Although the Rovers finished in a higher league position - 11th on the old Third Division - than they did the previous season, their lack of better progress was largely due to their poor goal scoring record. Their poor tally of forty five goals was only beaten by the bottom club, Swansea City, who scored just two fewer. However, on the other hand, the Rovers' goals against record was only fifty two, as this total was only bettered by two clubs, one of which, Reading, went up as Champions at the end of the season.

The season commenced with an unbeaten run of seven games, although four of these were drawn. The next three were all lost, before another mini-run pushed the Rovers back up the league. Amongst these good results was a first ever victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers, where a brace of goals from Colin Douglas secured the points.

By this time Reading, who had had a remarkable start to the season, were threatening to have the league sewn up by Christmas, but the Rovers kept plugging away, and good away wins at Swansea and Cardiff kept them in contention for the other promotion places. The Christmas games provided three victories in the space of six days, this was a welcome boost for Dave Cusack, who had taken over the helm following Billy Bremner's move back to Elland Road as Team Manager in November. Cusack, who had only joind the playing staff during the summer, was now the youngest Player/Manager in the Football League at twenty nine, and the Rovers responded as most teams do when a new man is at the helm.

Some of the Rovers' best results were being saved for the benefit of their travelling supporters, and wins were registered at Brentford and Plymouth Argyle as the second half of the season progressed. By March, the Rovers were just a few points adrift of the top three, but just one point from three games suddenly left them with a mountain to climb, and they were never as close again. The season petered out in disappointing fashion, although the Rovers secured a fine point at Derby County in their last away game, this being particularly noteworthy as the "Rams" were duly promoted at the end of the season.

The Cup games provided little in the way of excitement with Wigan Athletic and Notts County dispatching the Rovers out of the FA Cup and Milk Cup respectively. The Rovers also failed to make much progress in the Freight Rover Trophy, being eliminated in the Qualifying Round.

Leading Scorers: Douglas 13, Woods 7

Supporters Club player of the year as at November 1985: Tony Brown 75, Colin Douglas 62, John Buckley 54, David Cusack 51, Dave Rushbury 42, Brian Caswell 40, Jim Dobbin 39, Andy Rhodes 23, Aidan Butterworth 21, Glen Humphries 19, Dennis Peacock 13, John Philliben 13, Paul Allen 12, David Harle 12, Mickey Nesbitt 11, Neil Woods 10, Trevor Swinburne 4, Ray Deans 3, Dave Travis 3, Alan Brown 1