Having followed Bristol Rovers tonight mainly via twitter, I am considering a few options for tomorrow. One is to purchase sufficient razor blades for some Gasheads to put themselves out of their misery and just end it all now and the other is to hope that nothing really bad happens to them in their real lives away from football. If I had not be following the game simultaneously on the BBC website, one might easily have concluded that Rovers had crashed to a terrible defeat at Stevenage, but they didn’t. They drew.
I do understand the passion, believe me, and I get the irrationality that lives within the football fan. I have been there, bought the T shirt and have been as irrational as the next woman or man. But let’s try and be a little dispassionate for one second. Drawing 0-0 at Stevenage might not seem much – they’re down among the dead men, for one thing – but think of something else. In reality, Stevenage had nothing to play for whereas Rovers have everything to play for. Stevenage were safe from relegation, Rovers are in a four way race for two promotion places. Nothing has changed tonight. Trust me: pressure is a massive thing in sport. You do tighten up, you do think too much, you forget to do the basics.
This is a strange time of the season because, for many teams, games no longer matter in terms of promotion or relegation. Teams with nothing to play for can go one way or another. Some players know they will not be playing for their club next season, others will have a contract to play for and they can be playing for the same team.
One thing is for sure. Bristol Rovers are right in the mix, as we football folk say. Despite the efforts of a great manager and the team he has assembled, did Gasheads really expect to be at the heart of the automatic promotion fight come April? We came up by the skin of our teeth last year, the club’s very future was hanging by a thread before Wael Al-Qadi came along and a decent top half finish would surely have sufficed, wouldn’t it?
Exeter are up next and what will they be feeling like? The came back from 2-0 down tonight at home to Mansfield (who parked the bus at the Mem) and then lost late on. They still have a chance of the play offs. Will they be under pressure to succeed or will they just relax, go out and enjoy the day and see where they end up? If I was their manager, that’s what I’d be telling them. But at a raucous and packed Memorial Stadium, will the atmosphere get to them?
I doubt that Darrell Clarke or the players have had their faith jolted by a 0-0 draw at Stevenage, so neither should the fans. It’s nerve-shredding, for sure, but that’s usually how things are in football. Feel the gloom, take along the tension to BS7 on Saturday and the players will feel it. So don’t!
Promotion or not, these are still the good days at the Rovers and these are still very early days of the new era. This is not John Ward arsing about with a few games left and this is not Nick Higgs leading the club to hell in a handcart. This is a fine young manager with a hungry young team and an owner who wants to take the club in a new upward direction.
Nobody died tonight and Rovers didn’t lose. This was not a bad night.
