Congratulations Rovers, You've finally done it! I really didn't think you could disappoint, embarass and humiliate me anymore but more fool me for not giving you enough credit, on Saturday you managed it in style! After 40+ years of us being together, and despite our numerous ups and downs, I've always stayed totally loyal to you, made excuses for some appalling moments even when deep down, I knew you didn't deserve them. I've never publicly criticised you, defended you to the hilt, queued up for hours in the pouring rain so I could buy a ticket to travel the length of the country to some Godforsaken place I'd never heard of, simply to see you get beaten by a team of part timers! We've shared the good times too, promotion with Gerry, The Millenium, Wembley, that wonderful night at Anfield to name but a few. Then of course came last seasons final calamity that simply beggars belief even now! So here we are 7 months on, the dust has nearly settled and we're getting used to our new life as an ex-league club struggling to escape the Conference - only we aren't good enough to beat Bath City at home so how the hell do we expect this lot to return our club to league football? dont get me wrong,I can accept us losing to a better team. I can even accept us losing due to bad luck - every team goes through a sticky spell,- thats football. What I struggle with is lack of guts,lack of passion and lack of respect and the team and the board are lacking in all areas in my opinion. This is the reason why I will not be parting with any more of my hard earned cash simply to pour it into the bottomless pit of despair at the Memorial. Whether our relationship can survive this separation, only time will tell, but one things for sure, you can't continually treat someone so badly, and expect to get away with it, without any repercussions.
I understand your feelings completely. There are those saying Saturday wasn't important.....they're wrong. We are in a false position in the league; it's just that we are marginally better than a lot of very average/poor teams. You probably will come back at some time; where you are at the moment doesn't make you any less of a fan. In 'real' life if you are constantly let down and taken advantage of you're a mug to stick around. So many of us fans are mugs!
How right Pirate49 is, every game to winners is important. If you view any competitive game in the way Rovers appear to do then no wonder we are the laughing stock of West Country Football. It wont be many years if we continue on accepting mediocrity from Our Club, on and off the Field that people will have forgotten that we were once a Football League Club. We at the moment continue to accept being just consistent losers and underachievers, sadly the onus continues to be with the Board (collectively) for our continuing plight. They appoint the manager/s and he in turn appoints the Players. How much further can we fall ? The silence once more from the Club owners is deafening.
This is what I texted the twentyman show after the game.... "No players performed to an acceptable standard. It was like watching a bunch of strangers play football but with a rugby ball. No one could control the ball, no one could put a few passes together and we wouldnt score if we played for a further 24 hours. Embarssassing and a disgrace." I agree with comments above. It was embarrassing dropping out of the football league and embarrassing to have to play in the FA Trophy. It was more embarrassing to lose in the 1st round against a lower league team who are part timers. If we had played youth players then yes you can see DC didnt want to take this seriously and just wanted to focus on the league which would be fair enough. But DC said leading up to the game that he wants to take it seriously and wants to win the Trophy. He fielded a strong side that was easily capable of beating the likes of Bath. Fair shout to DC. I dont blame this loss on DC at all. I think the players went on the pitch thinking they already won which is always dangerous. Bath derserved the game 100%. I dont even recall us troubling their keeper once. DC said after the game which I found very worrying that we couldnt break down Bath! He must have been very embarrassed to say that! He sounded very disgusted with his players performance & agreed with the fans reaction after the game. If we cant break down teams like Bath and then make individual errors at the back, expect a bad result. We will lose games. That is a given. But as long as the players put in a shift when we lose then I can take the defeats. All I want is 100% from the players. We have seen these players give 100% a lot this season, so we know they can do it. But the manor of the defeat against Bath was very poor. It was 1 of the worse team and individual performances that I have witnessed at the Mem. Much worse than last seasons shambles in our relegation season. This is why I have found the defeat hard to take. Also that this was our heavest home defeat so far this season. Before the game some wanted us out so we could fully concentrate on the league. Basically wanted us to lose. I dont get why our own fans wanted us to lose! I dont get this at all! Some who wanted us to win the game, has since the defeat, accepted the defeat as a 1 off and now think its a good thing that we are out of the Trophy so can concentrate on the league. I do understand this opinion and trying to be positive. But I full disagree with that opinion. We should be aiming to win every game no matter what the competition. Losing games like this has consequences. If we had won against Bath then the players this week would be more positive in training and will have a buzz/feel good factor which will carry us into a live televised game this Friday night. Instead this defeat and the manor of the defeat left a bad reaction from the fans and I have no doubts that DC made his feelings clear to the players. I doubt they will be as positive in training this week and there wont be a buzz/feel good factor. What impact will this have on Fridays game? I fear another embarrassing moment which will be on live TV. Again, we will lose games and thats ok. But its the manor we lose the games in which I feel is important. And the manor that we lost in vs Bath was just not acceptable. Remember mind that we had a strong side out. A side that couldnt break down little Bath who are struggling in the league below us. I dont blame DC for this lost or tactics used. We had enough to win the game easily. It was the players that didnt perform. They let themselves down and everyone at the club. They way some played, if they were animals they would have been shot or put down to put them out of their misery.
