Bristol Rovers 4 Vs 0 Sunderland, Twerton Park, Feb 1988 [video=youtube;XnSDixfMA44]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnSDixfMA44[/video]
Loads of Memories Crunching tackles from Ollie and Jocky No nonense in the stands (or over them most of the time) from Geoff Roger Malone getting pelters as he sat in the commentary scaffold right above the shed faithful Proper football songs Rust falling from the roof everytime the ball hit it Greasy Joe selling 'Stone Cold Burgers' In the Golden Fleece drinking Cokes while my dad had a pint I remember the old fellas in their playing shove hapeney still 'Bruno' the greatest rovers player ever!! The day 'Jocky' swallowed his tongue (dentures) and the concern all around the ground On the pitch celebrating a famous promotion with Gerry and the boys up in the stand Big Malcolms one glorious moment as we thrashed the city Being rather afraid when we beat city and they were giving Joe Jordan what for when he tried to calm the baying crowd The ball forever disappearing over the back of the fences at each end of the pitch and the ball boys in hot pursuit Chips and Gravy from the Twerton Chippy on the way home Camaraderie, togetherness, penniless but commited, fighting spirit, family club, success on a shoestring, what happened to football, is it just me or were those days just so much better??
Oh I miss those days, its good to know someone remembers Greasy Joe my god how foul were those burgers and yes Twerton chippy me and my mate used to leave the ground 10 mins early sometimes just so we could get a good position in the que. And totally agree with you we had nothing no money are offices were portacabins at a chocolate factory but we had an almost patriotic like spirit which has never been rivaled since.
it was our passion and religion, but now football has turned into greed and business like. players no longer feel its a priviledge to be a player for a club and show commitment and pride. now they are more concerned about taking the club to the cleaners with stupid money grabbing contracts putting themself 1st and not the club or fans that pay their wages. too much money and greed involved and its us the fans that suffer for it.
Beautifully put Mendeleev. All that brings back some great memories and all applies to me apart from the Fleece, used to drink in the Stars. The Fleece was a better pub but the Stars was approx 50 strides closer to the turnstile and after the amount we used to down before most games 50 steps is a lot. Used to use the supporters bar for an after match pint and like you say the togetherness was evident. The supporters man of the of the match always came out to collect his award and have the crack with the fans. I was lucky enough to socialise with some of the players in the Gerry Francis era and trust me those boys were as passionate as us in many cases. Players like Ollie, Andy Reece, Joner, Jocky, Boris, an old friend of mine Percy, and dare I say it, at the time Geoff Twentyman amongst others. Never known a spirit like it before or since. If we had that spirit now we most certainly wouldn't be in the wrong half of the basement league. But I still love 'em
The days when we had less then we do now. [video=youtube;WJQI1LpNr1Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJQI1LpNr1Y[/video]
a team that costed £10,000 and were working out of portacabins and ray kendall collecting ice from hotels on the way to the game to use in case of injuries.
And we didn't even get promoted [video=youtube;dtM63DSZzFY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtM63DSZzFY[/video]
