THE GASHEADS AND MAGGOTS

Goalkeeper Jesse Whatley played his first match for Bristol Rovers, who were then in the Southern League. He didn’t make the most memorable of debuts – he let in five goals! Rovers then progressed to the Football League.

Known as "Gentleman Jess" through his footballing career, Whatley started playing competitive football in the British Army and represented an Eqyptian Army XI in games against Belgium and France in the early 20th C.

Jesse then set off on an amazing career, from August 1922, playing in 246 consecutive League matches, through 5 full seasons. (This was a Football League record until 1953.) He also played in the next season's 36 matches, a league "best" and set a Rovers' record, which stands today. 

His last match in that sequence on April 9th 1928 was due against Crystal Palace at Eastville (Rovers' home ground), Jesse asked to be left out of the team for the rest of the season to give reserve keeper Bert Densley a chance to play. The boss agreed! 

Jess retired in 1930 with 386 league games under his belt, 14 in the Southern League, 372 in the FL.

he then continued to play in local leagues, including for the Stapleton Institute and Mental Institution club. He then coached at Fry's Cocoa Tree Boys in 1937 (we all know that Bristol is famous for the Fry's chocoate and cocoa industry). Jess then took charge of local clubs. He was last "seen" working on a farm in Westerleigh, Gloucestershire

Rovers are now owned by Wael Al-Qadi, a member of the Al-Qadi family, who founded the Arab Jordan Investment Bank in Amnan, Jordan. Wael was educated at Westminster School, the independent school sited in the shadow the Houses of Parliament, in Westminster. 

The school first played competitive football against Charterhouse School, in the 19th Century, when Charterhouse was also sited in the city of London. The schools have records of games played between them, officially from 1862. W. Veale described the match between the school as "the biggest match of the season, with hundreds from the school, town and London coming to spectate." This must rate as the first official school's fixture in history.

While at school in the early 1980s, Wael regularly attended the local, Chelsea FC. He earned a degree in Computer Science with Business Administration at Boston University, graduating in 1991. Al-Qadi became vice-chairman of the Asian Football Development Project in 2011, an executive board member of the Jordan Football Association in 2014, an executive board member of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Jordan 2016, and was a member of the campaign team behind Prince Ali bin Hussein's campaign for the presidency of FIFA at the FIFA Extraordinary Congress in February 2016.

Bristol Rovers are known as Gasheads a term that stems from Rovers' old ground Eastville Stadium which was sited next to a Gas works from which deleterious fumes waft across the pitch, a unique experience, and fans were known as "Gasheads".

Probably not a nasty as my early experience of watching Barnsley play at Oakwell, still their stadium. In a nearby valley, by the ground was the local maggot farm producing "bait" for the angling industry! Not great on a warm afternoon with "meat industry waste deposits" recycled during the season!