GasCast SCOUT REPORT: Sam Finley Paul Coutts & Nick Anderton

New Player biographies compiled by Stephen Byrne

PAUL ALEXANDER COUTTS
b 22.7.1988 Aberdeen
6’; 11 st 8 lbs M
Début:
Career: 1998 Aberdeen; July 2005 Cove Rangers (free); 10.6.08 Peterborough United (trial); 24.6.08 Peterborough United [47+6,0]; 21.1.10 Preston North End (free) [71+6,4]; 14.7.12 Derby County (£150,000) [47+12,2]; 23.1.15 Sheffield United [102+22,3]; 3.7.19 Fleetwood Town (free) [41+11,0]; 21.1.21 Salford City (loan) [14+5,0]; 26.5.21 Bristol Rovers (free).

Having gained promotion from League One with Peterborough and from League One and the Championship with Sheffield United, accomplished, tough-tackling midfielder Paul Coutts re-joined his former manager Joey Barton at The Mem following Rovers’ relegation back to fourth-tier football. He brought with him an aggressive approach to midfield play, a degree of leadership and a vast array of Football League experience. Rejected as a youngster by Aberdeen for being apparently too small for professional football, Coutts viewed this as “a blessing in disguise” and worked in the oil industry, “a good learning curve”, whilst making his way in Highland League football. He scored nine goals in 66 Highland League matches with Cove Rangers, helping his side to the title in 2007-08, the season he was named Player of the Year for the entire league. This experience enabled him to break into third-tier English football; having excelled in a pre-season friendly against a Liverpool XI, he made his Peterborough début in their 5-4 victory over Rovers. The young midfielder featured in the memorable 2-0 giant-killing victory over Newcastle United in the League Cup in September 2009 and in the League fixture with Cardiff that December, when Posh trailed 4-0 at half-time but rallied to earn a point. Having helped Posh gain promotion, he was relegated back to League One with Preston, where he was appointed club captain in December 2011. It was at Preston where he received the only red card of his career, in a 3-0 victory over Cardiff City in February 2010. One goal, against Colchester United in August 2011, was short-listed for the 2011 Football League Goal of the Year award. By this point, he had earned eight Scottish caps at Under-21 level, first appearing as a half-time substitute against Northern Ireland in November 2008, with his final game being a defeat against Iceland in October 2020. Coutts’ first game with Derby was an astonishing one; having led 3-0 at half-time, the Rams drew 5-5 in the League Cup with a Scunthorpe United side fielding Sam Slocombe in goal, losing to the lower-league side in a penalty shoot-out. This was followed by an assist against Sheffield Wednesday in his first league appearance in a Derby short. Having scored for Derby away to Middlesbrough and Leeds United, Coutts re-joined manager Nigel Clough at Sheffield United, playing alongside future Rovers defender Bob Harris in the side which lost in the play-offs in 2015-16 but secured promotion to the Championship in 2016-17, during which season he contrived to score both home and away against Swindon Town; after a twelve-year absence, the Blades were promoted back to the top flight two years later. With the Blades in the third tier, he was in the side which almost secured a famous result at Old Trafford in the FA Cup in January 2016, losing only to a stoppage-time Wayne Rooney penalty. Premier League football, however, eluded him, and he played alongside future Rovers colleague Sam Finley at Joey Barton’s Fleetwood side, who reached the 2019-20 League One play-offs, only to lose to Wycombe Wanderers. A brief loan spell, during which he missed Salford’s victorious Football League Trophy Final appearance as he was cup-tied, saw Salford hold the final unbeaten home record in 2020-21, only losing to Lloyd Isgrove’s goal for Bolton Wanderers in their penultimate home game. Coutts arrived at The Mem having played against Rovers in seven League fixtures, two each for Posh and Sheffield United and three times for Fleetwood, including their 4-1 victory at The Mem in November 2020 which proved the final game of Ben Garner’s tenure as manager. Despite two long-term injuries, seeing the 2013-14 campaign cut short by a dislocated knee and the 2017-18 season likewise by a broken right tibia suffered in a game against Burton Albion, Paul Coutts offered the vast experience which Rovers appeared to be crying out for.

