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It seems increasingly likely that many clubs will not be able to survive the current crisis and - sadly for me- Rovers would appear to be one of those at serious risk. What will become of this thread if we do go? You need to start thinking of your exit strategy, would it become the 'Cardiff dustbin thread' or will you wait to see if a 'phoenix' Rovers starts up and start hating them instead? Personally. I'm beginning to see the upside of this scenario. I can continue disliking City and laughing to myself when they fail without having Rovers ******* it all up for me by, well just by being Rovers really,

Surely 'Only fools punch horses'? 'Smack a pony with a right hook Headbutt windows on the van Preach pure delusion every bloody season Cus sister, you're my mam Where we both come from is a mystery Now every bugger supports the City A Billionaire owner who ain't got no bread God, why wasn't I born a City red?' I thank you!

Love the newspaper clipping - where did you find that? Came across this a while ago, from late 80s I'd guess - not sure why we never used it:

Bravo, absolutely superb! Can't be arsed to do it properly!

Football enjoyed it's boom years after the Second WW, lasting most of the 1950s, but then beginning to tail off and slowly decline through the 1960s (coinciding with the abolition of the maximum wage, and a widening of leisure pursuits and opportunities). There was a spike post 1966, what with us being World Cup winners and all that, with crowds going back up again, lasting two seasons, before attendances again continued to decline. Crowds shrank steadily through the 1970s, as fewer goals were scored, players were paid more and wore their hair longer (then having it permed, and blow dried) and behaved more "unsportingly," the game became more "professional" and increasingly less like it had been during the post war boom years, reaching a low point in the 1st Division in 1984. Crumbling grounds and crowd violence contributed to the decline. And unemployment and recession. People were giving the game a miss (just as we were getting our act together on the pitch). Crowds were made up of a greater proportion of young (angry) males. Attendances didn't really recover until the late 90s. We - City - missed a great opportunity to cash in on potential support by messing about in the bloody 3rd division for much of the 50s, and the lower half of the 2nd when we finally got out of the 3rd. The advent of televised football, from the mid 60s, was a great time to have a great team. Leeds United timed this perfectly (and still enjoy the benefits of this today). Liverpool did nicely from it to, as did some smaller but also successful clubs (eg Ipswich, Forest, Derby). By the time we got to the top in 1976 the game was becoming deeply unpopular, loathed by much of the rest of the country. Crowd violence at home and abroad (eg England games) helped to turn thousands of those who might be tempted into armchair viewers, if that. We missed out again by only playing top class clubs on a regular basis as football across the country began to nosedive into its greatest unpopularity. Interestingly, although Fewers like to seize upon our disappearing support through three successive relegations, the 4th division's lowest two seasons for support in its existence were the two seasons following our promotion out of it in 1984. To suffer an unprecedented "trauma" of three successive relegations and play two seasons of 4th division football at the same time as football was at it's least popular and support nationwide was at its nadir was bloody unfortunate / typical for us, and is the context that Fewers always neglect to include, or simply don't understand, when saying how massive their support was in the Banana pub league (when football's popularity, and attendances, across the country, the game and the divisions, was the polar opposite of the game in 1983 and 4). Wolves' support dropped lower than ours, when they were in the 4th in the 80s (a greater decline from bigger crowds than ours during the good times). Cardiff's attendances in the 4th were thinner still, sub 3k average in more than one season). Our support was ok, in the circumstances, more than ok, and only less than theirs, Rovers,' for one of those dismal seasons: the first season down in the 4th, when we were 92nd for a week or two. And they were a division higher than us, chasing promotion/having a good season. So, in conclusion: we're more bigger-er than Norwich; they're more bigger than Northwich.

Assheads believing that they would be using a new ground entry system, similar to most grounds (including AG), where entrants simply swipe their season card, and entry is automatic. The sags perhaps arriving in the 20th, never mind 21st century ? No, of course not. It transpires that swiping the new card sets off a buzzer. Then, “some bloke”, who resides behind a wall, stamps on a foot pedal, thus allowing said asshead entry into the “stadium”.

Taking a year to get their “big” screen up, then finding they didn’t have the power to run it. Subsequently finding out the company providing it was owned by “the rosy cheeked tax dodging lady garden” from Guernsey.

