Bristol Rovers head coach Inigo Calderon believes “everybody has a chance” to make a difference in his side from now until the end of the season after Jevani Brown was included in their League One squad for the remainder of the campaign.
Brown returned from his loan spell at Notts County in January, one that provided limited success as the 30-year-old only featured 14 times in League Two and failed to score a league goal for the Magpies.
The forward joined Rovers in June 2023 as a free agent after being released from Exeter City where he had a successful time. Brown played 41 games in all competitions and scored twice for the Gas last season, but former manager Matt Taylor did not see him in his plans come the start of the campaign.
Notts County manager Stuart Maynard only gave Brown four league starts with his last coming in late November, but the Englishman did have a small amount of success for the Nottinghamshire side as he scored twice and got two assists against Alfreton Town in the first round of the FA Cup.
Brown endured a similar situation when he was at Colchester United in 2019 as he was loaned out to Forest Green Rovers in the Covid curtailed season after 17 games in the first half of the campaign. He then returned to the U’s for the 2020/21 and featured 45 times, scoring 11 goals.
“As I say, for me, I have to be conscious of what I say, I think I say that everybody has a chance here,” Calderon said in his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Burton Albion this weekend.
“It doesn’t matter if you are out of the squad, if you keep training, maybe you can be on the starting 11.
“That’s not normal. Usually, it’s a process out of the squad, bench and starting 11 but some positions are sometimes like that. It’s not a problem.”
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An example of a player who has been brought back from the cold recently is Jack Hunt. The right-back’s future at Rovers had looked uncertain before his back-to-back league starts in the last two league matches having not featured in a matchday squad since victory over Weston-super-Mare in the FA Cup first round in November.
The Englishman suffered a calf tear following that progression but had returned to full fitness in mid-January but initially wasn’t involved due to selection choice from Calderon.
“Listen, everyone that is with us, they have a chance,” Calderon added. “As I say, Hunty was the perfect example. He was not even in the squad and all of a sudden, he was starting and now he’s played two games in a row.”
Next up for Bristol Rovers is Saturday’s match versus Burton on February 15 in League One before back-to-back away trips to Wycombe and Northampton.