SAMUEL JOSEPH FINLEY
b 4.8.1992 Liverpool
6’ 1”; 10 st 9 lbs M
Début:
Career: Everton; 2008 Southport (free); 2009 Warrington Town (loan); 2010 Warrington Town (free); 10.8.11 The New Saints (free); 3.2.15 Wrexham (loan); 7.8.15 AFC Fylde (free); 29.6.18 Accrington Stanley (free) [61+7,3]; 1.9.20 Fleetwood Town (free) [19+10,3]; 26.5.21 Bristol Rovers (free).

Accomplished in the heart of midfield, Sam Finley re-joined his former manager Joey Barton and former team-mate Paul Coutts when he became part of a quadruple signing at The Mem ahead of the 2021-22 campaign. Having worked his way through non-league circles, including 11(+3) games without a goal in the Conference with Wrexham, he had also experienced European football at the New Saints. Alongside 64 games and eighteen goals in the Welsh Premier League, he had played against Legia Warsaw and Anderlecht in European competition. Indeed, TNS were Welsh champions in all four of his seasons with them, and he also played as they won the Welsh Cup in 2012 and 2014, defeating Cefn Druids and Aberystwyth Town 2-0 and 3-2 respectively, and the Welsh League Cup in 2015. Made club captain at the Coasters, he helped Fylde to promotion to the National League, his 17 goals in 95 matches including braces in a 6-0 victory over Macclesfield in January 2018 and a 7-1 thumping of Aldershot Town two months later. Finley’s Football League bow came on his twenty-sixth birthday for Stanley against Gillingham and his second appearance saw him come on as a substitute for Offrande Zanazala after 58 minutes of the game at The Mem in August 2018. He also played against Rovers twice in 2018-19 and appeared again in September 2019, scoring Stanley’s second goal, just nineteen minutes into a thrilling 3-3 draw. Managed by Barton at Fleetwood, he scored against Plymouth Argyle, MK Dons and Burton Albion and was in their side which won 4-1 at The Mem in November 2020, a game which spelled the end of Ben Garner’s stint as Rovers’ manager. Finley did arrive at The Mem, though, with a history of indiscipline, having been sent off seven times during his spell at Fylde, whilst he had received an eight-match ban and a fine of £850 following racist comments made to Paul McShane, Rochdale’s former Irish international, during a New Year’s Day 2020 fixture.

MARK ANTHONY HUGHES
b 9.12.1986 Kirkby, Liverpool
6’ 2”; 13 st 12 lbs CB
Début:
Career: 1994 Everton (professional, 24.8.05) [0+1,0]; 13.2.06 Stockport County (loan) [3,0]; 31.1.07 Northampton Town (free) [92+1,4]; 8.7.09 Walsall (free) [24+2,1]; 28.6.10 North Queensland Fury (free) [30,4]; 21.6.11 Bury (free) [46+6,0]; 31.1.13 Accrington Stanley (loan); 9.7.13 Morecambe (free) [83+1,8]; 27.5.15 Stevenage (free) [19+1,1]; 29.1.16 Accrington Stanley [215,9]; 26.5.21 Bristol Rovers (free).

