“I never had that again in my career where I just knew this team was going to win.”
Steve Elliott knows what it takes to get promoted out of League Two with Bristol Rovers. He was part of the 2006/07 squad that won nine out of the last 12 games to sneak into the play-offs before beating Shrewsbury Town in the final at Wembley Stadium.
Elliott described the victory against the Shrews as his favourite game across his 18-year career and was complimentary of Paul Trollope, who enjoyed a successful five-year spell as manager of the Gas before departing in 2010.
Speaking about the culture created by Trollope in the 2006/07 promotion season, Elliott said: “When Trolls took over, Trolls started to mould his own team then. Obviously, Trolls signed as well that summer, in 2004. He made the step up from player to manager, and he took to it like a duck to water.
“He’d obviously been planning for this, and we just hit the ground running with Trolls, I think, and he just understood what players needed, what they wanted, and the training methods, and everything, and it all sort of shifted to being a lot more professional and a lot more transparent, which is exactly what a player wants.
“I mean, if you are crap, you want to be told you’re crap, if you’re good, you want to be told you’re good. So, yeah, it was a lot more transparent. The training was superb.
“Lennie Lawrence [Director of Football at Bristol Rovers between 2006 and 2010] came in. His experience was unbelievable, really.
“And we just sort of chilled, and we had the quality players, it was just finding that little something that made us all click together, and I think Trolls found it, which created a great team spirit, a great atmosphere in the dressing room.
“We were all really close. We all lived in Emersons Green, within a stone’s throw of each other, so we socialised together as well, which created a really good atmosphere, and I think that just took us through and saw us through the play-offs.
“That run we went on, that season was pretty unbelievable, really, with the teams we beat as well.”
The Gas played in two finals during the 2006/07 campaign, losing 3-2 to Doncaster Rovers after extra-time in the Football League Trophy final at The Millennium Stadium – a month before their victory against the Shrews.
Despite this disappointment, Elliott said that the momentum they were carrying from the end of the regular season was so strong that he “always knew we were going to win that final”.
Bristol Rovers’ Richard Walker celebrates after scoring during the Coca-Cola Football League Two Play-Off Final at Wembley Stadium. (Image: John Stillwell/PA Wire)
A 7-4 aggregate victory against Lincoln City in the play-off semi-finals, including an emphatic 5-3 away win at the Imps, saw the Gas qualify for the final, and by then, confidence within the changing room was at an all-time high.
“My personal point of view and from lads who I’ve spoken to since the event and the years gone by, we always knew we were going to win that final,” he said. “The run we’d been on, we beat Swindon at home. We’d gone up to Hartlepool, who needed to win to be champions, and beat them.
“Then throughout the play-offs. We’d scored seven goals and you’re not losing. We had firepower, we had goals.
“And we just knew going to that final, even when we went one-nil down, I knew, I just had this feeling, and I’m sure everybody else did in the team that we’ll still go on to win this because we had such a potent strike force, solid defence, battling midfield.
“We just ran over everyone through that final run. And you could see that. And it was probably just rewards for the effort that the lads put in for that season. Yeah, that feeling of team spirit and I’ve never had it again, wherever I’ve been.
“Wherever I went to, that feeling that you’re going into a game, knowing that you’re going to win it. So, from that run, to the play-off final win, I never had that again in my career where I just knew this team was going to win. So it was really special.”
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Before joining Rovers in 2004, Elliott came through the academy at Derby County, making over 70 appearances for his boyhood club and featuring 45 times in the Premier League.
The Rams spent six years in the Premier League between 1996 and 2002 before relegation to the First Division in the 2001/02 campaign.
Speaking about his time in the top-flight, Elliott said: “Yeah, obviously the money wasn’t nowhere near what it is now. I never experienced the Championship, so obviously I dropped down a bit, but yeah, I just went from playing in the reserve team straight into the Premier League.
“But I think nowadays, back when I played, there was probably a sprinkling of foreigners in the teams. There was maybe one or two in each team, whereas now, I think 80, 90% of the teams are all foreign players.
