The Dolman Pragmatist

Whereas 0-3 to 3-0 would presumably show a fundamental strength? Look, we're all disappointed, but when Liverpool came back from three down at half time in the Champions League final, I don't remember anyone suggesting it was because Milan were sh*t.

Please explain why it is any different to any other 3-3 draw, apart from in the inevitable sense of disappointment?

I can't believe this forum, or perhaps I should. If we had been 3-0 down at half time and come back to get a 3-3 draw, people would have been hailing a fantastic point. The fact is we were playing a very good side who had the same number of players as us, and we scored three goals each. It doesn't matter what order they were scored in. They scored three and we scored three. It was a good point. Of course it's disappointing, having been in the lead, but it's still a good point. Those who say they would have been happy with a point before the game should be happy. We got a point.

No it's not. Why are you pretending that it is?

Sadly, and I mean sadly, for the first time I think I've drifted into this camp. Last thing I wanted, but I fear the end is nigh.

And if you're wrong, will you go away?

Ah, it's the managers fault again then. Brilliant. So the fact everyone thought it was a good team selection doesn't count then: he's 'set them up for a 0-0 draw'! How does that work then? Do the players not have brains in their heads? Is their every move controlled by the manager on the touchline? Get a grip. Time the players took responsibility.

The 'current incarnation of city' delivered a few things in the first three months of the season, didn't it? Could it possibly be that we are going through a bad patch from which we will recover?

I love you lot. The more you take the p*ss out of everything the Gas are - ground, fans, resources, players, manager etc.etc. - the more remarkable their position in League One becomes. I would not bet against them getting promotion this season. They have a winning mentality and you can't buy that. They also tend to get better as the season goes on, and have an impressive record in play-offs. Looks as if relegation to the Conference may turn out to have been the best thing that ever happened to them...

Couldn't you just have celebrated?

Give it a rest, eh?

No sign of Gustav in the 18...

I think he may be in the long term, but I haven't seen it yet. Freeman contributed more in the Villa match than O'Dowda has so far...

So, loyal football fans of relatively small club queue for tickets for a plum cup match. Meanwhile across the city, smug fans of club bankrolled by billionaire celebrate making online purchases from their sunbeds abroad. Frankly, I'd rather be one of those Rovers supporters queuing for a ticket than a fan of one of the multi-million corporate entities who make-up our so called 'premier league'. Am I the only here who rather admires fans who opt for the smaller club in a two-club city?

Sorry, but not clear how winning a penalty shootout, and then a rival losing a key match, amounts to 'luck'. Rovers got promotion last year by coming second in a season of 46 games; getting through to the playoff final; then winning the final on penalties. Can't see that as being luck-related. This year they have gone one better by getting automatic promotion after 46 games. The fact that Accrington lost their final game is neither here not there. Rovers ended up in a higher position after 46 games and any luck will probably have been two-way across the season. I think they have done fantastically well in the last two seasons and if I were a Rovers fan I'd be chuffed to bits. As to where is their 'natural position' - no such thing! I grew up with the likes of Watford and Swansea as lower division clubs, and look at them now. If I were a Rovers fan I'd be optimistic about next season. I'd certainly expect a top-half finish from them.

We'll see. I confess to having found this thread increasingly depressing - particularly those posts which have said, in effect, ok Rovers have got promotion on the field, but who's got the better ground/richer chairman/better youth policy/etc.etc. It's what happens on the field that matters and it's what happens in the moment. Yes, we would probably have finished bottom of the Prem if we'd been promoted in 2008, but I'd still have taken that just for the excitement of winning at Wembley. What Rovers have achieved is fantastic. From a club in the depths of despair only two years ago, they have achieved two successive promotions, the second of them automatic. I think that is pretty remarkable. I think they deserve nothing but credit from us. I suspect their biggest challenge may be to hang on to their manager, but if they do I doubt they will struggle next season and the notion that League One will destroy them is fanciful. Yeovil had never been in the Championship before. Rovers, on the other hand, have spent the majority of their existence in the third tier. I admit I was hoping for a last minute Accrington goal, but then I'm a City fan. It didn't come, so well done to them and I don't begrudge them their success. If Forest Green could achieve a win in their play-off final, it will have been a pretty remarkable season for this part of the world.

What is the team?

Not for me, mate. I've always believed that we'd be in a better position now if we stuck with Pulis. Of course we'll never know, but I have a feeling he would have got us up before 2007...

Quite agree. He comes across like a petulant and rather unpleasant man sometimes. Interviewer was only trying to do his job, and Cotterill's behaviour was uncalled for. Man strikes me as a bit of a prat sometimes. We know he is a good manager when things are going for him, but can he come when the odds are not in his favour? I wonder...

On the contrary, I think this thread has 'bitter and twisted' written all over it. I hoped that Grimsby would win yesterday, but they didn't and I'm over that already. It doesn't matter what division you are in, or how you achieve it, promotion is promotion and if I were a Gas fan I'd be celebrating as if I'd won the Premiership. Good luck to them, it's what football is all about. It doesn't matter what division you are in, or what your history is, success is to be enjoyed. Time to move on, I think.

What's happened to Saville?

We need to get something today. Lose and we could easily be dragged back into the relegation scrap.

It could be 4-4-2 Moore Osborne Flint El Abd Williams Elliott Pack E Thomas Cunningham Carnet Baldock

I imagine you're referring to: 'Had Carlisle held on to the lead given them by Brad Pott's 36th-minute free kick, they would have opened up a nine-point gap on the Robins and disgruntled City fans would have been saying the honeymoon period was well and truly over for manager Steve Cotterill. City would have remained one place off the foot of the table, even more deeply in relegation trouble and the mood ahead of Coventry's visit would have been decidedly downbeat. As it is, Cotterill is being lauded for his game-changing substitutions, City are out of the drop zone and hitherto worried supporters are now prepared to contemplate a rise up the table. In short, City's players will approach their next assignment against the Sky Blues with renewed confidence and in the belief they can achieve back-to-back league wins for only the second time this season.' That seems a reasonably interesting and balanced paragraph to me. It places the win in context.

I think you'll find that this not limited to the BBC. Independent broadcasters are doing exactly the same.