Thank you for posting the link, I really enjoyed listening. I recall that I was at home in Hereford and couldn't get radio Bristol - I got the news about Rovers's relegation from Sky TV reports I celebrated with the bottle of Bristol City branded champagne that my nephew/godson bought for my 60th birthday. I reflected that if it wasn't a City promotion to the promised land, Rovers being relegated to the Conference was well worthy of celebration. As I drank I recalled how in 1982 I contributed in my own small way to the survival of the club by purchasing shares which I could ill afford. I reflected on the fact that the Rovers created difficulties that without their objections would have otherwise led to potential financial support from the Council.... then their trying to grab our ground (they're well practised at that). It was karma, a horrible club and horrible fans. I always support teams in difficulties across the football world... but the Rovers are something different. Listening to the link has brought a smile to my face during these troubled times

Radio Bristol post-relegation reaction: https://vocaroo.com/3STeE9fJlGE

And how differently it would have panned out for them had they not won that game: Relegation to non-league, no training ground, no new stadium, no refurbishment of the existing one, dwindling crowds, massive debts, non-communicating owners, sports science graduate on work experience for a manager, players only on £300 a week. Yes you can certainly say that they dodged the very biggest of big bullets on that day. Had they lost then it would have been the beginning of a slow protracted dwindling into a footballing irrelevance rather than being the thriving rival club that we see in Bristol Rovers today.

I could've sworn that they survived the week before at Wycombe? No...oh..... 'There are no words to describe this', try Darrell, just try......

Never forget..................

Never forget! ....

3, Relegaton 4, 6th richest chairman, coming for you city 5, santas grotto 6, babestation 7, thier UWE display 8, daryl clarke saying "happy days" when we lost, we then got to use that against them for the best part of the season 9, training ground 10, new stadium 11,tents 12, new stand and many more

They punch horses don't they?.....

They’d still find a way to blame Wycombe Wanderers ....

Never fear Miah, Rovers will never go out of existence. They may fail financially, but the true core of supporters will keep the club going. I can envisage the situation in a few years when Rovers are playing in the Bristol Suburban League and the Gas forum is full of stories of them having the best away support in the league; every other club loves them etc. Plus the excitement of the cup run being knocked out in the second round of the Gloucestershire Junior Cup by Brimsham Green Reserves

One rare positive of all this pandemic would be rovers going bust,

Having a tramp in the squad and the witty OTIB one liners that followed always made me chortle. Selling season tickets for the non existent Row M in the South West in the corner tented supermarket trolley stand takes some beating. But the best bit is the to55ers who regularly phone in to Radio Bristol to give their view on a match they haven't been to & that they've only heard on the radio AND in their best dumb a55 Cletus accent " it sounded unbelievable on the radio Geoff, and it definitely wasn't a penalty"

Squeaky, zero class, embarrassing little turd. He was such a perfect fit for the Gas.

.....and don’t forget the (very timely) last ever game at their spiritual home - Eastville. It was 34 years ago tomorrow: April 26th 1986 - Bristol Roverzzzz 1 Chesterfield 1 Last ever game at Eastville Attendance: 3,576 Yep, ‘loyal and true’ ladies and gentleman .... ??????

Ah Doncaster united.

You are an absolute Legend. Im going to sit back and enjoy that later with some Cider whilst my wife watches some shit on the telly.

Not as easy as I thought. The keyword 'Thatcher' brings up about 9 billion references to cider.

You mean they played a team who were so ‘on the beach already’ that they forgot to bring any kit? Imagine losing your league status to that?

5 years ago today that Rovers avoided relegation to non league, by beating Wycombe, in their winner takes all relegation decider.

Hahaha !! I had forgotten about him. What a ******* wanchor !!

Absolute Tour de Force. Hold tight at the back.

I put that up by mistake. Funny, though, Bill "Artful" Dodger going on about a lack of support, and the "fickle" support, at Eastville. As the letter writer above suggests, if they had some level of home support (instead of going to away games in tens of thousand) they might've still owned Eastville, and, like, built new stands, like we have done (and almost every other football club has done), instead of burning their stands (like we also have done. Burnt their stands).