“So, It was a different game back then, really. It was a lot of English players, and I think the game was a lot more physical back then.”
During his time at Derby, Elliott also appeared for England’s Under-21s, featuring twice against France and Argentina in 1998. His teammates included Frank Lampard, Emile Heskey, and Jamie Carragher.
“Yeah, I mean, yeah, everyone was elite players, absolute quality,” Elliott said when speaking about his experience with England’s Under-21s. “But we came up against some real quality opponents as well. I mean, we played France and Argentina.
“So, played against Lionel Scaloni, who managed Argentina in the end. Mikaël Silvestre, David Trezeguet. Yeah, so the quality of players and the quality of the football was elite level. So that was real good experience.”
Elliott left Derby in 2004, with a brief loan spell at Blackpool in his final year at the club. Under the former Liverpool midfielder Steve McMahon, the centre-back played 33 times and won the Football League Trophy, beating Southend United in the final at the Millennium Stadium.
His participation in this final was not always guaranteed, though, as his loan from Derby was set to finish the week before the game in Cardiff.
“I was desperate to play my first ever final,” he said. “I didn’t even know if that chance would ever come round again. So I rang up Derby, spoke to the chief executive and just said, look, ‘I’d really like to sign and play in this final. Is there anything we can do?’
“And he said, well, I’ll speak to the gaffer. The gaffer came back and said, ‘Look, we’ll let you go to Blackpool’. So I signed for Blackpool, and then played in the final, beat Southend 2-0, and then played the rest of the season there – yeah, it was brilliant.”
In the summer of 2004, despite offers from numerous clubs, Elliott decided to join Rovers on a three-year contract, and he ended up spending six years in north Bristol.
His aforementioned promotion in the 2006/07 campaign was a particular highlight, but the following season, Rovers reached the FA Cup quarter-finals for only the second time in the club’s history.
It was bittersweet for Elliott, though, as an injury kept him out of the fifth round and the quarter-final, which saw the Gas lose 5-1 at home to West Brom.
“We drew away to Fulham, and I tore my knee ligaments in the replay at home,” he said. “I went in for a challenge and I think Clint Dempsey landed on my knee and it just like stretched out my knee ligament, which kept me out for about six or seven weeks, so I missed Southampton at home and the West Brom game.
“But what a run. That just shows you there, that encapsulates it. If a team goes on an FA Cup run, you know that team’s got a great team spirit and a great work ethic and a great fight and desire because you’re coming up against quality teams who are playing in high divisions and the only thing you’ve really got is that team spirit, passion and desire, really.
“You know your quality is not going to be quite as good as them. And obviously the West Brom game, it all got found out.
“It was always going to happen unless we got to the final and played Man City or something, but yeah, that just encapsulated the team spirit at the time in that FA Cup run. It was superb.”
Elliott left Rovers at the end of the 2009/10 season to join Cheltenham Town. He spent five years at the Robins, losing in the League Two play-offs – once in the semi-finals and once in the final.
“I had a great five seasons there,” the centre-back said when speaking about his time at Cheltenham. “Like you say, two play-off campaigns. Lost in the final, lost in the semi-final. But again, we had a real good team there.
“I think Marlon Pack – Portsmouth, Bristol City, he went on to play for, had a really good career. And I met a few lads on loan from Bristol City, who have gone on to do really well. So yeah, it was a great time up there. Loved it.
Steve Elliott
“And then obviously, later on in my career, Mark Yates said, ‘Do you want to be a player-coach?’ So started on my coaching badges and player-coach with him, but then he got sacked, so that was the end of that.”
It was a tumultuous last season at Cheltenham for Elliott, with the 47-year-old released by Paul Buckle in February 2015, when he was a player-coach.
Buckle was sacked soon after, though, and Elliott was part of an interim management team led by Russell Milton in an attempt to retain the club’s EFL status. It didn’t work out, and following the appointment of Gary Johnson in late March, who was also unable to rescue the sinking ship, Cheltenham were relegated to non-league.
He said: “That was strange, honestly. All the managers I worked under, I’ve got on with really well. I think they saw a warm heart on my sleeve. I’d give everything, worked as hard as I could, gave everything on the pitch.
