15:24, 12 Jun 2025<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_PPAUK_Bristol_Rovers_v_Northampton_Town-_090824_109JPG.jpg\")
Bryant Bilongo celebrates scoring on his Bristol Rovers debut against Northampton Town(Image: Geraint Nicholas\/PPAUK)<\/p>\n
Bryant Bilongo has insisted he is “so happy to be back” at Bristol Rovers<\/a> following his loan spell at Harrogate Town which rounded off an eventful first season in league football.<\/p>\n The left-back immediately became a fan’s favourite in north Bristol following his arrival last summer for his infectious smile and upbeat attitude. His popularity grew further when a stoppage-time winner against Northampton Town sealed victory for his new club on the opening day – the full-back’s EFL debut.<\/p>\n Despite being contracted to Middlesbrough for nearly two-and-a-half years, Bilongo’s sole first-team appearance for Boro came in a League Cup tie against Barnsley with his other professional appearances before joining the Gas coming in non-league.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol Rovers’ League Two rivals reportedly lining up ‘serious’ offer for former Gas favourite<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol Rovers amongst clubs interested in Rotherham United striker Jonson Clarke-Harris<\/a><\/p>\n Having started the first five League One games of last season, the 23-year-old’s game time slowly started to decrease before playing just once in nine matches around the festive period.<\/p>\n A loan spell at League Two club Harrogate Town in the second half of the campaign followed, where the left-back played 16 times before returning to BS7 this summer.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a personal perspective, I enjoyed it,\u201d Bilongo reflected on his first season at Rovers to the club’s media team.<\/a> \u201cObviously, things didn\u2019t go to plan and how everyone would have wanted to end, but from a personal point of view, I had fun. Especially at the start, as everyone knows, from the opening day, we had a good couple of months where we were rolling, we were playing, we were enjoying it, and I was smiling everywhere. It was good.<\/p>\n “Bristol is a place that welcomed me, and I am so happy to be back because being at the stadium again, I missed it.<\/p>\n \u201cI was buzzing every single time I had to play,\u201d he added. \u201cTo this day, I still think \u2018wow, I\u2019m playing in the league.\u2019 I\u2019m happy to get every single minute. Even if it\u2019s not starting.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope everyone noticed that even if it\u2019s coming off the bench, wherever I had to play, whatever position, whether it was striker, left-back, winger or whatever, I just wanted to be on the pitch in front of everyone who came to watch us play. The fans travelled everywhere to watch us play, so I wanted to do it to show them my appreciation for their support.\u201d<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n To make 34 appearances across all competitions in his first season in the EFL was important for the defender’s development, while he even ended up playing a variety of positions including striker.<\/p>\n Although the plan would have originally been for Bilongo to return to the Pirates in League One, his first taste of League Two football could help ahead of the upcoming campaign following Rovers’ relegation.<\/p>\n On his loan spell at Harrogate, the left-back said: \u201cIt was really good. At the start, I was coming on here and there, but then once I was given a bit of time to play games, my minutes increased. It went really well. I think the fans took to me really well again. I don\u2019t know why, maybe it was the smile, but I enjoyed my time. I just want to play.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to play, and I try to give it my all every game. We stayed up with Harrogate, which I was sent out there to do, and I enjoyed it. The experience I got from League Two as well, as I haven\u2019t had as many games, but I did fulfil my target, and for the whole season, if I told myself the summer before that this is how my season will go, I would have taken it all day, really. Thirty league games, a lot of minutes, two goals and a couple of assists, it was a good season for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Join Bristol Rovers Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol Rovers stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol Rovers Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol Rovers news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n Bilongo, like his Rovers teammates, will be due back at The Quarters for the start of pre-season on June 23 and will have a new head coach to impress in Darrell Clarke.<\/p>\n The new Gas boss has already stated that players will have a clean slate with him and the left-back’s personality traits and attitude certainly seem to fit the minimum requirements for Clarke.<\/p>\n After a breakthrough season last term, the popular defender has certainly laid the foundations to build from as Rovers will look to return to League One at the first time of asking.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard about him [Darrell Clarke],” Bilongo confessed. “I\u2019ve not met him yet. I\u2019ll meet him when we go back to pre-season, but I\u2019ve been told I\u2019ll be a player that he\u2019ll like. I hope I am. Obviously, I still have to go to training and train well and play well for him to like me. But I\u2019ve been told so many good things about him. People have come up to me and told me what a good man he is. I\u2019ve seen what he\u2019s done for the club and watched his interviews. So, I\u2019m excited and glad to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI love it [in Bristol]. \u201cEven just coming back to see my flat and walk around my area, I love it in Bristol. Everyone welcomed me really quickly. My teammates, the staff, the fans, everyone. I love it, and I hope everyone loves me too. So, I’m buzzing to see the fans again when we play our pre-season games, and I\u2019ll give them a smile and a wave again.”<\/p>\n READ MORE: The away allocations travelling Bristol Rovers fans could receive in League Two next season<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol Rovers rank top in unwanted statistic ahead of Premier League and EFL clubs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bryant Bilongo had an eventful first season in the EFL and is looking to kick on in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2707,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-179094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-rovers-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114671962293051780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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