Andre_The_Giant

Very nice article. Does seem like he had the complete package of attributes as a footballer.

Pics of him in later life, including when meeting Marina Dolman when he was inducted into the BCFC Hall of Fame show him in blue Hamburger SV cap - so good to see he didn’t lose touch with his roots also.

My dad is a HSV fan so I personally like this element

Bring back the Coldseal pigs

Can anybody tell me the last season Bristol Rovers did not lose to a team from a lower division (or from non league) in any competition? 
 

Seems to be a regular occurrence.

12 minutes ago, bobbyhutchscurlymullet said:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f7twfUUmOCM 

Found this beauty of a prophet. 

He was right about Luton

11 minutes ago, wood_red said:

I honestly do not see what the difference is. If singing "I see you holding hands" is classed as homophobic and offensive why the hell is calling someone a fat ***** not? If I am ill informed then please educate me because I really do not see how one is ok and the other is not.

See above mate. Mean probably but it’s not bigotry or discriminatory.

There’s nowhere for the Gas to hide on this one. Barely a season goes by without some kind of hate fuelled incident from that mob. A real embarrassment.

57 minutes ago, wood_red said:

That is half the trouble. I bet there are fat people who couldn't give a toss what is said about them and others that will absolutely hate it - but that's ok. The same goes for the so called homophobic chants, do you honestly believe someone shouting "we saw you holding hands" in a football stadium has everyone in the other terrace offended or indeed any of them? I doubt a single Brighton fan would be offended by that (or any football fan in the land). It also isn't a "less bad" homophobic chant - it just isn't homophobic at all imo.

Basically you can abuse any player/fan/manager for being ugly or fat, yet if he is out as gay and you say "I seen you holding hands with your bloke" you can be up in court for a "hate" crime - I assume that is what it comes under? If that is correct then I really do find the World we live in crazy and ridiculous.

That’s the point though, all homophobic chants are aimed at gay people in the population. It’s the same for race or disability. Surely it’s not difficult to see the difference between chanting on these lines when compared with being fat etc.

And yes, the holding hands chant is obviously homophobic. It’s also cringeful to hear.

Whether the Brighton fans were offended is irrelevant.

3 hours ago, wood_red said:

I really don't want to stick up for the poor sags, but rightly or wrongly, these "homophobic" chants were just "we can see you holding hands". If there were more unsavoury ones then fair enough, but I was told by 2 saggies that is all that was sung. The Brighton fans then sung back about them being too ugly to get a boyfriend (or along those lines). Seriously is that really now classed as homophobic, will the Brighton fans come under scrutiny for calling other fans "ugly"? 

I honestly don't see anything offensive in any of that, and if it was sung by our lot I certainly wouldn't take any offence to it. 

Has the World gone totally PC bonkers, or is it just me not seeing anything in that? Will anyone be getting kicked out for singing "you fat ******" in the near future? 

 

The law is crystal clear on this.

Homophobia (as with race or disability) is a discrimination issue. Calling somebody fat or ugly is not. Put simply, the former is bigotry aimed at a whole group of people in the population.

To allow ‘less bad’ homophobic chants while condemning the rest would be hypocritical and impractical so ‘red lines’ are drawn on that basis. I’d say that’s fair.

8 hours ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

Rovers are older than us, too, they were around before us but, crucially, in my opinion, they played safe anchoring themselves in the safe harbour of the Southern League, not having the gumption to go out into the choppy waters of the new-fangled professional national, Northern leagues.

Meanwhile, we were the upstart, younger brother that came from nowhere and took the leap into the shark-infested waters out beyond the comparatively gentle Southern League (largely amateur, anti professional. Unlike the northern Football League, ruthlessly professional. Cut throat) blazing a trail. And not only that, but succeeding, gloriously, almost immediately. 

We cut a dash, for a while. And were inches from glory; we touched greatness, briefly, but it slipped away. We were amongst the big boys. And then we went back there again with a team we made ourselves in the '70s.

Rovers have always remained tied to mother's apron strings - taking shelter in the safe harbour of League One and Two, with even a dip back down into the part-time rubbish whence they originated when L2 was too much/rough for them - sucking their thumb, afraid to risk anything more, watching us while we have gone out into the world and tasted some of it's delights and disasters.

The delights we enjoyed, they bitterly, and enviously resent; the disasters they revel in. They have no glory of their own to eulogise. They had five or six years in the Second Division in the 1950s where they mixed it with, for them, the big boys, and must've thought their moment had come, but it never happened. Back to mummy ever since.

Rovers have never gone bust like us (1982), because they have never gone boom! like us (not that our boom! is anything to write home about, really). They would never dare! They've never had the bottle (the imagination/the audacity/the ambition/the gumption/the delusion). They won't let go of mummy.

They like to see it (1982) as evidence of their moral superiority, when in fact their infatuation with our "moral failing" is a defence against their own fearfulness, timidity and sense of inferiority. 

They are still a Southern League club, at heart. They despise us because they despise themselves and their gutless, pathetic, fearful dependence on the safety of "mummy" and inability to make or even have a bloody good go amongst the big boys, where the glory is to be found. Like we're currently doing (the Championship, now, is a level way beyond anything they have ever experienced). Again.

Not that Miah and co will admit this, or even recognise it. 

 

 

 

 

 

This is spot on.

We’ve tried - and largely failed - to be successful. The Rovers, they’ve never really tried at all. What have they ever actually done?

Better to die trying in my opinion. If they want to wax lyrical about the Tote End, Twerton, terraces, underdog spirit etc then fair enough but it’s just pining for a football world that is long gone.

9 hours ago, Coppello said:

Today marks 50 years since we landed on the moon. To commemorate this I thought I’d share a fact. 

Rover’s record breaking signing of Andy Tilson is closer to the date of the moon landing then it is to the present day. 

Wow

Another stat I enjoy is that when Bristol Rovers were last above us in the league, Bill Clinton was US president!

The Bristol Rovers “Official Historian” ladies and gentleman...

What an ignorant twit. Maybe he should stick to writing about the Gas? They are going to the dogs and will soon be a footnote to history anyway...

Many of us will have seen City players p1zzed up in town or smoking or generally up to no good in public, but to my mind ALL of the players observe the strict curfew before games, and so they can be commended for a professional attitude.

BS4