haven’t been a pretty footballing team all season and we’ve probably not taken advantage of set plays enough, so we’ve been coming up with all sorts of ideas and working on it on the training pitch.

“So yeah, I’m actually delighted to get a goal because it’s been a bit of a monkey on my back. I’ve missed that feeling of scoring but it’s an important goal, definitely.”

Mixed would probably be the best adjective to describe Moore’s first season in north Bristol. The defender was a frequent starter at the beginning of the season under Matt Taylor but since the former Rovers manager was sacked in December, game time has been less consistent.

Friday was the 27-year-old’s ninth start under Calderon but there haven’t been too many where he has played in his natural position of centre-back with right-back and defensive midfield roles more frequent of late. Therefore, it was no coincidence that Moore produced what will likely go down as his best performance in blue-and-white quarters so far.

Naturally, the goal is a major contributing factor to that claim but, defensively, the center-back was outstanding in a back-three alongside Connor Taylor and James Wilson which seemed to work a treat and will now seemingly be here to stay for the final three games of the season.

Bristol Rovers players celebrate Taylor Moore’s goal against Wrexham(Image: Paul Greenwood/EFL)

Off of the pitch, Moore’s impact at Rovers has been immeasurable, scooping the League One Community Player of the Year at the EFL Community Awards earlier this month for his ‘5k Your Way’ initiative which has also seen him nominated for EFL Player in the Community at the upcoming EFL Awards. On it though, the defender would probably argue that he would have liked to have made more of an impression.

The center-back certainly isn’t the only player at the club to have experienced peaks and troughs this campaign with the Gas still in the relegation zone with three games remaining. Burton Albion’s goalless draw at Exeter City meant that they stayed above Rovers in 20th place on goal difference. What is fact though is that the defender is undoubtedly the type of character that is essential to withhold in your ranks amid a relegation battle.

“This is where we’re at and there’s no hiding from it,” Moore exclaimed post-match. “We’re fully committed to doing whatever it takes, whoever it is on the pitch, whoever’s on the bench.

“There’s no room for individuals at the moment and we’ve made that very, very clear in the dressing room that, whoever’s not part of this project, whoever doesn’t want the club to stay up over the next three games has got absolutely no place within this squad.

“We’re all sticking together with fighting for every single point and there’s still nine points to play for going into the last three games.”

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Although he didn’t feature in last weekend’s defeat to Exeter City, which led to crisis talks within the dressing room after the match, Moore was part ot those extended discussions as Calderon, players and staff members had their say on the severity of the situation the club was in after dropping into the relegation zone for the first time this campaign.

Naturally, exactly what was said will remain private behind the closed doors but on whether clearing the air contributed to the battling display at the Racecourse Ground, Moore added to Bristol Live: “I think we’ve come in, I’m going to say over the past three or four games, and realised the gravity of the situation that we are in and some of us more experienced boys have probably seen it before. We know what it takes and we’ve said it.

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“It’s all out in the open. We’ve cleaned the air and, in all honesty, it probably should have happened a bit sooner. We needed that wake up call but we did it last week after the game, which I thought was a very poor performance from us and just as a squad, as a group of individuals, this is where we need to be better. This is what we need to do better from now until the end of the season.

“Also making everyone fully aware of what it means. It’s not just us as players, it’s also employees in the building, it’s also the fans; everyone’s affected by it. So we had a long, open conversation between staff and players and yeah, a lot was said, and that will stay in the dressing room, but a lot of positives come from it because we haven’t got time to let stuff slide anymore. This is it. It’s crunch time.”

Taylor Moore lays down the gauntlet as defender produces timely best Bristol Rovers moment

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