Never mind Matty Taylor's move. My dad supported both Bristol clubs for 60 years Matty Taylor has upset some Bristol Rovers fans by signing for Bristol City. The move wouldn’t have bothered Matt Nation’s dad, who used to watch them both By Matt Nation please log in to view this image Matty Taylor joins goalscorer Milan Djuric to celebrate after Bristol City’s only goal in their win over Rotherham United at Ashton Gate. If, as Samuel Johnson claimed, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, then intra-city localism is the refuge of a bloody idiot, at least according to my father. Particularly when it means deliberately passing up the chance to watch a professional football match going on down the road.My father grew up during the second world war, just a bombsite away from the gasworks that gave Bristol Rovers their “reclaimed” nickname, so it was obvious where his family’s footballing loyalties lay. However, as soon as League football recommenced in the mid-1940s, he took the only right-thinking course of action: he started watching Bristol City as well. To this day, I’ve never been entirely sure which team he prefers. Whenever asked, he always says “both” and when he talks about the respective merits of the heroes of his youth, it is very difficult to detect any bias. His reports on Rovers players are brief, yet instructive (“Josser Watling? Shuffler”; “Alfie Biggs? Pikehand”; “Jackie Pitt? ****house”), while his judgement of their City contemporaries usually consists of nothing apart from the noises one makes after removing one’s shoes and slumping into an armchair (“Jantzen Derrick? Aaaawwww, yeah”; “Alec Eisenträger? Wouuargh”; “Shadow Williams? Mmmmm”). The fence-sitting continues when he talks about the England internationals both clubs produced at that time. Rovers’ Geoff Bradford was “all right, I suppose”; City’s John Atyeo is the proof that, even if your parents predate the hippy era, it was possible for them to enjoy same-sex crushes. Even today, my father is not only unable to say Atyeo’s surname without calling to mind a man trying to get pally with the waiters in an Italian restaurant but also describes his shoulders, thighs and hair in tones similar to those adopted by Sergeant Major Williams when talking about Gunner Parkins in It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum. “I saw Atyeo’s boots once,” he revealed, “and they were massive. He must have had proper man’s feet. In the 1970s we started going to matches together, yet I still couldn’t work out which of his torches burned brighter. Rovers’ free-scoring forward pairing of Alan Warboys and Bruce Bannister, referred to as “Smash & Grab” in the papers, “couldn’t have held up a sweet shop with a water pistol”. Across town, City’s John Galley, a lanky striker who often appeared to have interchanged the positions of his arms and legs, was “nearly as complete as Atyeo”. My father’s unwillingness to set out his footballing stall in front of his son dogged our relationship right up until I left home. Thirty years on, he’s stopped going to both clubs for age-related reasons, and it’s difficult to tell which he misses more. Ten years ago, he didn’t renew his Rovers season ticket, mumbling something about “preferring to spend his Saturday afternoons stood in front of the Radio Rental shop window with the tellies switched off than watch that shower”. His Ashton Gate swansong occurred at the beginning of the current season when, shortly after attending a funeral, he realised that all his matchgoing mates are now either infirm or dead. Despite playing his cards far too close to his chest, I salute my father’s ability to watch both Bristol teams. In a combined existence of nearly 250 years, only four have been spent in the top division. Unlike other more successful teams in two-club cities, neither Bristol team has a record to boast about. For decades, Rovers’ main claim to fame was being one of only two teams to have never left the second or third division; City only really hit the national headlines when the Ashton Gate Eight ripped up their contracts to save the club from going under in the 1980s. As a follower of two bald men fighting over a non-existent comb, my father’s reaction to bigger town clubs sneering at their local rivals’ lack of trophies or “tradition” is one not of derision, but of incomprehension. If you want the intra-city rivalry to continue, he reckons, surely it’s better to make sure both of them stay afloat – by going to watch both of the them. His most lucid explanation of his two-pronged approach is a comparison with sausages. “I like my beef sausages as much as anyone else, but if they haven’t got any in that day, I’ll make do with pork sausages. They’ve probably got more rubbish in them, but they still hit the spot.” Probably not the first, and definitely not the last, time Bristol Rovers’ (or indeed Bristol City’s) performances will have been compared to a pig’s arse. https://www.theguardian.com/football/when-saturday-comes-blog/2017/feb/07/bristol-rovers-bristol-city-matty-taylor-fan
In the 50's my Dad took me by coach to Eastville 1 week and Ashton Gate the next. I remember, just about, watching Tom Finney at Rovers but regret I can't remember watching John Atyeo.
