I hope our fans dont expect a 3rd promotion in a row. It will be tougher in league 1 obviously so we need to remain patient and not demand success.
You can't be certain about anything in football except that someone gets promoted and others get relegated at the season end. Rovers are on a roll. We are an attractive proposition for any footballer looking for a way up. We wouldn't have to chase someone like J2O for months before signing him on, good players are going to be attracted to our club. I was lucky enough to see the Ipswich revolution under Ramsey. From lower reaches of Div 4 to Div 1 Champions in, was it only five years? Now don't get excited, Clarke isn't Alf Ramsey; and he hasn't revolutionised the tactics of football, but anything is achievable. Just be positive; hope for the best; don't expect it; but please let it happen before this old sod is laid to rest.
I just dont want fans on DC 's back come November when were are something like 15th for example if you catch my drift
How can you compare DC to Alan Dicks, he has done very well for you admitted, but got a fair way to go to be compared to AD, remember Dicks did it with mostly home grown players, teams don't do that these days.
John Shaw Norman Hunter Gerry Gow Gerry Sweeney Howard Pritchard Peter Cormack Donnie Gillies Tom Ritchie Can't see too many cider swillers there oh great one !!
Well said Delsy. I think he is confusing the Scottish referendum result with 'home grown' as there four Scots in that list.
Gerry Sharpe-Terry Bush-Ray Cashley-Jantzen Derrick-Keith Fear- Chris Garland-Geoff Merrick-Trevor Tainton-Gary Collier-Clive Whitehead......Delsy is that enough cider swillers there for you, oh, from the great one.... could include Gerry Gow & Tom Richie as Bristol City were there first professional club, come back when you know more than me. AlanDicksThe Great.
Sapphire read my post you may learn something, by the way my first post didn't give any names, The dickhead Delsy put those names down, i await you reply.
I thought it rhymed pretty well with your handle as well (Delsey Dickhead), by the way you haven't replied to my list off players, or did i embarrass you.
Alan, long time no see I dont think Sapph was comparing DC with Alan Dicks. If you read his comment again you will see Sapph said DC is the best manager (as in the most successful manager) in Bristol SINCE Alan Dicks. So he isnt comparing them. I dont think there are other managers on either side SINCE Dicks that can boast 2 successive promotions and the win percentage over 2 seasons being over 50%, which adds weight to Sapph's opinion that DC is the best in Bristol SINCE Dicks. Sapph also said the record books shows Dicks was a great manager. I cant see where the issue is here to be honest Sapph went on to say that the entertainment value was dire under Dicks, which is his opinion. Sapph did watch both Bristol sides back then so would have sound reason for that opinion. I cant comment on that myself as the standard of football back then was way before my time I think you may have miss-understood Sapph's comment which as a result has turned into a mini argument. Cant we all just get along now everyone? Life is too short
Nice to hear from you Captain, congratulations on your promotion, i probably did miss understand his comment, for that i apologize, but to say that football under AD was dire is a step to far, for a manager to get such a young side into the top flight of English football, they certainly had to play some great stuff, and if my memory serves me right they did.
To be fair captain, I don't think fans expected us to get promoted this season? It was a relief for most just to be back in the league first time of asking, and to hold our position back in the league. When you look at Leicester for example, there manager had a target they wanted to hit points wise to remain safe in the premiership... They went on to be champions. Paul buckle once said we needed as fans to lower our expectations... And at the time the fans turned on him for saying that. But to be fair, he had a point... If you enter into a season with an expectation of finishing say mid table or comftable bottom half. If you go on to exceed that by the end of the season it makes it all the more appreciated and enjoyable. Just my opinion....
Fair enough. But it was just his opinion on how the standard of football was. You both seen the same games and just got different opinions on it. It wasnt to Sapph's liking but it was to you. Its not really a step too far is it really. Just a different of opinions. Its like our Matty Taylor has split opinions from gasheads. We all seen him play but many disagree how good he is. You are a wise man yourself, you would know that if you got 10k people all watching the same game, you will get different thoughts from these 10k people on who was the man of the match and different opinions on the tactics, formation and team selection. If you ask all 10k people to mark each player out of 10 for their performance, you will also get different opinions on that too. Personally I hate watching Rovers when they played route 1 football. I think it is predictive and easy for the opponents to deal with that threat. When Matt Harrold was up front on his own and all we were doing was banging it long for him, it was so frustrating to watch. I would call that dire at time. But someone else watching the same game would think it was effective because when the long ball actually worked and a goal is scored from it, they would say game plan worked. Anyway, thanks for the congrats Here is to next season
No I know what your saying, but DC has kept the team level headed, and not forced any expectations from the squad. Although he does set his own target high.
After getting relegated to league 2 and having the budget that we had, we were 1 of the favourites to bounce straight back up. A new manager coming in saying the fans need to lower their expectations was shocking to hear. Too right the fans turned on him. But we are now at a level where we have spent the majority of our time as a club. We have been in league 1 longer than any other league and we will now try to get into the championship where we have been in for only a few years out of our entire history. It wont be easy to get into the championship. Unfortunately there will be a few fans who think we have a god given right to get promoted next season. Each club has those fickle fans. We have had 2 years of success and I just fear some fans have let that success get to their head and as soon as we go through a rough patch, I just want these fans to be patient with DC and not start turning on him. Thats not me lowering my expectations next season. Thats just me hoping if things dont look great say for example November comes along and we are 18th, I can just see fans losing that patience. We all need to stick with DC and be patient. I have no doubts that we will survive. But it may take a few years or more to get out of league 1 into the championship. Patience is needed now I think for this next stage
Some good points captain... But when I say lowering expectations, I'm not saying we shouldnt always try and achieve to be aiming high. I'm saying if your expectations are to finish mid table for example.It's a realistic target for the season that hopefully at the end of a season your not disappointed? Going on to actually finish higher is beyond your realistic expectation and an amazing achievement. Leicester never thought in there wildest dreams they would be champions of the premiership. Staying in the premiership was there target for the season, after the season they had prior to this one.
This thread has drifted a bit from it's starting point. But there are some interesting comments nevertheless. I can't see any reason why we should not be optimistic about the near future. Who is to say what will be the make up of our team. Would we ever have expected under Megson to win eight two away to Brian Clough's Brighton; go twenty eight games from the start of the season without defeat; nearly missing promotion in the last three games when the wheels came off (that sounds typical of Bristol Rovers). I have watched Bristol teams play pretty football and fail and solid boring crap and succeed. What I like about DC is that he wants his team to play good football, hence the number of goal scoring opportunities for Matty Taylor. What I don't like about DC with Bristol Rovers is that he has had three absolutely horrible starts. Just an average start this season would have put us on a level with Northampton. So I'm going to assume that we will bring in some cracking new players who bond with our existing team and perhaps we could have that Warbuoys and Bannister moment all over again. Pleeeeeese!!! PS One for Dicksy. Last word. AD copied Bill Shankly's possession football. If you've got it they can't score. Liverpool tended to move the ball forward, City more often than not went backwards. My Bruv-in-law (a fanatical BCFC fan) and I share a joke about Trevor Tainton who must have made more mileage shifting the ball sideways or backwards than any other player on the planet. Just to remind you, Man Utd manager Tommy Docherty said that he wouldn't cross the road to watch BCFC. CJS Thank you for interpreting my post correctly.
