Quiet?

I'm quietly happy but don't want to get too excited and jinx the form. I think many gasheads at the start of the season would happily have taken this position at this point in the season.
We've hit a blip perhaps drawing a few games we should've won and yes we should be scoring more but the team look like they're together as a unit, they are fitter and as a consequence I think we have less injuries. Lots to be happy about and I have to say well done to DC.

There seems to be a consensus of caution about the on - field progress we are making from posters who report on games and who us ex pats rely on. Steve K gave a very honest assessment of the midweek game and it sounds as if todays performance was another unconvincing one. I think that the reason for the "quiet" is that many people now see beyond the short term and realize that no foundations are being layed either with the team or with the club.

We had a report of Nick Higgs appearing on TV saying there would be good news at the end of November but there was no reaction. No jubilation that he expected building work to start in the spring but equally no sarcasm or ridicule that we had heard it all before. Just an empty feeling of resignation that what will be will be and who really cares anyway.
But, as IrishRover posted last week, many of us believe a club should be so much more than this. The apathy is there from top to bottom and I have a feeling that the reason crowds are holding up so well is not because Rovers fans see any break through with the football team or want to share the vision of a club moving forward it's because they like a good day out.   

Now I'm a traditionalist and over the years Rovers have given me many happy times and the post astafjevs made on the Aldershot pub thread certainly strikes a chord with me. I can just imagine his car load of Gasheads pulling up outside that pub and seeing it crammed full and someone saying "b*gger this lads I know a place down the road" and the rest of them thinking "oh christ what are we letting ourselves in for here" and then find themselves bluffing their way into some club or boozer and having a whale of a time. After the draw at Southend which clinched promotion in 1974 I managed to blag my way into a very sophisticated night club in the West End of London along with my mates from North Somerset and we certainly had a "wail of a time that night. 

But times change, people change, football changes and I think one of the reasons for the emptiness in people's feelings about Rovers is because the motivation for following the team is a "good day out" and keeping up a tradition rather than also feeling part of a good club as we did in 1974. We congratulate ourselves on having a huge number of fans following the team but what does the future hold if "the lads" are not passionate about the team or the club but purely want a good time with their mates ?  If people are sceptical whether we are laying the foundations of a team and sceptical whether we are going to lay the foundations of the UWE what do they think about the foundations being layed today for a fan base who will be following Rovers in large number forty years from now ?

My lads were actually in a crowd of 60 000 at the University of Kentucky "football" game today. If you click the link and look at the gallery of fans at that game you will see a huge diversity of people having a good time. I doubt many of them know all the players names or have a great understanding of the significance of the result but they are intent on enjoying themselves.  I'm not saying we should copy the way sport is run in the USA but I am saying we might learn from it. We might need to accept that us "traditionalists" have had our day and while there is still a place for us the future lies in attracting a different kind of fan base. The fans of the future may be like us in that they want a good day out but, unlike some of us disenchanted old timers today, they don't feel the need to be part of a club.


www.kentucky.com/2014/10/11/3475798/kentucky-fans-bring-it-for-ulm.html

You are right swiss gas there is still a lot of fear and dispondancy among Rovers supporters and the players although doing everything are not playing with much freedom and quality either - they don't look like they believe they will win a game of football. The division is poor but there is a lot of unanswered stuff filtering down from the board. And to make things worse the s**t are riding high in L1.

we need new leadership at our club - some planning , determination and ruthlessness to get us out of this sesspit asap !!

"The fans of the future may be like us in that they want a good day out but, unlike some of us disenchanted old timers today, they don't feel the need to be part of a club.
"

Hope you're well swiss. 

UTG

Why do you always have to have a dig! Kevin will not be back as he no longer has an account.

Without wishing to offend, patronise or blaspheme, it's a brilliant post that can be applied to any religious gathering!

Which is somewhat parodied by our commitment to attend a certain place at a certain time and sometimes join in singing! And sometimes feel like sins have been absolved... Haha!

Apparently, in the past, the crowds at Church of England matches went up at times of crisis, wars etc, but went down in periods of calm. So what will happen next season and the season after that if we are still in the Conference ? Will there be an acceptance of our status and will the singing and camaraderie continue with 5000+ fans still enjoying themselves every week. Or will fans calmly lose interest, drift away and as the number of comrades reduces will the singing become quieter.

We can choose to forget about all that and just live for the moment but isn't that being a bit selfish ? At times of crisis in the past we've had Rovers fans like Douglas Mearns-Milne or Geoff and Denis Dunford step up and provide the inspiration which kept the club (not just the team) going. We seem to be saying today that as long as we are having a bit of fun who cares.

What a load of nonsense on this thread the reason the forum is quiet is there is nothing really to moan about, plus fans know nothing is going to happen this month on the stadium or transfer front.

The fact that probably 7, 000+ will turn up next Saturday suggests most fans aren't despondent at present, beat FGR and fans will start believing promotion is possible.

I understand what you are saying and I think most Rovers fans agree with you.

But when you say "generally, it's working" you are referring to the Rovers team in the Conference Premier aren't you ?

If we talk about the club then I think most Rovers fans would say "it's not working" but aren't bothered too much about that at the moment.

There is a minority of fans who look at the club as a whole and perhaps (like me) can't get to games so tend to want explore ways in which Rovers as a club can build long term success on and off the pitch and we find it stimulating to do this. The current success of the team, in the Conference Premier, is obscuring the bigger picture or taking priority, whichever way you look at it, and so some posters are not quite as active at the moment.   But we are a broad church aren't we.