Best Of

I remember seeing Roger Johnson on his debut away at Cambridge Utd and saying he would play in the Premier League one day, that would have been 1999/2000 or 2000/2001

Can't believe the scale of the competitive advantage they've allowed us to have with this update.

Yeah - hardly The Football Factory, but on the way out of that game I had some fat local run up to me, kick me in the back of the leg, then they slumped off with the immortal words (read in full comedy Wurzels accent for full effect), “wot yew smilin’ at, yew f**in c***”

Full-on classic gammon face.

And this off the back of zero provocation, wasn’t even engaging with anyone else other than the group I was with, certainly wasn’t engaging in any “top bantz” with the locals.

Ah well.

It was certainly quite the charged atmosphere.

I was at the game when we relegated them in 2001. Meaningless end of season game for us, but a heavily deflected Senda shot and a goal of the season effort from Bulman sent them down. The locals mood wasn't helped by the Wycombe contingent being boosted by a few City fans and Swindon (who I think were also battling to avoid the drop) fans who'd come along to wind up the Rovers supporters. The atmosphere post match was tense to say the least. "you lot better get back on the coaches now, it's gonna kick off" a steward warned us. Would have been good advice had we not driven down. Fair to say we were hiding our Wycombe shirts like our lives depended on it, navigating the alleys around the stadium on our way back to the car.

Interesting stuff. And interesting about Kone, and rightfully so. OF COURSE HE'S GETTING STRAIGHT BACK IN. But we can't say that.

It's some hoodoo. Not forgetting we also relegated them in 2000/2001 despite having played about 100 games in two weeks (slight exaggeration) by the time we met them at the Mem. They responded by pelting Martin Taylor with coins according to the match report. Whenever we beat them I feel zero sympathy and think it couldn't happen to a nicer lot.

We were imperious at home that season until losing to Cardiff to a dodgy goal (foul in the build-up IIRC) but terrible away. And a few months later came that night against Blackpool and arguably the beginning of the end for Sanchez. As you say, lack of squad depth told in the end. Feels very different 20+ years later!

Thinking about it last night, I'm convinced that Bristol Rovers have been placed on this planet purely as a joke for us over recent years. They provide almost unlimited entertainment:

- Lightning gate. 3-1 up with 20 mins to go, before losing the replayed game 2-0

- Invading our pitch and then getting relegated 7 days later

- The general hilarity of that relegation in 2014. Horse punching, Mansfield wearing their own away kit, hitting the woodwork 3 times, the fantastic fan interviews afterwards

- Beating them in Feb 2016 with a late Luke O'Nien header, the week they were taken over by the Kuwaitis

- Joey Barton's antics and bitterness ("Brandon Hanlan couldn't hit a barn door")

- Joe Low scoring two years in a row at the Mem and celebrating in front of their fans

- The angry bald men in the stand next to us who get thrown out for complete head loss every time we go to the Mem

- And somehow we've got an almost uncanny ability to beat them, no matter how badly we've been playing. They were the only team we beat in that awful 17 match streak last season under Blooms (and we played with 10 men in that game after Scowen was sent off). They were also Blooms' first away win during the awful run of form after he took charge

- They're also the only other EFL team to wear quarters, but they adopted them two years after us so they can't even claim to be original

Most certainly, I enjoyed Doddsy's interview. He seems to articulate very well the small things he sees as a coach and ways players can improve. Hopefully it won't be soon, but it'll be interesting to see how he deals with poor performances - how will he cover for players? Will he be blunt and critical?

Oh oh.....that beard suggests he's evolving from 'tech bro' to 'Rasputin'.