One other piece of news. Is Chansiri up to his old tricks again? You all maybe interested in this @Davefevs @downendcity @hodge @Vincent Vega Sheffield 2 Limited, Sheffield 3 Limited and Sheffield 5 Limited have all extended their Reporting Periods. Sheffield 2 Limited when set up was due to initially have a Reporting Period running to 30th June 2020 which makes some sense as they were incorporated at CH on 21st June 2019. This was changed to 31st July 2019 so therefore aligned with the accounts ie to 31st July 2019 albeit initial period for one month or so- however a couple of weeks ago they've extended the Reporting Period to 31st July 2020. Which means that all things being equal we won't see those accounts until April 2021. Sheffield 3 Limited have done likewise- this is in fact possibly of more significance as they were the company who purchased or "purchased" Hillsborough. Sheffield 5 Limited. These initially had their accounts made up to 30th June 2020- this has now been aligned with the above. This company is or maybe significant as it is listed as the controlling party of Sheffield 3 Limited- the ones who brought Hillsborough of course.. This leads me on nicely to Sheffield 4 Limited. They were set up or incorporated at CH on June 20th 2019, and were the controlling party of Sheffield 3 Limned who purchased Hillsborough. This ceased on June 28th 2019 and they were replaced by Sheffield 5 Limited on said same date. Because... Sheffield 4 Limited had a proposal (formality?) to be wound up on 28th June 2019. Voluntary winding up was on 19th September 2019, came through at CH a week later. On Boxing Day 2019, Sheffield 4 Limited was no more! This was the date as per the Land Registry that the Hillsborough sale was stated as. I'm certainly not sure of the ins and outs but hope they get done over by the EFL/Independent Disciplinary Commission. *******. Wouldn't surprise me if they take advantage of Covid 19 to delay until end of July too for the main Sheffield Wednesday accounts. Only other club to do that at this level who haven't yet submitted is Derby...Brentford and Reading did but had them done by the timeframe but ability to be checked and signed off by auditors the issue due to this disruption.

Never forget..................

I`d forgotten the UWE display - I needed cheering up, thanks mate!

I can't remember the exact thing wording but I think it was along the lines of the amount their costs (I think it was costs) have gone up in the prem if they had been relegated this season it still would have been mid table in championship, even with increased wages of players brought in, promotion (and subsequent relegation) increases and decreases.

Love Is Like Oxygen...Sweet

I wouldn't like to see them go under, because of the current situation. I'd far rather they continued to implode and went bust organically. Not having a global pandemic to put it down to.

Unfortunately, there are a lot more football fans in all of these postcodes. Many supporting Prem teams, we are as a collective, a poor supported footballing City considering th population of Bristol Ive managed to get 2 friends in the last few years. (In our late 20s) one who supported Liverpool but never went to anfield now has a ST here and now loves City. The other a die hard Chelsea fan (Generation thing) who sees City as his local side and also has a ST. These are the ones I would like to See in City kits and coming down to AG. Not too worried about the Gas as they are a long way off of us.

Oh, this one for me, all day long .... if you ever need a laugh ... ???? So much class at that club ...

Wally selling the Mem from under them and hot footing it back to the middle east is going to take some beating. It surely has to happen ?

I think the pitiful disabled seating area with the plastic lawn chairs and Santa’s grotto must be up there

And Babestation, fake Fanta, out of date crisps. We might be some time...…………...

Let’s be honest, nothing is funnier and provides more piss taking ammo than falling out of the entire Football League. The Matty Taylor signing does come close Then below that theres about 100 examples of embarrassing antics from them and their fans.

Caller - 'We'll get more fans in the Conference, that's how many fans love this club' #gaslogic

10 minutes in, and I forgot about the sag complaining about Radio Bristol only having the City game on commentary, only to be told he was listening on the wrong frequency ????

Legend.

Has to be ‘Unlucky da shit’ for me, still makes me laugh. Closely followed by the ‘Thatcher years, two divorces, sob sob’ one but there doesn’t seem to be a recording of that anywhere unfortunately.

Big Mouth Strikes Again...The Smiths

Apparently their kitman couldn't remember either.....

Being a BS7er now I thought I’d take a stroll with the dog up past the Rugby ground the other day, if only just to remind me that things could be worse (a lot worse). Imagine my surprise when I saw that their new on-site, state of the art training ground had been built already.