Come on Gas!! Get us out of this place

Although this Conference season has been an amiable sojourn for most of us Gasheads, I still have The Animal’s 1965 track ‘We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place’ ringing in my head. The single was only kept off the chart’s top spot by The Beatles’ ‘Help!‘ and was also included on the ‘The Animals are Back’ EP, two musical titles that must have resonance for long suffering Gasheads!

Just as Eric Burdon growled those words with his customary passion, I hope we will be fervently singing ‘The Gas are Back’ at Wembley on the 17th of May. It was hard enough being a Rovers fan when regularly towards the wrong end of League Two, without now having to whisper to people that the team you single-mindedly support are currently in the fifth-tier of English football.

Although Forest Green Rovers have proved to be a bit of a bogey team for us this season, and were one of only three sides we never beat in the league (Eastleigh and Dover Athletic made up that triumvirate of tribulation), we must still be the team no-one wants to face in the play-offs.

We've not lost away since September, and have the best home record in the league - having won 17 out of the 23 bouts. Statistically we should therefore draw the away leg this Wednesday and win the home leg next Sunday, although I suspect they will be two tight and uncompromising games.

It is often said that the in-form team will win the play-offs. If so then any team could win it this year as the top five in the final league table are also the top five in the current form table.

We are second in the form table over the last six games, whereas FGR are fourth. Even more encouragingly we are top of the form table for the last 10 games, and the 7-0 execution of poor Alfreton Town on Saturday took our minds off the failure of Barnet to slip up and hand us the title.

Even though we were disappointed, at least it was a stress-free day compared to our final home game of last season, and we could enjoy, to some degree, a masterful performance on a picture-perfect pitch. Such a heavy win was surprisingly morale-boosting considering the bigger picture elsewhere.

As we shrewdly kept the ‘away terrace’ to satisfy our own demand, I was part of the 99.1% of the Mem buzzing with Gasheads. I imagine this will prove to be an amazing one-off that we will never witness as football fans again. I kept looking over to the 'away terrace', as we all often do during a game, to see it full for the first time this season. I then had to remind myself that it was full of Gas, backed by that beautiful BRFC Totaliser flag evoking memories of our spiritual home, Eastville.

There are plenty of positives going into the play-offs, including simple things such as no new injuries or suspensions, Ellis Harrison looking sharp despite being slightly injured at the Crabble, the remarkable re-emergence of Jake Gosling, the loyal faith shown in Will Puddy, and Angelo Balanta looking quite comfortable in a centre forward position when the game was even more expansive and open.

Most importantly Darrell Clarke has been there and won the ‘Play Off Winner’ T-shirt both times, and in very differing circumstances. In 2010/11 Clarke and Mikey Harris were thrown in the deep end after Salisbury City’s financial problems and double relegation.

The Whites suffered a poor finish to the league season, yet still won the play-offs, against teams in better form than them, both of whom had already beaten them during the regular season. Salisbury went through after a penalty shoot out. That experience could come in handy one day soon...

2012/13 saw the opposite mode of pressure, as they had long dominated second spot and a weight of expectation hung around their necks. The Whites kept their nerve and went through in extra time. That experience could also come in handy one day soon...

Come on Gas. Now’s your chance. Please show us the way out of this place!


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Martin Bull became a Gashead in 1989 and immediately fell in love with Twerton Park, standing near G pillar. In 2006 he wrote, photographed and published the first independent book about the artist Banksy. Having been exiled for much of his past, away games have always been special for him; so much so that he has edited a new book about them - www.awaythegas.org.uk

Read more: www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-ROVERS-BLOG-G-Gas/story-26402700-detail/story.html#ixzz3Ygj9zQtS