Charlton Athletic 4 Bristol Rovers 1. The word that springs to mind on my social network feeds is “gutted” but relief is close at hand. Bristol City threw away a two nil lead at Ashton Gate to lose 3-2. Doubtless people are “half gutted” now. Me? I’m quite relaxed about it all.
I didn’t want to lose at Charlton – the exact opposite, actually – but an apparent thumping at the Valley will not keep me awake tonight. I know the manager made a shedload of changes today, including one player I can scarcely believe is actually playing in League One, but then he has probably forgotten more about football than I shall ever know. If a prolific scorer was axed and left on the bench, my guess is that Darrell Clarke has a decent explanation. Almost unheard of at the Rovers, we have even got sports science where fitness and fatigue levels are regularly measured. And some players are more effective from the bench than they are starting. That applies in League One as it does in the Downs League.
I no longer follow football forums so I am unable to take the pulse of the average Gashead. If things are the same as they were the last time I looked, when Nick Higgs was busily steering the club into non-league football, then there will be criticism of the owner for not backing the manager in the transfer market, criticism of the manager for his selection policy and tactics (like we on the terraces know more about both than he does) and then we’ll blame the manager for running out of ideas/being found out/not knowing his best team and so on. Even if any of these things are true, you won’t find me manning the barricades to protest. Personally, I hope the sirens for change are in a small minority.
If Rome wasn’t built in a day, then neither was Bristol Rovers. Inheriting an absolute shambles from John Ward, we should be building a statue in Clarke’s image rather than attacking him. We are, of course, entitled to our opinions. We might actually be right and Clarke might be wrong, but his job depends on his decisions. It’s only a small part of our recreation time that gets affected.
My loyal reader will know only too well that I have been left battered and bruised by those who owned and mismanaged Bristol Rovers over a long period of time. If those turbulent years, during which my only aim was to make the club better, could be forgotten, I’d forget them now. Mine was a piecemeal, scattergun, unfocused aim, too, exposing my many limitations as an organiser and a moderniser. I got more things wrong than right. But that’s all gone now. My anger and frustration has subsided into more of a state of calm. What happened before has gone, life goes on, in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t really important.
Wael al Qadi has come from Jordan to buy Bristol Rovers and clearly embraces what the club stands for. There are dynamic professionals helping him, a strong chairman in Steve Hamer who listens to people as well as making decisions, a fine young manager, a strong and experienced head of media in Keith Brookman and the most incredible supporters a club could possibly have. What’s not to love?
Nowadays, I rarely even think about off-the-field stuff at the Rovers and I wish I never had. Whatever happens now at the Memorial Stadium and with luck soon at the new stadium, hopefully called something better than the UWE, I’ll just enjoy the ride.
We lost at Charlton. Oh well. I’ll see all my friends again next Saturday and the world will be all right again. There really are so many things that are more serious and important than football. Obsessing was fun for a long while, but with the days and weeks flying by I’ll let someone else do the worrying.
