This particular season was most notable, perhaps, for the departure of Brendan O'Callaghan, who, together with Peter Kitchen formed the Rovers dynamic scoring partnership of the 1970's. Other than that, the Rovers, hampered by a poor scoring record, ended the season in twelfth place in Division Four, with only the occasional memorable performance from which to glean any degree of satisfaction.

The season opened as did the one before with Joe Laidlaw amongst the goals, this time in a home draw with Newport County, but the next three fixtures were all lost with the team failing to get on the scoresheet again. Bobby Owen, the former Manchester City striker, newly signed at the start of the season, weighed in with his first goal for the club in a draw at Stockport County before the Rovers finally caught the winning habit with successive home victories over Brentford and Southport, with another new signing in Dick Habbin from Rotherham United scoring in both games. The Rovers league form continued to fluctuate as the season progressed. Three consecutive defeats were followed by four successive victories, although the Christmas Holiday games resulted in three draws, leaving the team just below half way in the league by the turn of the New Year.

January proved to be a disastrous month for the Rovers, wherein they scored just one point from four games, and suffered a six goal hammering at table topping Watford, who were threatening to run away with the Championship, even at this early stage. In contrast, the Rovers were in a downward spiral, and were only a few points out of the bottom four. O'Callaghan played his last game for the club in February before moving to Stoke City for a fee of £50,000, and his goal coincided with a goal drought which saw the Rovers score just five goals in the next eleven games. Fortunately only three of these were lost as a succession of draws kept the team out of the bottom four.

April opened with a final home victory over Torquay United, and although the next game at high flying Southend resulted in a heavy loss, the Rovers put together a spirited run that eventually led them to safety and a final degree of respectability. The pick of these games was a remarkable seven goal thriller against Aldershot, which saw the Rovers come back from the dead to defeat their visitors form Hampshire, with youngster Tommy Meagan scoring on his debut.

On a coincidental note, the season ended with Joe Laidlaw scoring twice in the final match against Reading with one a penalty - just as he did against Newport County on the opening day of the season.

The cup games were not a source of much pleasure, the Rovers were knocked out of the FA Cup by Shrewsbury Town in the first round. A single goal defeat at Belle Vue was the Rovers second loss to the 'shrews' in consecutive seasons in that competition, whilst the League Cup saw the Rovers lose eight goals to Sheffield Wednesday in a two-legged first round tie.

Leading scorers: Laidlaw 13, Owen 11, Habbin 10