I was moving house so didn't get to this game. I have mixed feelings about that as I have been fairly optimistic of one thing DC has done, in that of the games I have seen, I always felt that he had a group of players who were giving the best that they could. It would appear from the comments above that this was not the case against Bath and that is worrying. I actually don't agree with all of the comments above. IMO the Bath game will provide the biggest kick up the backside that everyone at the club needs. We have scratched results when we would have expected to be winning comfortably. I think it was the Nuneaton game where we played expansive attacking football; swinging the ball about all over the place; tearing them apart at the start of the match; but totally pathetic attempts to create what should have been easy chances in front of goal; and we were not playing against a packed defence!!! As I've said before these things should be sorted out on the training ground. Most of the part-timers we play against should be give so much of a runaround that they should be utterly knackered before the end of the match. Should DC stop worrying about hurting the feelings of his latest acquisitions and bring back Harrison for example? I feel inclined to suggest that the lad on trial preseason, who such a prolific goal scorer in the lower leagues should be given another chance.
I was thinking a lot during the game that while Clarke wanted to go far in this competition, the players didn't seem to approach it with the correct mental attitude. There are obviously a couple of exceptions but a number of players appeared to think that all they had to do was turn up and they would win. Speiss: Not sure whether he should be made slightly accountable for the first goal, but otherwise did ok. Leadbitter: Very disappointing - didn't come close to making the most of a rare opportunity in the starting XI, and didn't get forward enough. Brown: His crossing and passing was well below par Trotman: One of the few who should be exempt from criticism - not his best performance for the club but you can't accuse him of not putting the effort in. Parkes: Maybe took too many risks - an average display Martin: I personally can't wait until he's back at Luton. He's a poor man's Kaid Mohamed - nowhere near consistent enough, and 95% of his crossing is appalling, particularly after doing all the hard work by taking on and beating his man. Sinclair: Gave everything as ever, just his quality was lacking. Clarke: By a long way the worst game he's had for Rovers. He seemed a little off the pace - slightly worrying given that we were against part-timers. Balanta: Showed some nice touches, but is clearly not the man to be getting on the end of our crosses! Taylor: Didn't show anything like the energy of previous performances, but lacked service in fairness. Blissett: Couldn't hold the ball up too well, but service was lacking and went off with an injury.
I can't believe people are still going on about this game lets look to the Gateshead game and get behind the team we got some tough games coming up. Come on guys we're 3rd in the league I no it hasn't be great to watch most of the time. However the season turns out its far better then last season.
This was one cup game. We're third in the table and having our best season for years. Get over it and get behind the lads over the important Christmas games.
Best Season for years in the lowest league we have ever (during modern times) played in. We have no right to accept such a low starting point as the bench mark for measuring success. None of us want to knock the players or manager but if I during my working life was as poor at my job ??????? One cup game it might have been but hang on look at Yeovil and their one Cup game. That will turn their Season around financially and then some. Comes down to the old addadge attitude or application. Both still lacking on recent evidence despite the lofty League position we occupy here at The Mem.
What upset me the most about the Bath game was that taking away our view of performances the one thing we have all been happy with DC and his assembled team is their work ethic, for the first time in many a season players are giving 100% effort and wearing the shirt with pride, what they lack in skill and inventiveness they have made up for in sheer hard graft. My disappointment was that those qualities were missing last Saturday and i found that a concern. At the level we now play at there's one certainty: If the opposition want it more than us we're in big trouble. I hope the management and team remind themselves of what is needed - 100% effort and determination every game , no matter who the opponents are. UTG
How often have we been near the top of any league for this length of time? You can only win the league you're in and we're doing a hell of a lot better than most people thought we would. It's our best season for years...
