Whilst I have made my own personal decision to wave goodbye to Bristol Rovers, for at least as long as chairman Nick Higgs is in any way involved, it is hard, and would be entirely churlish, not to be pleased for my Gashead friends. As I write, Rovers are emphatically thumping fellow promotion chasers Macclesfield Town. They have waited a very long time for something to cheer about – probably since the League Two play off final in 2007 – and I’ll bet the internet forums are now criticism free!
There were almost 7000 Rovers fans at the Memorial Stadium, which is truly incredible for a non league club. This figure is only slightly inflated by the fact that it’s during the Christmas holidays: the average crowd is not far short of that. Obviously, as I have not been to a game for over two years, I am not going to be in possession of any of the facts as to why crowds have actually gone up this year following relegation to the Conference, but here’s a few theories.
The team is winning and, more importantly, not losing and anyone with even the tenuous grasp of football would know that the confidence of winning and not losing is everything. This is the same feeling whether you play in the Premier League or a Sunday pub league.
There is belief that the man at the top, by which I mean the manager, knows what he is doing. A current league and current Conference manager told me that Darrell Clarke was exactly the right man to manage Rovers because he knows that level of football inside out.
The club is undoubtedly a very big fish in the Conference small pond. I am told that Kidderminster Harriers will benefit to the tune of £90,000 when the transfer window opens and Nathan Blissett becomes a proper, contracted Rovers player. Whilst it is true that some other clubs profess to have benefactors that enable them to finish much higher than their club size might normally achieve, it is also true that Rovers have a very wealthy board of directors and it seems that the purse strings have been loosened in order to ensure a strong run at promotion. It is also fair to add that the directors have probably gambled for promotion, rightly in my view. There are normally only two occasions when it is acceptable to spend money you haven’t got and that’s to help secure promotion, especially bearing in mind a failure to acquire promotion would be a financial catastrophe, or to avoid relegation. It’s losing money in order to not lose even more, if you see what I mean.
I have always expected that Rovers would bounce back at the first attempt, never in doubt to me, whether that was via automatic promotion or through the play offs. I am even more certain now.
Also, I don’t believe that Rovers’ success is as a result of luck and chemistry. They have, for once, got the managerial appointment right and, unusually, not panicked when things weren’t going right straight away. There may be a wobble along the way and there will certainly be one in the none too distant future – this is football after all – but Clarke deserves to be rewarded if and when Rovers secure the promotion I expect.
It’s definitely a happy new year to Gasheads, with a very winnable home game against Torquay to come. I don’t anticipate any problems as the season goes on because by now the league table is very accurate.
