BRISTOL ROVERS BLOG: G is for Gas - Let's dancePosted: January 21, 2016
By Martin Bull
One thing we've certainly learnt from the past two seasons, and even a glimpse into Darrell Clarke's past at Salisbury City, is that his teams rarely come out of the blocks in August at full speed, but they certainly do pick up during the season. DC undoubtedly likes to build his teams slowly and do his business on a continual basis, rather than just during the traditional transfer window flurry. He rightly also prefers to get his limited signings in a window in early, as witnessed recently by snaffling Liam Lawrence from cash strapped Shrewsbury Town, and the rapid return of Rory Gaffney.
We now seem to be up into third or fourth gear and if last season was anything to go by, the final 19 League games could prove very interesting indeed. Rovers are into a period where six of our seven games are against teams in the top eight, and this should now be seen as an opportunity rather than a drag. Whatever the result of this difficult spell though we will always have plenty to fight for this season and with six of our final seven games against teams currently in the bottom 11 I hope the dancing shoes will be able to come out of the closet.
A thrilling win at Oxford United is hardly the stuff of legend (a QI stat shows that in our last seven encounters with the U's, the home team has never won) but given the hype surrounding Oxford at the moment and their excellent form, make no bones that this win will suddenly put us on the radar of others; not only teams around us in League Two, but also scouts and analysts wanting to find out how we've gone from 19th in non-league to fourth in League Two within 16 months, and maybe realising just how many good characters we have in our squad and how many young players with over 100 appearances are already catching the eye.
In a month when David Bowie alas departed this planet I was reminded of a childhood conundrum from the Nile Rodgers produced album that resurrected his career, 'Let's Dance'. As I lay in bed in 1983 I wondered just how moonlight could actually be serious. Three decades later and whilst I may still be none the wiser, I do now know that gas can finally be taken seriously.
Would Cambridge United really have loaned us Rory Gaffney if they knew that we'd go unbeaten for his seven games with us and stay above them, despite their own six match unbeaten run? Whilst I'm not suggesting they arrogantly didn't see us as a rival for a play-off spot, it was possibly a strange deal to allow considering our league positions, and seems to add fuel to the fire that Shaun Derry had little time for the ginger ninja and had a longer term loan or move in the back of his mind from the off. Watching Derry backtrack after Gaffers did so well here was like watching a clapped out oil tanker attempting a wheezing U-turn in midstream.
In comparison loaning a useful, but needy, striker like Ellis Harrison out to Hartlepool United seems a far less controversial choice of club; a play-off place for Pools is about as likely as mistaking a monkey for a French spy… isn't it?
I can't think of too many benefits that arise from being taken seriously now, and fans may have preferred us to remain under the radar longer, but a late storm up the table is just too risky. In May 2007 we were just four minutes away from missing out on the play-off spot that opened the door to an unlikely escape from a League where we were 16th in mid-March.
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Sadly I can't let last week pass without a minor off the field comment. Not only was it three years since my gorgeous son was born, but 16th of January 2013 was also the day Bristol City Council resolved to grant Sainsbury's planning permission to build on the Mem. A day later the Section 106 agreement for the UWE Stadium was signed between Rovers, South Gloucestershire Council, Bristol City Council and the UWE itself. The official planning permission had also been granted earlier in that week on the 11th January.
Three years down the line the only silver lining in this disarray seems to be that the UWE planning permission lasts for five years. Little happens quickly with stadium projects so the two years we have left to lay down some bricks may come in handy.
On the field success has given rise to intense happiness over the past 16 months, but it is so sad to see that all the positivity and 'bums on seats' (or in our case feet on terraces) may still end up being frustrated by a relatively small short fall in funds. I have only been going to away games for 26 years, but even in my time I have seen massive changes in club stadia, yet very little in our own, from my nascent days on the Popular side at Twerton to current times on the Blackthorn / Bass / North Terrace at the Mem.
Elm Park, the Vetch Field, the Goldstone Ground, Leeds Road, Springfield Road, and many more were frankly decaying dog pits, yet where are those failing clubs now with their new fangle dangle stadiums? Many others may not have experienced sparkling success at their new homes but at least do have a tidy stadium with better facilities for players, fans, and business users alike, and don't have a Gay Meadow, a Layer Road, or a Saltergate hanging over them like a Victorian poorhouse. Others have redeveloped their grounds so they look almost like new builds.
Of course not everything involving relocating or refurbishing grounds has run perfectly, and many clubs have had to traverse years of pain and wilderness, but for every Darlington there are a couple of Shrewsbury's, a Rotherham, and a Reading. The odds of success are very good indeed. But building has to actually start in order to get anywhere.
Some oxygen thieves may take the mick out of Oxford United's three sided stadium, still stuck with the ownership and name of a previous egotistical Chairman and the mischievously entitled 'Fence End', but anyone who remembers the quaint but decrepit Manor Ground with its Meccano motif of about seven different higgledy-piggledy sections will put their laughter away and congratulate them for what they DO have, rather than focus on what they don't quite yet have.
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Martin Bull became a Gashead in 1989 and immediately fell in love with Twerton Park, standing near G pillar. His sixth book has just been released. It is entitled 'Print That Season! - One man's weekly meanderings throughout Bristol Rovers' promotion campaign of 2014-15' and is the antidote to obedient season reviews, with none of the hindsight that most writers rely on. It is a signed and numbered limited edition of only 462 books, and is available via
www.printthatseason.club
