Even in my current state of half-heartedness about Bristol Rovers – and that’s on a good day – I am afraid Bristol City’s promotion tonight after a six goal demolition of Bradford City will not see me reaching for the bubbly. I would be foolish to deny that they have certainly deserved promotion to the Championship, or indeed to ignore the contribution billionaire Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown made to get them there. But City’s celebrations are not mine.
Enough bitterness from me because otherwise I will become even more embittered in the years to come, as Lansdown’s Bristol Sport begins to take over all meaningful sport in the local area, apart from Bristol Rovers and pre season Gloucester rugby friendlies.. And make no mistake, the day when Bristol Sport controls all of the large spectator sports in the area will not be far away.
There’s certainly no need for Rovers supporters to get all het up about what City have done. In a big city, it is natural to feel rivalry and to not want the opposition to do well, although some of the rivalry is absolutely pathetic, none more so than when some City fans still have to remind themselves how much they hate a club that is currently playing non league football. Still, that’s a matter for them. If I was a City fan tonight, Rovers would be the last thing on my mind.
Gasheads need to take the banter on the chin now for the rest of the season and concentrate on what they can achieve and not what City have achieved. What happens in BS3 is irrelevant to the Rovers and must not become a distraction because there will, inevitably, be more pressure and expectation on them now that City have achieved a large part of their goal this year. I am sure the last thing Darrell Clarke will want is to have his players dwelling on what the local rivals have done when their own fate lies in their own hands, if not by automatic promotion back to the Football League, then via the play offs.
It is certainly good to see the crowds soaring at the Rovers. I recall the final days at Eastville and the early days at Bath when home crowds were barely a thousand higher than the current away followings, even though the club was then in what we now call League One. Club owner and chairman Nick Higgs will not require a man with the IQ of a rocket scientist to tell him that these new supporters must be encouraged to stay at all costs, as he seeks to fill the UWE Stadium, when, as the directors confidently expect, the club wins its court case against Sainsburys and the building starts.
Of course the banter and piss taking matters, but as of now the blue half of Bristol is some three divisions away from the red half and that’s what Gasheads must concentrate on. It’s all very well to take 2000 fans to Dover and, quite possibly, another 30,000 to Wembley for a play off final against Grimsby (just a guess!), but it won’t be much use if in the summer Bristol Rovers start another season of non league football.
Well done to City and all that, but what happens in BS7 is all that should matter to Rovers.
