Bristol Oil Services

Mark Little

Increasingly, top flight clubs are expanding their grounds and capacities. I think you've read this idea - that Prem clubs don't need ticket sales so aren't bothered about expansion - on here so often, as have I, and taken it on board. Meanwhile, despite the wisdom of Otib, clubs at the top are either actually expanding, or looking into it. I think Leicester announced plans to go up to 40,000 seats but might well have pressed pause on this for now. Newcastle are looking at going up to 65,000, and have bought land behind one end of St James' Park. Liverpool are adding more seats currently. Tottenham have recently increased their capacity, Man City want to, have mentioned it. West Ham binned their atmospheric but cramped old ground for 60,000 seats. Even Everton are doing exactly this, adding capacity. Forest have applied to rebuild their old main stand, increasing capacity. Palace have sought permission to go up to 34,000. Wolves have announced plans to go to 50,000. Sheffield Utd to 40k, they have been granted permission. Chelsea have bought a bit of land adjoining Stamford Bridge. Everyone's at it, or thinking about it. Or just done it. Even bloody Bournemouth want to. Ashton Gate's 27,000 (in reality, 26,000) will be a bit Luton/Bournemouth should we miraculously ever find ourselves there. While we're flat-lining in the Championship, there's no need. Should we ever be in the Prem for longer than a year or two, and want to stay, what we have now might not be enough.

T.G.H. Total Control Racing. There's a song in there (somewhere) [that we'll never sing]

We always need 5-6 more players, that's the bloody problem.

Where might you say a little bit more?

We spent 40 minutes of the second half of a home game on the back foot, clinging on, our goal living a bit of a charmed life, against dour/solid midtable opposition. The "portents" were not encouraging. The entertainment was poor. The crowd was funereal, until a few boos at the end. The first half was bottom half L1 in terms of quality, from both sides. Some people want to see a bit of "action."

You favour a fudge?

Don't just focus on outcomes, keep an eye on performance. At home. And listen to the crowd (the funereal silence during the games, the reaction at the final whistle). Crowd has booed at first 2 home league games. 2 × poor (consecutive) home performances + another sale of best player = ......

Is this a "whoosh" ?

My point is, the clubs that haven't made it are smaller than us, with fewer resources, including Preston and Millwall. There's only one club left in the country that has 20,000 plus seats and 20,000 plus crowds that has failed to reach the top in the last 30 years, and that isn't Preston or Millwall. Every club that can pull 20,000 has played in the Prem, with one exception. And many that cannot pull or house 20,000 have done so.

Yeah, bang on mate. Let's list them: 1. Bristol Rovers 2. Fleetwood 3. Morecombe 4. Forest bleedin Green Rovers 5. Rotherham 6. Shrewsbury 7. Barrow 8. MK Dons 9. Crawley 10. Mansfield Town 11. Newport County 12. Harrogate blinkin Town 13. Are you cottoning on to this now, mate? The only clubs that haven't made it to the top division in the last 30 years are smaller than us, much smaller. Including Plymouth (16,000 on Saturday. Not very big).

1. Cornick's 2. Off 3. You 4. Useless 5 ****** ?

Nice one, mate. You got a photo of them?

You seem to be saying or thinking that Phil Alexander is here for us, the supporters? Is he not here in fact to do a job for Steve?

Good.

.... the third tier has ever seen. Sadly. The Times football pull-out this morning has a stat-frenzy of all the "Ups and Downs" with things like: " Most Moves Between Top Two Tiers" and "Longest unbroken runs in same tier." We feature prominently in: "Most moves between second and third tiers" where we come top, Bristol City (8P, 8R), followed by Barnsley, then Millwall. The company we keep. By my reckoning Stevie Guernsey is responsible for 25% of our 8 glorious promotions for third to second, so hats off to Steve, bless you, and where would we be without you? I will tell you: probably between Hull and Rotherham (7P) and Brighton and/or Grimsby (7P and 6P respectively) in the glittering prize that is Most Promotions From The Third Tier. We also come out top in: "Fastest falls from top flight to fourth tier," no surprise Sherlock, just pipping Wolves to be first to achieve this mighty, precipitous decline. I'm rather hoping Luton will match it over the next 3 or 4 years, then better it with a fourth consecutive relegation. Bolton have the most divisional changes of any club, 30. Notts County follow with 29. A quick mental calculation and I reckon we're on 21 (?) There was a point in the mid 80s where someone wrote in one of those fanzines, that Rovers were just about the most uninteresting club in the 92, having had two promotions (late 50s, 70s) and 2 relegations. Dull! That's why they needed the comedy, pantomime kit - and then, also, the meanderings and migrations and homelessness; and stealth and underhand property acquisition - to get anyone to ever notice them. Now, things in Bristol have gone arse-about-tit with us being the stable/stagnant/dull not going up/not going down much dullards, and they're hopping around like a bleedin' fly (the lower/est levels, of course). Is it time we pantomimed-up our red shirt-white shorts-red socks look? Can we get trust Jon with this?

The Times they are ... a ... everywhere

Don't be too hard on yourself. It happens every summer. It's hard not to feel a little optimistic, as new lads come in, talking of "potential" and what have you. I wonder if it didn't also happen in the summers of 1979,1980, 1981 (and 1994, 1998 and 2012). Blokes on here just cannot help themselves, particularly if we get our business "done early." They really like the "way we go about our business" when that business is done before the first league game. It's contagious. And when we "get our business done early," there aren't any league games for a while to suggest that maybe that "business" was a little hasty, if not downright ****ing hopeless. A summer transfer window without a little uninformed deluded optimism would be like a spring morning with no birds singing, or Christmas eve with no excited children. Long live the misplaced optimism of the bloke on a football forum during the long summer months without any football to see.

"Creativity," it is oft said, amongst, er, creative types, comes from boredom. Or follows it. David Foster Wallace, the bandana-ed American writer of the 90s, once said: "It turnts out that bliss - a second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious - lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom." Yesterday, and Preston, we had "crushing boredom;" Hull away > joy.

I asked my daughter on Friday: Ella Toone, or Lauren James? "Gotta be LJ for me, dad" she replied. I advised against this, referencing Spain's likely domination of the ball, and must now concede defeat to my daughter in knowing "how to set up" and generally "how the game works." I think she sees me tactically as a bit of a dinosaur, like Nige,

5 foot 8, Hands of glue, Mary Earps is telling you ..... la la la la, la la, la lah

LJ and Ashton never had any trouble with this

A lot of very naive words over the last year or so about the women’s game not being like the men’s game. I mean, it's not, not yet, but the "direction of travel" is only going one way. And Argentina's women have hardly got going yet ....

No, no. It was Spain that got the better of us

I know, I saw that. I was just having a bit of a play with the word "literal." We also let in 6 in the first 3 games compared to 3 this time thus far. There is a sense that creatively we have stalled at best, whilst being 3 points better off though. Preston scored 4 goals in their first 12 games last season mind, and finished above us. We can go around and around with this but after 3 games this season we are 3 points nearer to staying up than we were last season after 3 games. Quite literally