What a great read this is from a proper "gashead" fan,not all the plastic blue raincoats we get on this forum.. It's such a good read you can identify the feelings with how we all feel at times,I refuse to take the piss out of the contributor but congratulate her on a goood honest piece.. ' Posted Today, 09:11 AM What a fantstic peice by Sue Chappell which must sum up the feelings of many. No agendas here from me, just read and digest This is a difficult column for me to write today, so bear with me. There are times when I find myself caring less about Rovers,or even to feeling an overwhellming apathy towards my team, it pains me to say that and I know I am in a very privilidged position to have this page, so I hope you can allow me to say what's on my mind, even though it might not be what you want to hear. I know I am not alone in feeling indifferently towards the club in recent times, many people I know have shared similar views, but it's hard to sit down and admit that openly. But how I have even arrived at this shameful admission of disinterest in the club I one spent so much of my time and money on, and which has given me so many great memories? It's really hard to try and fathom what has contributed to me current malaise, I feel guilty as if I am confessing the first sin of being a footballfan; caring less than you used to about your team. It's a horrible thing to disclose, a kind of taboo, but I'll bet that there are many more of you who have questioned your love for the team at times. Maybe it's healthy to examine what it is that lures you through the turnstiles on a Saturday afternoon. When money is tight, what is it that makes you spend it on something that may make you grumpy and miserable two hours later; when time is precious do you wonder why you spend it cold and dejected. As I write I am half heartedly listening to Radio Bristol where Rovers are 2-0 down to Port Vale. The odd win here and there in this messy season doesn't seem to be enough to re-ignite the love I have- have had - for this club. Many nights I have preferred lightweight television shows to listening to Rovers when they have a mid-week fixture. It got to a point under Paul Buckle last season where I found myself watching one of Kerry Katona's reality shows on ITV2 as it seemed preferable to listening to a sorry Gas defeat. So this isn't a new thing, more like a drip of apathy has been working its way into me for several months. Becoming a mother and restricted finances have obviously been two huge contributory factors in recent years, which have undoubtably severed my links somewhat. But I thought my love for this club would survive anything, it has been part of the fabric of my life for so long. It has knitted together so much of my life, from days out with family to shared memories with friends. It's how I met my husband for heaven's sake! And yet, my love for Rovers has, in all honesty, been eroding, bit by bit, for some time now. Events on and off the field during recent times have contributed, too; the way people have been treated narks me. I miss what we had in the late noughties; I miss everything that we had in those precious few years of Paul Trollope's success; I really feel a bit of my love for the club died as the months and years that have followed since saw the demise of that squad, that era. So much of it was self inflicted. Geoff Twentyman's interview with Stuart Campbell one Friday night a few weeks back had me tears for what might have been, for the way he was pushed away from the club. There are so many regrets, for me, over what has happened to us since we had our cup glories and promotion joy. It's not just the fault of the current squad, or even the current manager, per-se, for where we lie now, or why my (lack of) affection lies. Much of the gloom I feel now stems from things that have gone on before their time. I feel sorry that I can not be more supportive of them; we do have some good players and players who care about the club, like Matt Harold, watching the matches on his crutches, bless him. I feel my current outlook is probably not disimilar to the callers and tweeters who moan to Geoff after the matches, or the contributors to the forums or to the Facebook pages. They threaten to throw away their season tickets or predict relegation; I've always had a glass half full attitude when it comes to Rovers and hate moaners and bitter criticism hurled abusively at players. I still do. I am never going to stand there and shout negatively at players. It's not me. But I feel less and less enthusiastic about watching my team. I even missed a recent home match just because I did not want to spend a few spare hours watching Rovers, and it tears me up inside to even say that. I don't know how to get back the way I once felt about the club, and, given our current standing, I am not sure I even know where to start. I am sorry Rovers, I really am ' http://www.brfcforum.co.uk/index.php?/topic/106537-anyone-read-the-programme/
Keep the faith Sue as we've all been there and come through the other side. How do you think we all felt going from 8th in First Division October 1979 to bottom of the Fourth by December 1982? While I am totally RED, I do have many fond memories from long ago watching Rovers in the 50's when motorways and easy away travel did not exist. Just to see a game at Eastville was better than nothing on a Saturday. So again keep the faith as one day you will turn the corner.
'Sue' probably sums up what many Rovers' fans are feeling during a particularly lean period for our club. Money is tight and if the players don't perform, season in, season out then it does eat away at you. A modicum of success would bring back the passion to both Sue and many other Gasheads. However, posting this is just pointless sniping by Wiz at Rovers' contributors to this forum. Nothing but bitterness from someone who started off decent but has plummeted in our estimation for reasons only known to himself.
Oh dear,I've upset them again,I swear to god I have not written one comment or done any actions to provoke on their forum for weeks,I keep my comments to our own forum and my fellow Bristol City supporters. I was struck with the complete honesty of the creator of the article and actually wrote I have no problem with these know-all blue raincoats coming on here but don't preach to us Reds and presume you can tell us what we should say and do on our own forum to our own fans and we all know who has plummeted ..
Interesting navel gazing post. However Sue post narrative is in the past tense and offers up no solutions, other than its only good to watch a football club when we are winning, which as a Rovers fan is not very often we can tell you. Football fans go to football as an escape from normality or lack of! Experienced in general life, where else can you be high one moment and then dragged down to the depths of despair the next. It’s somewhere that a spectrum from normal everyday folk to control freaks have the freedom to let go either at the opposition there own team the ref, assistants, managers and opposition fans. Like Sue I am not normally a critical fan, some supporters around me spend most of the game highlighting player’s or refs shortcomings berating a player for a missed tackle or poor pass forgetting that it is dead easy to be critical from the stand or some of them are only happy when the ball goes forward constantly shouting forward get it forward with sarcasm in there voices. If we lose critics a quick to blame an easy target. It is easy to become a disaffected supporter, when results are hard to come by and why not you pay good money to be entertained and watch your team win (occasionally in Rovers case). Sue harks back to the Campbell days when we managed to sneak into the playoffs, went to the millennium stadium and New Wembley and qtr finals of the FA Cup after stringing together a fantastic run of results in the latter half of the season, just before that If Sue was a supporter then, we were in L2, for two seasons running, we almost went down into the conference and we were absolutely dire to watch for most matches our defence was as bad as City's, in that we would concede goals for fun especially at the end of matches, still supporters travelled home and away in numbers as we battled for survival the rest is history. Is football really just about winning? perhaps Sue has just fallen out of love with football and has gained other interests as she has got older, She neglects saying if her husband watches ITV 2 with her or still goes to the matches with other members of the family if not perhaps she would have been better off meeting a fellow that supported say Bristol City as perspective is required........conversations can be a little negative if the team keeps losing. Most of us grow up with a team for one reason or another and treat the match as a social event, we are fans that care and know a reasonable amount about our club statistics and its history, however there is always one fan that knows more than all of us, one of the guys In our group has been watching the Rovers since the early 50's and talks about teams long gone, players we didn’t even know existed let alone played for our club, he has been through more bad times than good ones but still turns up with hope that they will replicate the team that beat Man Utd similar to you guys and my dad wishing that you could put together a team similar to the Garland one. What type of fan is Sue? She obviously keeps touch with what Rovers are doing, perhaps through SKY Sports, listening to Radio Bristol, ringing in to the talk shows or on the internet(even her husband). Perhaps Sue has picked the wrong time to fall out of love with Rovers, If Rovers start winning regularly again will she get the bug like many disaffected football fans and watch footy again, or has she drifted away from football and the GAS forever who knows. COR