Few players have appeared ten times in the League against Rovers prior to signing for the club, but uncompromising central defender Mark Hughes could claim a wealth of experience. Having first appeared in the 2-2 draw between Rovers and Stockport County in February 2006, a match in which Richard Walker scored both Rovers’ goals, Hughes had also represented Northampton, Morecambe and Accrington against The Gas, his final such appearance being Stanley’s 6-1 victory over Rovers in February 2021. Not far behind this tally was his total of red cards, eight accumulated down the years, starting with dismissals whilst playing for Walsall against Colchester United and Huddersfield Town in the 2009-10 season. The youngest of three children to Tom Hughes and Elizabeth Hinnigan, who had married in 1981, she being the second of eight children born to Joe Hinnigan and Elizabeth Quigg, Mark Hughes had captained a number of sides through a long career as a dependable lower-league defender. Everton’s reserve captain, he had enjoyed a brief Premier League cameo as a last-minute substitute for James Beattie in a 2-0 victory over West Ham United at Goodison Park in December 2006 and also appeared in two League Cup matches. His first League goal came with Northampton, firing home after 21 minutes, the second of three first-half goals as Rotherham United were defeated 3-0 in March 2007. A spell in Australia saw him voted Player of the Year at North Queensland Fury – “I believe I have improved as a footballer and grown as a man”, he said. Despite relegation to League Two with Bury and a calf injury which cut short a loan spell at Accrington, he became club captain at Morecambe and scored a dramatic late equaliser for Stevenage when they drew 2-2 with Newport County in August 2015. It was Hughes’ five years at Accrington, though, which made his name as a rugged, commanding defensive player. In 2015-16 he was a regular as the side came tantalisingly close to promotion from League Two; requiring a final-day victory against his former club, Stevenage, Stanley hit the woodwork three times, drew 0-0 and missed out on promotion when Lee Brown’s stoppage-time strike at The Mem saw Rovers promoted in their stead. Having lost to Wimbledon in the subsequent play-offs, Stanley were 2017-18 League Two champions, Hughes playing in all 46 League fixtures as the club rose to the third-tier for the first time in their history. He scored home and away against Notts County that season, Stanley securing the title but losing in the FA Cup to unfashionable Guiseley and he was named in the PFA divisional team of the Year. In addition, he had been in their side which knocked Burnley out of the League Cup in 2016-17, to accompany helping Morecambe defeat Wolves in the same competition three years earlier and, despite not being known as a regular goal-scorer, he scored twice in twenty-two first-half minutes in a 3-2 victory over Crewe Alexandra in April 2017. Having played every minute of the 2020-21 campaign, Hughes was forced off with an injury early in the 7-0 defeat against Peterborough United in March 2021 and never appeared for Accrington again. Richie Barker’s first signing for Bury and Teddy Sheringham’s first at Stevenage, he was part of the quadruple signing which marked Joey Barton’s first foray as Rovers manager into the transfer market.

NICHOLAS JACK WILMER-ANDERTON
b 22.4.1996 Preston
6’ 2”; 12 st 6 lbs LB
Début:
Career: 2012 Preston North End (professional, 20.5.14); 27.3.14 Chorley (loan); 31.10.14 Gateshead (loan); 31.12.14 Barrow (loan); 10.8.15 Aldershot Town (loan); 5.11.15 Barrow (loan); 30.5.16 Barrow (free); 26.6.17 Blackpool (free) [14+2,0]; 18.8.18 Accrington Stanley (loan) [20+2,0]; 16.1.20 Carlisle United [43+7,4]; 26.5.21 Bristol Rovers (free).

Ahead of Rovers’ 2021-22 League two campaign, manager Joey Barton announced a quadruple signing, including Carlisle’s captain Nick Anderton. A tall, experienced defender, who could play at left-back or centre-back, he had played in the Blackpool side which Rovers had defeated 4-0 at The Mem in March 2019, Jonson Clarke-Harris scoring a hat-trick. And arrived in Bristol “looking for a new challenge”. Anderton first appeared for Gateshead in their 4-0 FA Cup victory over Norton United in November 2014 before making three National League North appearances for them, playing in eleven National League games with Aldershot and accumulating 73 games (64 National League and nine National League North) with Barrow, scoring once, after 82 minutes of a 4-0 victory over Eastleigh in October 2016. With his first loan spell at Barrow cut short by a broken leg suffered in February 2015, he was sent off on his first game back at the Bluebirds, at Guiseley in November 2015, and he was also sent off at Lincoln that season and at Aldershot and Solihull Moors in 2016-17. Despite interest from Bradford City, Anderton joined Blackpool and made his first Football League appearance in August 2017 in a 1-0 victory over MK Dons. A fractured leg in training in October 2019 effectively ended his career at Blackpool, but he captained Carlisle to great effect, scoring against Walsall and Cambridge United in 2019-20 and against Stevenage, the opening strike in a 4-0 victory, and Tranmere Rovers during 2020-21.