Bristol Rovers have issued an apology after wrongly announcing that the club’s long-serving kitman had died on  on their website last week.

Rovers’ kitman of the last ten-plus years, Roger Hardin, has been ill in hospital of late but the Pirates’ club website went that one step further and announced Roger had passed away on Friday evening - leading to a rather awkward statement having to be released when it turned out he very much hadn’t died at all.

A club spokesman said:

"It turns out this information was not correct. Although Roger is very ill, he is still bravely fighting for his life.

"Roger is a very important part of Bristol Rovers and our thoughts are with his family and friends as he continues his battle.

"We apologise again for any hurt our previous statement has caused."