Chris Lines played a lot of games for Bristol Rovers, more than 350 in fact, so there perhaps are few better players to pick their best Gas XI.
We tasked the Rovers legend, who played for 12 seasons with his boyhood club and won three promotions across two spells in BS7, with picking his best teammates from his time in the blue and white quarters, plus a manager.
With the only rule being that he had to choose himself, the 36-year-old – a free agent after leaving Stevenage at the end of the season – settled on a team that is heavily influenced by his two stellar stints with the Gas.
Over to you, Chris...
Goalkeeper: Mikkel Andersen
I just remember him being unbelievable. We had Fraser Forster as well on loan and Joe Lumley was another one. The goalies I was thinking of were younger lads who came on loan.
I just remember Mikkel being unreal that year and I was thinking "Wow, this kid is going to go places". His all-round game was unreal and he kept us in a lot of games.
He was a good lad, as well. He was a bit crazy, as they all are, but he is the one that always springs to mind. I thought he'd play in the Championship like Joe Lumley has. They were quite similar, but Mikkel made an impression and a lot of the lads thought he was class.
Right-back: Aaron Lescott
There were a couple of lads I could've put in for the dressing room, but I've only gone for footballing ability. Azza, I think, went under the radar with a lot of supporters but he played most games and he played a lot at left-back for us as well.
He could play right or left-back and I watched him in the charity game the other day and he still looks fit and healthy and he was up and down.
With the winger I've got in front of him, he suited the way I would want this team to play. He got forward really well, his passing was really good, he was quick and not a lot of people beat him one-on-one.
And he was a great lad. He was the life and soul of the dressing room, always cracking jokes. He didn't shut up, mind, but he was funny, a great lad and a great player.
Centre-backs: Tom Lockyer and Danny Coles
Locks' career speaks for itself since leaving Rovers. He's an international playing Championship football. He was a young lad when he came in and he's played a lot of games for his age. If he keeps fit and healthy, he'll probably go on to play 600 games easily.
Within no time, he was the captain, which speaks volumes about him as a leader. He was generally solid at the back. I was probably 10 years older than him in front, but he was always talking and shouting and getting things organised.
He and Colesy are completely different characters. Colesy is just nuts, but he played at a high level and the two of them together I think would work very well. Both were very vocal, we'd definitely be organised with them.
They both had legs. Nowadays, the game is a lot quicker and there are a lot of quick strikers and defenders can get exposed if they haven't got enough pace, but they both had a turn of pace.
Colesy was a great lad in the dressing room. A great character in his prime, so he adds more than one value to this team.
Left-back: Lee Brown
I had a couple of options at left-back, but Browny is a good friend and a good player and, similar to Azza, he is going to compliment my left-winger.
He scored a lot of goals, including a couple of important ones. He scored the goal that has given us all memories to last a lifetime.
One on one, not a lot of players beat him. He was quick and strong. He was up and down the wing and probably one of the best crossers of a ball I've played with. With his ability to cross a ball on the move, he got a lot of assists and he chipped in with goals.
Centre-midfield: Chris Lines and Ollie Clarke
I had to put myself in. It's my team and I'm the skipper.
I picked Ollie because we had such a good partnership together. A lot would say Stuart Campbell should be in there, but Clarkey is one of my best mates, we roomed together and we built up a partnership. We knew what the other was going to do and we had different attributes, which is often forgotten now in football because a lot of teams are playing three in midfield or diamonds.
We had the old fashioned connection of if one gets forward, the other one doesn't and vice versa. Clarkey also loved a tackle and my tackling has been non-existent for 20 years.
It was a perfect combination. We worked well together, we knew each other inside out on and off the pitch, and that's what you want when you're playing in midfield – someone to complement your game and vice versa.
He was underrated. He went under the radar massively for a lot of seasons. You look at his highlight reel, there are a lot of great goals with his right and left foot.
He's an all-action midfielder, something I would love to have next to me because he can go around nailing people and I can do all the fancy stuff. It just worked out really well.
Right-midfield: Billy Bodin
This was the first person I put in the team. That season in League Two, he was just a joke and for me as a midfielder who wants to pass the ball, he was always in space. He'd come off the line, he didn't just play out wide.
That year, he came in on trial. He was injury-prone but we got him fit and he was the best player in that league by a mile. He scored goals, created goals – with both feet – and just beat people for fun.
He'd make my best team of players I've played with from my whole career, let alone Rovers.
Left-midfield: Jeff Hughes
This was the one position I struggled with. I was racking my brains for a while and I thought about Hughesy because he and Browny would work really well together.
I thought about Andy Monkhouse as well, just for how well he played with Browny that season. He used to come inside and Browny would go outside.
But I went with Hughesy, and one season in League One I got a few goals and I think he got 15 or 16 that year. He was on pens, and I was a bit gutted I didn't get on pens at the start because I would have had 15 or 16 myself.
He just scored goals and he had a lovely left foot. He and Bill could swap sides. They were both players that wanted to play inside and get goals. With them two, it is 10 goals guaranteed from each wing before we even get to the strikers I've picked.
Strikers: Rickie Lambert and Matty Taylor
Lambo picks himself. He helped my game with the way he held the ball up and the way he linked the play. He and Jo Kuffour were the reason I got 12 goals in 2009/10.
Lambo was on fire. He could do everything, apart from run fast, but he made up for that. He's still scored the best goal I've ever seen as a player live at Luton.
He had the lot. If you put a ball within five yards of him in the air or on the floor, you're either getting it back or he's going to turn and smash one in the top corner. Along with Bill, he was one of the first names on the teamsheet.
With Lambo and Matty up top and Billy and Hughesy on the wing, you're looking at probably 50 or 60 goals from four players there.
Matty, for me, wherever I looked to play him, he was there. His movement was brilliant.
When I joined in the Conference, I didn't know Matty or anything about him, but straight away I knew he had a bit about him. He was so good in the air for such a small player and he just scored goals.
Similarly to Lambo, once it clicked he couldn't stop scoring and that was a massive part of him going up both times. The two of them would complement each other perfectly.
I love Ellis Harrison as well and he'd definitely make the bench in this team with Richard Walker, what a player. There have been some great strikers over the years, but Matty gets in there for the way I enjoyed linking up with him.
Manager: Darrell Clarke
DC is the manager. Trolls (Paul Trollope) can be assistant if he wants because he gave me my debut and he was patient with me and worked with me, but Darrell was a good friend and a great manager.
What he built there was pretty special and I want to see him running down the Wembley touchline again in a few weeks with Port Vale because he deserves that. He's a great guy and he helped me a lot on a personal level and on a football level.
He was completely different to any other manager I've worked with, but it worked. To get us straight back up out of the Conference and then go up again doesn't happen that often and he takes the majority of the credit for building that squad of people.
It was his relationship with the players that made him special. He was always in the dressing room, having a laugh. He was just like one of the boys and if he could put the kit on and still run around, he would have been like another lad playing but he just happened to be the manager.
In football it is becoming more important to be a man-manager these days and he was the best I've worked with and he got the best out of people. We had the best team in the Conference and that's understandable, but we didn't have the best team in League Two yet we managed to get promotion with a good bunch of lads.
We had some good individuals, don't get me wrong, but he built that team spirit that got us results and you can't teach people to do that. You've got to be a good bloke and create an atmosphere.
We all made friends for life that year and that doesn't happen that often in football. You move on and you don't speak to people, but we'll always look back on that year and know we had a special bunch of lads, and that was down to Darrell.
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