Time to get positive and back the club and team

[Bristol Oil Services]

We finished 11th in the second tier last season. That's 31st in the 92, the football pyramid. In 72 post war seasons, we have only bettered this - ie finished above 31st in English football - in 13 of those 72 seasons.

So, our 14th best effort since 1947 (and you can add to that our fifth semi-final in a major cup competition).

English football has never been so flush with money and so competitive. It has never been harder to do what SL and Co are trying to do.

 

Rovers, by way of contrast, have matched our 31st four times in their history and bettered it (28th) just twice, all this before The Beatles had their first hit and anyone outside of Liverpool had heard of them, back in the days when money was nothing like as important.  

 

Last season raised our hopes sky high, then brought them crashing back down. And this summer has been a sobering and disappointing reminder of where we are in the pecking order but last season was one of the best in our modest history, despite the collapse.

Johnson might well have been given more £££s than any City manager in our 106 seasons but he/we need it, when you look at the state of the game today. Without it, we are League One dross again. 

I think the more we have - SL's wealth and largesse, the modernised ground, the transfer millions, the 20k crowds - more than we've ever had, the more we can find ourselves expecting and hoping for (and you can add to this the references to PL ambitions by the club). And so the greater the sense of let-down, and disappointment. Being second at Christmas and then falling apart, and January's disappointing transfer window, compounding this negative feeling, for some.

I think it's OK to feel disappointed or pessimistic (there were, there always are, things we could've done better last season), but unless you are determined to be that way, a glance at our history, and taking into account what it takes to succeed in English football in the 21st century, SL and LJ did well overall last season, and not every owner/board/manager in our history would've managed 31/92 in 2018.

None of this helps this afternoon if we lose, I know. Losing is painful and we want someone to blame, it helps if someone is to blame (and it could all be different and better if Lansdown did x or Johnson did y. Or Johnson wasn't here, etc) and we can lash out/star threads demanding this and that,  but for those looking to feel a little better, a bit of perspective helps. We have been so much worse than this for so many seasons in our history. 

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

Maybe a bit of a red herring but:

1) We often raise it when we're seen as an underdog. Team and fans should be up for it today, I hope.

2) 2009...lost to Carlisle in a dreadful Carling Cup game at home. We played top of table Boro few days later at AG, won 2-1 excellent- Maynard and Hartley excellent, crowd noisy. The necessary reaction was delivered- let's hope it happens again, as losing to Plymouth in the Cup a parallel.

3) Return of that nice Mr Pulis. Hopefully he gets the hot reception he deserves, that could help spark the players and the 2 could help feed off each other perhaps.