Football Hunt sorry for the fans after his Rovers career ends on low note

FORMER Bristol Rovers right-back Jack Hunt has lifted the lid on his turbulent two-year spell at the Memorial Stadium following his departure earlier this month, and admitted he is "gutted" for the supporters following relegation to League Two.

- Dan HARGRAVES

The 34-year-old made 48 appearances for the Gas, and played under three different permanent bosses, having signed for Joey Barton in the summer of 2023.

Hunt had already spent time in Bristol, spending three seasons on the red side with Bristol City, before returning to Sheffield Wednesday for a third spell in 2021. The right-back arrived in north Bristol having just helped the Owls to promotion back into the Championship via the play-offs and, although getting into the second tier with the Pirates would have been a hell of an achievement, he was pitched an ambitious project led by then-manager Barton, who was sacked within a few months and replaced by Matt Taylor.

"He'd convinced me," Hunt said in an interview with the Sheffield Star. "In an ideal world I didn't really want to go that far but once you get into your 30s it's about enjoying your football for however long you can carry on for. I felt I could do that there. I felt the strengths of how he had the team suited me and aligned with how I wanted to play as well.

"If the kids had been any younger I wouldn't have even considered it. The schedule changed and that was tough. We spoke about allowing me time to get up and spend some time with them, but it didn’t happen in the end.

"I went down as part of one project and you don’t really know what to expect from the next one. The schedule was a big thing under Joey as that would allow us to go back up to check in with the family a bit. But everyone has their own ways on how they want to work and under Matt that schedule changed. I'd missed pre-season, I was always playing catch-up and I got a couple of injuries. It was difficult to catch a rhythm."