The biggest crowd at a game involving Bristol Rovers in the 2012–13 season saw them comfortably beaten by a promotion-chasing Bradford City side.
Injuries to travelling squad members Oumare Tounkara and Ellis Harrison meant that manager John Ward was only able to name six substitutes for the game, rather than the maximum permitted seven. The depleted bench was called into action early, when Danny Woodards suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury thirteen minutes into the game and was replaced by Ollie Clarke.
Bradford were already a goal up by this point, thanks to a Nahki Wells header in the sixth minute, and after Fabian Broghammer fouled Ricky Ravenhill the area with a little over 20 minutes played Wells doubled the lead from the penalty spot.
Andrew Davies made it 3–0 to Bradford deep into first half injury time, but a goal from Tom Hitchcock early in the second half gave Rovers some hope of taking something from the game. That hope was short lived however, and when Garry Thompson scored Bradford's fourth it put the result beyond doubt.
Match details[]
|
Bradford City | 4–1 | Bristol Rovers | 
|
| Wells (6, pen 22) Davies (45+5) Thompson (57) |
(3–0 HT) | Hitchcock (50) | ||
| Venue: Coral Windows Stadium (Valley Parade) – KO: 9 April 2013 @ 1945 | ||||
| Attendance: 10,621 – Referee: Tony Harrington | ||||
| Lineups | ||||
| 1 Jon McLaughlin | 13 Steve Mildenhall | |||
| 2 Stephen Darby | 2 Michael Smith  |
|||
| 3 James Meredith | 4 Danny Woodards  |
|||
 5 Andrew Davies |
21 Clayton McDonald | |||
| 23 Rory McArdle | 29 Mark McChrystal | |||
| 4 Ricky Ravenhill | 14 Lee Brown | |||
| 7 Kyel Reid | 16 Joe Anyinsah |
|||
| 11 Garry Thompson |
15 Oliver Norburn |
|||
| 18 Gary Jones |
11 Fabian Broghammer | |||
| 9 James Hanson | 26 Ryan Brunt | |||
| 21 Nahki Wells |
27 Tom Hitchcock |
|||
| Substitutes | ||||
| 12 Matt Duke (GK) | 20 Conor Gough (GK) | |||
 14 Will Atkinson |
3 Jim Paterson | |||
| 16 Carl McHugh | 10 Eliot Richards |
|||
| 17 Alan Connell |
18 Mitch Harding | |||
| 20 Zavon Hines | 24 Ollie Clarke |
|||
| 22 Michael Nelson | 30 Tom Lockyer | |||
| 24 Nathan Doyle |
||||
Timeline[]
6 mins: Goal for Bradford City scored by Nahki Wells- 15 mins: Ollie Clarke replaced Danny Woodards
- 22 mins: Goal for Bradford City scored from the penalty spot by Nahki Wells, following a foul on Ricky Ravenhill by Fabian Broghammer
- 45+5 mins: Goal for Bradford City scored by Andrew Davies
- 50 mins: Goal for Bristol Rovers scored by Tom Hitchcock
- 57 mins: Goal for Bradford City scored by Garry Thompson
- 61 mins: Oliver Norburn booked for a foul on James Meredith
- 66 mins: Tom Hitchcock booked
- 71 mins: Eliot Richards replaced Joe Anyinsah
- 72 mins: Nathan Doyle replaced Gary Jones
- 76 mins: Will Atkinson replaced Garry Thompson
- 80 mins: Alan Connell replaced Nahki Wells
- 88 mins: Michael Smith booked for a foul on Kyel Reid
| League Two | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | ACC | AFW | ALD | BAR | BRA | BUR | CNM | CFD | D&R | EXE | FWD | GIL | MOR | NOR | OXF | PLY | PTV | RDL | ROT | SOU | TOR | WYC | YOR | |
| Home | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 2–1 | 3–3 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 3–2 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–3 | 3–1 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 2–3 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 | |
| Away | 0–1 | 1–3 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 1–4 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 4–2 | 2–1 | 3–0 | 0–4 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–4 | 1–2 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 3–3 | A–A 0–2 |
1–4 | |
| FA Cup | Capital One Cup | Johnstone's Paint Trophy | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rnd | 1 | Rnd | 1 | Rnd | 1sw | |||||||||||||||||||
| Team | SHU | Team | IPS | Team | YEO | |||||||||||||||||||
| H/A | H | H/A | A | H/A | H | |||||||||||||||||||
| Res | 1–2 | Res | 1–3 | Res | 0–3 | |||||||||||||||||||