I remember talking to an old boy I met one cold Boxing Day in the Bear and Swan in Chew Magna. We spent ages chatting in front of the fire - he was very interesting to me because his grandfather used to own the cottage I grew up in with my parents. He said that it was quite normal back 'in the day' to go and watch both teams - whoever was playing at home. He seemed to think that the intense rivalry developed in the 1960s and1970s when both teams faced each other in the league at a time when English football hooliganism was at its very worst.
Saw my first ever game of League football, aged 10. My next door neighbour was a Rovers fan and we went to see a team containing the likes of Wayne Jones and Harold Jarman, beat Halifax 2-0. Bill Dodgen was the manager at that time. I proudly told my friends father the next day that I had been to see my first match- He looked at me in a curious way (today I know that City would have been away that day) and asked who it was. He shook his head, disapprovingly and said that next week, I was to watch a proper game. City, unknown to me had been on a lousy run and faced Norwich. I remember Kevin Keelan being in goal. City scored after 2 minutes through John Galley and added 3 second half goals to win 4-0. Gerry Sharpe and Chris Garland were to become early favourites of mine. The rest, they say, is history. I grew up in Patchway and despite most of my mates being Gasheads we never really fell out. I did go with some of them to see QPR play them in the cup, moreso as Rodney Marsh was playing for them(my one and only time in the Tote End) and also against Villa who had gone into League 1. Other than that have never set foot in their ground unless they were playing us.
Agreed. As I've told people on here before, my first ever taste of live football was at Eastville to see Rovers play Peterborough in the late 1960's. A game they won 3-1. I'd hasten to add that I was only taken to Eastville because City were away that week and the next weekend it was down to Ashton Gate where my loyalties have firmly remained there ever since. But over the years up to our promotion to Division 1, I did take in the odd game at Eastville especially when they were playing teams like Bolton and Sunderland who were vying to go up with us at the time. Rovers usually won those games and did us a favour !! I also saw them play Manchester United in the League Cup in around 1971/1972. It was THE United team, with Charlton, Besty and co. A far cry from the weakened teams that clubs now field in all cup competitions. That was a 1-1 draw, and if my memory serves, Rovers won the replay 2-1 at Old Trafford.
The only time I ever seen Rovers play has been against us. I do remember one occasion when a cheer went up at Ashton Gate when they scored though- it must have been 1997 and we were playing Southend I think. The gas were playing Watford and scored against them. We were winning our game, so that made us top of the league. It felt strange cheering the gas !!! The gas ended up throwing it away (probably deliberately, knowing them) so we stayed second in the end.
Can You Ever Remember Being On Both Sides of the Fence? YES... but it didn't half hurt my testicles.............
My Dad was a red through, and through. Took me down the gate with my brother,when we were young uns Never been to a Rovers game,unless City played them. Brought up in South Gloucestershire all my life,there are thousands of city fans in the area. Still going at present,seen the good,the bad,the ugly over the years. Would love to see us have another stint in the top division,Twas 15 years old the last time.
ummm NO, taken to AG to watch reserves at age of 7(45 yrears ago), by my brother in law Dave Crooks, City through and through, then moved onto first team...............nuff said!
I am going to make a confession tonight, I went to Eastville a few times in the late 70's, I used to know a couple of the "gashead" players who will remain nameless through business and I used to get free tickets for the old glasshouse, I used to get there late, have a few free drinks because I was in their or their sister's company and always leave early, I always felt dirty when I left but I always had a shower before I went out on the Saturday night. Free entrance, free drinks, free grub and a lot of business the following week and it never cost me a penny, call me an old cynic...
went to a couple of games when smash and grab were in their element .. it was with work mates who were rovers through and through .....
