Perspective

B*****
Ward
Buckle
Clarke
Coughlan
Garner
Trollope

The record books show that Darrell Clarke was manager when we were relegated to the conference just like they show that B***** relegated us last season.

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Well he was 💩 at Cheltenham as well so the crowd couldn’t have been a big factor. Sometimes I’m reminded of Buckle when Joey talks about himself in interviews (I’m a winner, it’s everybody else…)

I had no hidden agenda, in setting the challenge in mid-September, to rank a selection of Rovers’ managers’ records after seven games.
But I was pleased that Ben Garner came out on top, as I think he had a raw deal.

I always intended to update the table after eleven matches, that being the total number Ben Garner was allowed to enjoy with us last season.

So, after eleven games, the table now looks like this:

Performance after Eleven Matches


Boosted by wins away at Lincoln and Wimbledon, and at home to Rotherham, Graham Coughlan moved from third place into top spot. Startlingly, Paul Buckle retained second position, by dint of wins at home to Shrewsbury (I remember we got out of jail that night, if you excuse the expression) and away at Morecambe.

Whisper it, but the victory over Carlisle has taken JB’s side to third place.

Trolls benefited from a home win against Hereford and draws at Torquay and Darlington to move up two places.

Sadly, Ben dropped from top of the pile to fifth position, the single point at Rochdale being the only one gained in his last four matches. Two of those four games, though, were against ultimately promoted Peterborough and Hull, and the other was the defeat in the teeth of a gale against Fleetwood. I remember the storm mysteriously calmed after we had halved the half-time deficit to 2-1.

Even in Darrell’s swan-song season, he managed to pick up 5 points against Coventry, Bradford and Rochdale, to reach a total of ten points after 11 games.

Finally, despite achieving draws at home to Hartlepool and away at Southend and Mansfield, John Ward’s class of 2013-14 slipped to the bottom of the table of Rovers’ managers after eleven matches.

Yes thanks Gasmacc but speaking personally I couldn't care if we had won every game, I would still want B***** out of Bristol Rovers.

Garner is a clever chap.He said he had learnt alot from his Rovers experience.

Swindon challenging suggests he has learnt and implemented those lessons into his County Ground reign.

He may well be a better Manager now than his time at Rovers.

True,but Swindon presented him another clean sheet to begin again.He had time to think etc.
We'll never know and also,Swindon might free fall to the 5th tier yet.

what Ben actually said was if he had been sacked end of the bad run curtailed by Covid he would have understood it, but he was given the summer and then only 9 tough games into new season given up on, which, he said, with his ownership hat on made no sense to him.     

but that’s history, let’s talk about the clever chap we have now.  He actually chose Garner and summer basket case Swindon as yardstick to measure him against.  That’s a true yardstick to give perspective.   

this thread is called perspective, but there is no perspective historically like that, at last half the sides we have met this season have been have been nothing like the strength and challenge of the sides we met in the opening of last season.