Today's matches

No offence but the only football results I really care about are the ones that mean something to rovers

Chelsea turned over at home.

Man City lose at home again.

Spurs lose at home to Leicester.

Swansea beaten by Blackburn.

Super Duper Man Utd embarrased by Cambridge.

Great result for Bath.

FC United of Manchester win.

What's not to love about that lot? Let's just hope that West 'aaam don't catch the bug!

Yeh thas cus Woking are a tin pot club in a tin pot league

Rovers and Chelsea are proper football clubs  

i find that,even at this stage of the season quite incredibly low,given their lead at the top of the table,and having been at the top virtually from day 1, i would guess the men in suits would be asking "what more can we give you to come through the gates"?

You are quite right mehewmagic there was something deeper behind my post.

Other lower league club's forums were right behind Cambridge last night with multiple posts supporting them but on here the topic quickly turned back to Rovers and one post even said "we would have beaten Man Utd they were rubbish.  It's the lack of generosity of spirit bordering on selfishness which saddens me. Rovers are part of a much wider football community and over 130 years we built a position within the community. We think we still hold that position, and as actual fans on the terraces we probably do, but as a club I think we have sunk further than we imagine.

I would be interested in how you think we have sorted ourselves out internally ?  

To me the Nick Higgs audio interview was confirmation that nothing at all has changed. From start to finish it was totally obsessed with self. He began by saying how successful he had been and how he had time on his hands so he became Chairman of Rovers. He told us it was his skill and expertise which had got us planning permission for the new stadium. He said how wonderful it was all going to be and how it was up to the investor how much they wanted to put in and the more they put in the more they would get with ultimately the Premiership being possible if sufficient was put in.

The first rule of salesmanship is to find out what potential customers desire and then convince them you can provide it. Unfortunately Nick was completely preoccupied with telling us about himself and his wonderful plan and he did not appear to have investigated what potential investors may have been looking for. Even when asked some very tame questions by the interviewer he was not prepared with answers. How much money was needed ?  What would it be used for ?  He didn't know.

But the biggest disappointment for me was that he had clearly not learned from the mistakes of the past six years. In 2009 he actually told me how much cash he thought it would take to get Rovers to the Championship. In this interview, six years later, he reaffirmed his belief that whatever money an investor put in was directly linked to the success we could expect on the field. Yet it is abundantly clear that for all the money we have spent it has not produced any success at all because it has not been spent wisely.  If his core beliefs remain the same then I fear we are in for further disappointment and I am hoping the Easter signing has been carefully planned and is not a signal that after a temporary respite the old ways are returning.

The self obsession and lack of generosity of spirit are IMO linked to Nick's core beliefs. Years ago we would enthusiastically cheer on the underdog and bear no resentment towards clubs like Fleetwood, Crawley, Stevenage or Yeovil who were doing better than us. We would be proud of our substantial away following but not blast it from the rooftops and claim this showed we were better than other clubs. We would never have triumphantly publicised a solicitors letter threatening Wycombe Wanderers. And when things went wrong we would not instinctively blame someone else as we do today. Hardly a week goes by when we don't fall out with somebody, with Sainsburys and Woking being the latest, but I believe if our philosophy was to go out and talk to people, listen to them and reach sensible compromises then we would not be in this position today. Too often we take an entrenched position from the start, will not listen to anyone and seem to almost relish wasteful confrontation.

Topper Gas asks how celebrating other teams success in the cup is going to help Rovers get back in the league. It's all in the mind Topper Gas.  If you take take a position of generally wishing people well and gain pleasure in others succeeding then I believe some of that success rubs off on you. But if you resent others success and spend your time finding reasons why they were lucky, or they cheated, or something grossly unfair is preventing you achieving a similar level of success then you will get nowhere. The reason is that once you open up your mind and are willing to share in others success and learn from it then your mind becomes healthier. And with a healthy mind you make better decisions and better decisions lead to success.

Nevermind, we can only effect our own performances and results and hope for the best. I still think we'll catch Barnet, they aren't very good. If we win all our games we'll go up easy and I see no reason why we can't win them all. Not saying we will but we can so let's get behind the buggers.

Up the Gas.

yes,  i remember it well.  My brother, who lives in Leeds, was there and texting me the updates.  They were a decent team then though.

I was also thinking of Cambridge Utd last night.  I only caught about 30mins of 2nd half,on and off, but they looked genuinely on a level playing field with Man U. Man U really didn;t look likescoring, although as the U's tired at the end it did look more possible. Their tackling, passing and organisation was excellent.  LVG was utterly wrong to mention the pitch, referee, conditions etc. Bertie big bollocks. They day our manager (or any manager really) starts doing that is the day we need to be worried.

Funny to see Richard Money the guy who applied (interviewed?) for the Rovers job twice ad who really wanted to come here. One of my Uni friends is a U's fan and in the early 2000's we regularly went to U's vs Gas together, and one season I'm sure I remember even going to U's vs City [to hope for a City loss of course] because they weren't in the same lge as us.  Then they were relegated and we gradually fell out of contact with each other.   Strange to see them finally get back in the Lge the season we go down!  And building on  the success they had last season (FA Trophy winners and FA Cup 3rd round as well).  Success breeds success, and the Bantams, Rotherham, Bournmeouth, Brentford, Cambridge, etc have shown.

Hoping that West Ham are underdogs tomorrow.