We Haven't Got a Prayer...

BRISTOL CITY BLOG: All we are saying, is give us a win!

By Andy Stockhausen

I was strolling past Clifton Cathedral the other day and noticed a large wooden box posted atop a metal pole positioned invitingly outside the front doors. Emblazoned across the front in bold red lettering was the simple message “prayer requests”.

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DerekMcInnes

It became difficult for the media to portray Bristol City in a positive light towards the end of Derek McInnes's managerial tenure.

Now I have this arrangement with the big guy upstairs whereby I leave him alone and he doesn’t bother me. But I was nevertheless sorely tempted to appeal to the Almighty’s better nature on this occasion and ask if he could see to it to deliver a Bristol City win at Crewe this weekend.

After eight months and 19 League games without a victory, I don’t know what else to do. I’ve run out of lucky suits, socks, shirts and shoes, I’ve tried shaving and not shaving on match days without it making a blind bit of difference and various ‘lucky mascots’ have accompanied me to games and singularly failed to elicit the desired result.

Why not scribble out a respectful prayer request in the hope that it might just provide relief for myself and thousands of Bristol City supporters? Goodness knows, I’ve tried everything else!

Now I can hear City fans of a less sanguine disposition spluttering into their cider at this juncture and asking themselves why the local newspaper reporter should be bothered whether the team wins, draws or loses; after all, the media are paid to be there and certainly don’t have the vested interest that comes with spending hard-earned cash on season tickets over the course of many years.

Our job is to be objective, report what happens on and off the pitch and do our best to inform supporters where we are able to. What do journalists care how the teams they follow fare on a Saturday afternoon? They will be paid just the same regardless of the outcome.

That said, you would be quite wrong to assume we don’t care about the clubs we follow. I have hardly missed a Bristol City game in seven years and have been writing about the team’s exploits on and off since I first moved here in 1987. I’ve lived in the city for more than half my life, my kids are born and bred Bristolians and I have made my home here. I care passionately about Bristol. Yet I’m still considered an outsider by some.

Well, let me tell you exactly how it works when you spend as much time as I have working in close proximity to a group of people and inter-acting with them on an almost daily basis. It is difficult not to build an affinity with the institution itself and those who work within it.

Which brings me to the point of this week’s blog; it is not just supporters who are positively or adversely influenced by the team’s fortunes, journalists and those in all manner of ancillary roles are similarly affected.

I remember feeling genuine pride on the day City defeated Rotherham 3-1 at Ashton Gate to secure promotion to the Championship after eight years spent trying to escape League One. I felt the same way when, 12 months later, the same players beat Crystal Palace to reach the play-off final at Wembley. The feel-good factor ensured I had a spring in my step and was able to look supporters of other, bigger clubs, in the eye.

Conversely, I felt utterly deflated following defeat to Hull at Wembley, while the sinking feeling was even more pronounced when the Robins finally lost their second tier status at the end of last season.

I’m convinced covering Bristol City during three seasons of painful under-achievement is directly linked to a recurring nightmare I have been experiencing of late. I’m trapped in this elevator and want to go up so as to escape onto the top floor but, no matter which buttons I press and how often, the car continues to head in a downward direction, dragging me down with it.

Sounds familiar City fans, doesn’t it? I’ve christened this working of the subconscious mind the “cycle of doom” and I now know the team I report on has to win a League game for the first time since March 9 before these sleep-wrecking dreams can be banished once and for all.

I really thought the boys had cracked it at Port Vale the other week. An excellent team performance had yielded a fine goal from Scott Wagstaff and, with the clock ticking down towards 90 minutes, it looked as though the Robins were going to claim all three points.

Writing for the Bristol Post website, I gleefully trotted out a 250 word introduction to my match report lauding the team’s achievement in finally winning a League game after all this time. It was an upbeat piece – I felt a real sense of wellbeing.

Then wallop – one instant of lost concentration and Vale were level, City fans and players were utterly dejected and I had to erase my intro and start all over again, substituting what I so desperately wanted to write for something along the lines of what I have now been producing for months. Needless to say, the drive home afterwards was a sullen affair as I cursed quietly to myself, confronted with the joyless prospect of writing more of the same for Monday’s sports pages.

This is another unfortunate by-product of reporting on a struggling team. People have accused me of portraying the club in a negative light at various junctures during the past two seasons. I dare say I’m guilty as charged, but then it is difficult to constantly come up with a positive spin when the team is not winning. City have to meet me halfway and at least win occasionally to enable me to accentuate the positives.

After seven straight defeats during the early part of last season, then-City manager Derek McInnes became noticeably reticent and sometimes even downright prickly in his dealings with the press as the pressure of his situation mounted.

Unfortunately for Derek, the media had no option but to tell it as it was, further fuelling the siege mentality that existed inside Ashton Gate back then. Does the media shape public opinion or is it the other way around? You decide. Whatever the answer to that particular conundrum, the fact remains it is difficult to write in glowing terms about a club when it is locked into a downward spiral as grim as the one City has endured in recent years.

Of course, I want to be positive in my outlook and in what I write and say in public. Surely it is an entirely human emotion to want to be associated with something that is successful, no matter what your profession or walk of life. One of my most fervently-held ambitions is to report on Premier League football at a new stadium in south Bristol. The likelihood of either of those two things happening any-time soon may appear remote right now, but I can dream all the same.

I personally know football reporters in Hull, Reading, Cardiff, Blackpool and Burnley and I know how plying their trade in the top-flight made them feel. They lived their dream. I understand what sporting success did for their respective publications and the massive boost it gave to civic pride in their towns. Is it wrong to yearn for something similar in Bristol?

I’m prepared to be patient and work hard in pursuit of my dream. It is one I share with all Bristol City fans.

And if patience and hard work fail to win the day, then I guess there is always recourse to divine intervention and the power of prayer!


Read more: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTO...tory-19952767-detail/story.html#ixzz2i3t37GOs
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