I want to be anon.

56 minutes ago, Nicki's soulmate said:

I'm on about the last Derby up there in 86

OK, misread your post

27 minutes ago, Nicki's soulmate said:

Yeah, Steve Neville, 1-1, straight on the pitch

Pretty sure it was Tom Ritchie who equalised then Martyn Hirst scored the winner. Both in front of the Tote End. The game turned when TC came on and ran the show.

49 minutes ago, Jim Davey said:

anyone no the attendance and how many we took there in 83 are end seemed quite full that day.also anyone on here guilty of burning the gas scarf.

The gate was only about 14,000 and all ticket wasn't it? Eastville was pretty much falling down by then, the South Stand was gone I think. 

1 hour ago, Galway Red said:

That open end was big and it was rammed that day, I doubt that we had 16000 there though

Not my point, there were City fans all over Eastville that day. I'd be surprised if it was as low as 16000 but time fades the memory.

35 minutes ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

You cannot help but be tickled by the "bigger than Norwich" thing.

Norwich have averaged 10,000 or more every season - like, every season; no, "yeah, but we was in the Banana league in 2015" - an unbroken, no exceptions, no excuses (no "yeah, buts") - since 1932.

Rovers have not managed a five figure, 10,000 plus ("yeah, but we was in Baff") average home attendance since the 1975/76 season (when they had a large away end, with room for 6 or 7000). That was 10,022. I don't suppose the average away support at Eastville that season was 22, so you have to go back even further to find a season when 10,000 of them went every week (ie, were "bigger than Norwich").

Indeed, of their 91 football league seasons, in just 29 of those have Rovers averaged 10,000 or more. Two thirds of the history they have had a tinpot home crowd.

The "yeah, but .... if we didn’t have a restricted capacity and instead had a 40,000 all seater ground, we'd ....." falls down when you ask: why do you have a poor ground? Why have you not had your own ground for decades? Why did you have to leave Bristol and go cap in hand to a non-league club? Why do able/minted men end up at AG and not Camp Few/Canopy Nou?

There is an interesting nuance to the stat for 1975/76. As you say, the Muller Road end was pretty big and their penultimate home game was us, on Good Friday if memory serves. The attendance was 26,000 odd and the overwhelming majority were in red. If we are generous and credit their attendance as 10,000 the 16,000 of us tipped the season average from about 9,100 to "over 10,000". 

So for once it IS our fault.