kingswood Polak
Without music life would be a mistake
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 10,284
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Post by kingswood Polak on Nov 11, 2015 18:51:52 GMT
That is spot on but I can only say the GD was really giving it some re coming back to Bristol and how this would now enable us to make money and infact it was basically the same spiel as we are having now, re the UWE ironically lol Holloway lost it in the 99-2000 season when we were top and then lost all but one of the last 10 games. A season I'll never forget. I recently looked back at our attendances, in the last decade. We had basically the same average attendances when we were in L1 & had plenty moaning when we were mid table and not far off of play off. Fact is, like it or not, we are nearly the same as the sheeads. We are not as quick or as nasty but we do boo, not me, though we do have a lot of that and if anything, it's got worse. Family club my ar5e, Small wonder the 82 rip the p155 out of our club on that front The atmosphere has only ever been good when we have had hope of promotion and playing attack minded football. Fact is that it's never been any different The point about Holloway is that people look back on that era as a form of golden age but I think it is a case of looking desperately for something positive compared with what followed. It wasn't 4 years of superb football played out in front of fired up passionate crowds. It was maddeningly inconsistent football played out in front of increasingly impatient crowds in which the relationship between the manager and the fans (and the players and the fans) was often very tense. Right from the start there were calls for Ollie's head 'he wasn't the right man', 'he's too inexperienced', 'he's too emotionally attached' etc. Many wanted him fired in his first season and it wasn't really until we put together that run to the playoffs in 98 that a lot of people came round and even then it is likely he only survived in 99 due to the cup run. People remember that period up to March in the 99-00 season as indicative of that whole era but it was very much the exception. Most of the time we were very up and down and so was the fans relationship with the team. I remember plenty of boos, plenty of 'what a load of rubbish', plenty of 'you don't know what you're doing' etc. It's not to have a potshot at Ollie, who I think generally comes out in credit (just) from his time in charge of us but the problem is that many people have created this mythical golden age to which everything else is compared and it does make you wonder about our expectations - we idolise an era in which the best we actually managed was a soul crushing playoff loss, a soul crushing late season collapse and an FA Cup defeat at Barnsley and that ultimately culminated in a disastrous relegation season all the while there was largely a non-stop love-hate dialogue between the manager and fans across the media. I wonder if what people actually miss from that era is not the somewhat misremembered sense of unity but the tension - when you have a manager who is perceived as, and understands himself to be, 'one of you' everything seems to be heightened; every criticism becomes more personal in both directions, every result feels more important etc...so people remember the atmosphere as being far better than it actually was - I can remember it being thoroughly poisonous at times. Great and well thought out post mate. That's pretty much how I saw it too. I will always remember Ollie, the player, fondly but I cannot say the same of him as manager
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Igitur
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 2,294
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Post by Igitur on Nov 11, 2015 19:19:11 GMT
It must be then, that a lot of people do not go to the Mem for the atmosphere. We are often up near the top for home support numbers and often beat League 1 teams so if there is no atmosphere it cannot be so important to many.
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