{"id":572214,"date":"2020-11-14T15:49:21","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T20:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=572214"},"modified":"2020-11-14T15:49:21","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T20:49:21","slug":"manager-ben-garner-leaves-bristol-rovers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/11\/14\/manager-ben-garner-leaves-bristol-rovers\/","title":{"rendered":"Manager Ben Garner Leaves Bristol Rovers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=Bristol+Rovers\" target=\"_self\">Bristol Rovers<\/a> have confirmed they have parted company with manager Ben Garner.<\/p>\n<p>The move follows a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/sport\/football\/match-reports\/bristol-rovers-garner-reaction-live-4701351\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">4-1 loss<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=Fleetwood+Town\" target=\"_self\">Fleetwood Town<\/a> on Saturday (November 14, 2020) afternoon.<\/p>\n<h2>Ben Garner and Bristol Rovers Part Ways<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83d\udcf0 The Club can this evening confirm that it has parted company with Manager Ben Garner. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MnnC5eOMzK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/MnnC5eOMzK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bristol Rovers (@Official_BRFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Official_BRFC\/status\/1327676000558256130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Club Statement<\/h3>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolrovers.co.uk\/news\/2020\/november\/ben-garner-statement\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statement from the club<\/a> reads: &#8220;Bristol Rovers can this evening confirm that it has parted company with manager Ben Garner.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tommy Widdrington will be taking charge of first-team duties on a temporary basis, while the club commences the process of appointing a new manager.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The club would like to thank Ben Garner for all his hard work and wish him the very best of luck for the future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The club will be making no further comment at this time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Ben Garner&#8217;s Low Win Percentage<\/h3>\n<p>Garner&#8217;s exit comes after almost 11 months in charge of the club. They sit 18th in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/league-football\/league12\/\" target=\"_self\">League One<\/a> and have now lost <a href=\"https:\/\/int.soccerway.com\/teams\/england\/bristol-rovers-fc\/739\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">three<\/a> of their last four league games. That statistic may look more damning than it seems though, with the three opponents being <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=Hull+City\" target=\"_self\">Hull City<\/a> (second), <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=Peterborough+United\" target=\"_self\">Peterborough United<\/a> (first) and Fleetwood (eighth). That said, clearly, the club are not heading in the direction they want to be and have made the decision to look elsewhere for the future.<\/p>\n<p>It was the 40-year-old&#8217;s first spell in a managerial hot seat, having worked his way up as a coach and assistant manager. His overall win percentage at Bristol Rovers had dropped the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofascore.com\/manager\/ben-garner\/794088\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">below 19%<\/a>, with just six wins from 32 games.<\/p>\n<h3>Bristol Rovers&#8217; Immediate Future<\/h3>\n<p>Tommy Widdrington, who will take charge until a replacement is found, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/43961108\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">initially arrived<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=Coventry+City\" target=\"_self\">Coventry City<\/a> as head of recruitment in May 2018. Widdrington has managerial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/43961108\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">experience<\/a> from his days with Salisbury City, Hemel Hempstead Town and Eastbourne Borough.<\/p>\n<p>Bristol Rovers host<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/premier-league\/chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\"> Chelsea<\/a> U21 in the EFL Trophy on Wednesday, November 18, 2020, before returning to League One action against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=Swindon+Town\" target=\"_self\">Swindon Town<\/a> on Saturday, November 21, 2020. Swindon themselves were recently <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/11\/04\/richie-wellens-appointed-as-new-salford-city-manager\/\" target=\"_self\">forced<\/a> to make a managerial change, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/11\/13\/swindon-town-appoint-john-sheridan-as-richie-wellens-replacement\/\" target=\"_self\">appointing John Sheridan<\/a> to replace Richie Wellens, who had elected to join <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=Salford+City\" target=\"_self\">Salford Cit<\/a>y.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"5lTTql9sQLFy6UHdUvBAgw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1282534575\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'5lTTql9sQLFy6UHdUvBAgw',sig:'uTgmbb7vylB1d0akrci6tzNhgbC9hVQb1AByjM6AyxA=',w:'594px',h:'391px',items:'1282534575',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bristol Rovers have confirmed they have parted company with manager Ben Garner. The move follows a 4-1 loss to Fleetwood Town on Saturday (November 14, 2020) afternoon. Ben Garner and Bristol Rovers Part Ways \ud83d\udcf0 The Club can this evening confirm that it has parted company with Manager Ben Garner. https:\/\/t.co\/MnnC5eOMzK \u2014 Bristol Rovers (@Official_BRFC) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3469,"featured_media":572224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34,30],"tags":[5648,504,168,188,7050,136],"class_list":["post-572214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-league12","category-news","tag-ben-garner","tag-bristol-rovers","tag-efl","tag-league-one","tag-tommy-widdrington","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Jordan Hackett, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}