Matt Harrold

9 – Matt Harrold
Full name	Matthew James Harrold
Nationality	England
Rovers apps (goals)a	50 (19)
Position	Forward
Date of birth	25 July 1984 (Age 34) in Leyton
Height	6 ft 1 in
Joined
20 June 2011 from Shrewsbury Town
Senior clubs
Grays Athletic Wingate & Finchley Harlow Town Brentford Dagenham & Redbridge Grimsby Town Yeovil Town Southend United Wycombe Wanderers Shrewsbury Town Bristol Rovers
a League appearances and goals only Last updated by Gasheadsteve on 4/10/2013

Matthew James Harrold, known as Matt Harrold, is one of the fifteen players who joined Rovers during the 2011 summer break as part of manager Paul Buckle's overhaul of the first team squad. He was signed from Shrewsbury Town for an undisclosed fee on 20 June, and made his full debut for Rovers, along with nine other players, in the opening game of the 2011–12 season, a 3–2 victory over AFC Wimbledon in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

His first goal for The Gas came on his debut, when he netted the team's second of the game to put Rovers 2–0 up after 20 minutes, and he ended his first season in Bristol as the club's top goalscorer, netting 16 times in League Two and twice more in cup competitions.

CareerEdit

Matt started his career as a trainee with Southend United, but failed to progress into their senior squad at the first attempt, instead moving on in 2001 to have spells with non-league sides Grays Athletic, Wingate & Finchley and Harlow Town. He finally got the opportunity to play in the Football League when he was signed by Brentford in 2003. After loan spells with Dagenham & Redbridge and Grimsby Town he joined Yeovil Town in 2005, where he spent a year, before returning to Southend United at the end of August 2006, finally making his first team debut for The Shrimpers some five years after being released by them.

He joined Wycombe Wanderers in 2008, where he played 73 times in the league in a two-year spell, scoring seventeen times. He had a trial with Swedish side Örgryte Idrottsällskap in 2010, but instead signed a two-year deal with Shrewsbury Town. He was picked up by Rovers for an undisclosed fee in 2011 with a year still remaining on his deal with The Shrews.

Career statsEdit

Record against RoversEdit

Matt has played against Bristol Rovers three times and has never been on the losing side in any of those games. The first time he faced The Pirates was in a 1–1 draw in 2007 when he played for Southend United. His other two games were for Wycombe Wanderers during the 2009–10 season, both of which were won by the Chairboys.