“But Paul Buckle was just, I don’t know. He just really wasn’t my cup of tea. I mean, we were struggling in League Two and he came in, and he sat us down because I was player-coach at the time.
“He said, I want you involved in the coaching side, he sat down, he got his laptop out and said this is how I want to play, this is my philosophy, and he was showing us games of Chelsea Under-21s, versus Arsenal Under-21’s, where the goalkeeper’s passing it five yards to the centre-half, he’s playing it to the left back, back to him, into the midfield, back through.
“And I said, you do know, we’re playing Morecambe away Tuesday night, on a bog. No, no, this is how I want to play, and I just thought it’s come over from America. He was coaching in America, came over, and me and him didn’t see eye to eye really.”
He added: “And then a couple of days later, Paul Buckle got sacked and the chairman, Paul Baker, rang me and said, ‘Look, will you come back in and help Russ Milton?’ Like, finish off the season, try and keep us up, and I was like, yeah, of course I will, yeah.
“So I went back in with Russ, but yeah, I think it was too late. We were too far adrift, really, to save them. In the next season, Gary Johnson took over, and I had a chat with him, and he was just bringing his own staff in then, so I just retired from the game then.”
A coaching career didn’t interest Elliott after his retirement, and he now works at a building company he started with a friend. He continues to keep an interest in his former clubs, particularly Rovers, who he thinks have made an astute appointment in Steve Evans.
The 63-year-old signed a contract until 2028 on Saturday, April 11, after picking up 38 points from 23 League Two games since replacing Darrell Clarke in mid-December.
Under Evans, Elliott feels the Gas are well-placed for a promotion charge next season. “Well, I’m glad they’ve picked up. I think Steve Evans was the right man for the right job at the right time,” he said.
Full time celebrations for Steve Evans, Head Coach of Bristol Rovers after the Sky Bet League 2 match between Bristol Rovers and Accrington Stanley at Memorial Stadium, Bristol on 28 March 2026 (Photo: Rachel Le Poidevin/PPAUK)
“They needed someone to go in there and shake them up, and from all that I know, being in the game and players who’ve played under Steve Evans, he’s a hard taskmaster, he’ll get you really fit. He’ll get you organised. He’ll get you hard to beat, and I think, from the results they’ve had recently, that’s obviously true.
“I’m really glad they picked up. I’m glad that they’ve signed him on until 2028. Yeah, I’m really glad. I think he’s a good manager. I wouldn’t like to work under him, but he’s a good manager. He’s a very good manager.
“So I’m hopeful for next season that he’s going to get a few players in. And they’re going to start pushing up that table and fighting for a play-off spot, if not more.”
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While Elliott is hopeful that Evans can deliver a promotion campaign next season, an ongoing issue is whether the club can proceed with the redevelopment of The Memorial Stadium or build a new facility elsewhere. This is not a new issue for the Gas, as concerns over the club’s future home have been ongoing for decades.
In terms of whether he thinks Rovers should look to redevelop The Mem or build a new stadium on a different site, Elliott said: “It’s a tough one, isn’t it, really? I mean, we had it at Derby County. We moved from the Baseball Ground to Pride Park, and everyone was like, why are we moving from the Baseball Ground, as it’s been our home since 1868, whatever it is.
“And it’s just one of them. You look at it, and you think, new chapter, new beginning. The rebirth of a club, really.
(Image: Rachel Le Poidevin/PPAUK)
“I mean, a prime example is Brighton. I remember playing down at Brighton at the Withdean, which was a running track, and a few little temporary stands in a clubhouse. The changing rooms are porta cabins, and, obviously, Tony Bloom came in there, and built a new stadium, and look at them now, the Premier League.
“My heart would say, I’d love them to move. And I thought that site down near Filton Airport would have been perfect for them, just off the motorway, quite accessible. But, yeah, I think it’s time. I think they should move.”
Elliott continues to live in Bristol and will be hopeful that the Gas can return to League One next season, which, for the size of the fanbase and the club, is where they clearly belong.