Convention has it that there are only two things that are certain in life: death and taxes. I reckon there are three, the third being that on a particular day the least likely thing that could possibly happen. The example I offer you is football.
My old club Bristol Rovers is currently a long way up shit creek, having lost its paddle some years ago. Last summer, the absent owners (more about them in a moment) made a blatantly populist managerial reappointment, restoring Darrell Clarke to the role. To say things have gone tits up this year is probably a bit of an understatement. Far from leading the team towards a run at the promotion play offs, Clarke has presided over a disastrous run of nine consecutive defeats and now the club stands on the brink of the relegation zone to non-league football.
Having not been to a game in over seven years, I am in no position to offer an opinion on Rovers’ decline. A succession of incompetent owners? Poor managerial appointments? Dismal recruitment? Probably all these things and more, including a loyal and forgiving fan base, many of whom remain wedded to the Ragbag Rovers era from the 1980s when they played at Bath City’s rickety Twerton Park and trained out of porta cabins at a nearby chocolate factory. Once the underdog, always the underdog. Now, having rejected numerous opportunities to modernise the football club, in order to make it sustainable and hopefully successful, the fans have reached a fork in the road. One leads down the same old road of stagnation and eventual extinction, the other demands better.
Clearly, the ownership of the club is vital in context to what has been happening and the state of the club, making record losses and now staring down the barrel of non-league football. I do not propose going through the same old arguments as to what went wrong, suffice to say that the last three owners have been less than successful. Bungling local builder Nick Higgs succeeded only in making the club worse, on and off the pitch, adding to the losses and debts and failing dismally to build the new stadium Bristol Rovers needs. Higgs sold out to an egotistical Jordanian man baby, Wael al-Qadi, who pissed away much of his own money paying off the debts he himself had accrued and – yes, you guessed it – failing to build a new stadium. When his money ran out, he sold the club to seemingly clueless and mute Kuwaiti businessman Hussain Al Saeed. Mute because Al Saeed appears to have no inclination to speak to supporters, delegating everything to his hired hands and shelling out a large fortune to cover the losses his apparent incompetence has brought about.
Some fans are holding a protest tomorrow and have put forward a series of demands to the silent owners. In addition, the group has stated its intention to set-up a supporters trust, in order to gain influence at the club. Good, on both counts. I hope the organisers get out and about among the fans in order to get the message out, including what they hope to achieve in both the short and long term. The sooner they hold a public meeting in order to gauge feelings among the fans and set about creating a new organisation from scratch the better. I know from bitter experience the levels of commitment that will be required and can only wish them well. I am led to believe the main organisers are successful businessmen, which I am sure will be a considerable asset to what comes about. So, that’s the off-the-field stuff dealt with, but what about on-the-field stuff? That’s much easier.
Saturday lunchtime’s visitors to the Memorial Stadium are Swindon Town, managed by alleged Gas legend Ian Holloway. On paper, it’s a formality. Swindon currently third in League Two, challenging for automatic promotion, Rovers third from bottom, a point off the relegation zone. Swindon to win 0-7, then? You’d think so, wouldn’t you, but I have a gut feeling that something bonkers could happen.
For all their apparent success, Swindon have failed to win nine of their 19 games and have conceded 25 goals in so doing, with a current goal difference of +6. Rovers, meanwhile, have conceded 35 goals and have a goal difference of -20. Here’s the thing, though. Rovers will be at home, presumably in front of a full house at lunchtime, playing a club pretty well everyone in BS7 hates. There’s only one possible outcome: Rovers to win and win comfortably.
League Two is rubbish. Just the other night, Swindon ‘entertained’ Cheltenham at the County Ground and contrived to lose to them, despite Cheltenham being down among the dead men, including Bristol Rovers. Big crowd, loud shouty atmosphere. Hell, you can get 2-1 against Rovers winning. Bet the house on it. It’s going to happen. If Cheltenham can beat Swindon away from home, why can’t the Gas beat them at home? Spoiler alert: they will.
I am told that tomorrow will be the day the Gas bounce back. A massive fan protest against the owners, followed by a massive win against the hated local-ish rivals. After both these things happen, let’s hope the fans see it through and bring about the change that previous generations – like mine – failed to bring about, mainly because most people didn’t care enough.
Bristol Rovers 3 Swindon Town 0. You read it here first. Then, a new era begins. Perhaps …
