If You Hate The Gas....

[Mad Cyril]

Point 1 - Bang on, we have to support BCFC positively, first and foremost

Point 2 - As part of that, showing scorn for a rival can be positive, even if that rival isn't the team we are playing that day

Point 3 - That rival at the moment is NOT Rovers!

The current Rovers team is a sham, presenting no meaningful challenge to us. I actually feel sorry for their fans, and embarassed their team carry the name "Bristol" in their title (couldn't they have renamed when they last moved grounds - MK did much to the relief of the townsfolk of sleepy Wimbledon). I would rather they were in the same division as us (preferably not CC1 and definitely not CC2), and then we can recreate some of that positive and relevant rivalry that accompanied the season we were both promoted.

So forgive me for looking for the Rovers results on a Saturday and hoping they win for now, forgive me for not standing up because I don't hate Rovers at the moment, and forgive me for reserving the right to change that approach if and when they do once again pose a meaningful rivalry.

How daft would it have looked if Forest fans in the Cloughie era sang "we hate County" when they were playing Liverpool?

[BlokeCDP]

Why hate them full stop?

[Guest Neo]

Why hate them full stop?

←

Cos they not as good as comma's

[BlokeCDP]

Cos they not as good as comma's

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No apostrophe there mate

[Nogbad the Bad]

Why hate them full stop?

←

1) I've been attacked by their "family fans" on 3 occasions, purely for wearing City colours.

2) Their fans' ingrained detestation for everything City is far stronger than our strong dislike for them, however much we try.

3) Rovers fans sing anti-City songs at every home game.

4) Did you not witness those outrageously flukey long range late efforts from Smart and Hibbitt that sailed into the roof of our net and devastated us in the mid-eighties? ? Do you not remember Prince, Alexander, Penrice, Holloway, Pulis and all the other Gas players who made their contempt for City and us City fans so obvious?

5) Did we get any sympathy from them when City nearly went out of business? None whatsoever, they were ecstatic at the prospect and had plans to take over Ashton Gate.

6) They want to shoot our Robin and question his parentage.

7) Rovers have the most irritating club song in the Football League.

8) They have friends in high places in the local media who constantly perpetuate the myth that they are Bristol's 'Family Club' ( i.e. City aren't) when many of us know from personal experience they have as many thug followers as anyone. Simply almost no big games, ever, so much less chance of clashes and headlines.

I've hated them all my City supporting life, not in a violent way, but hated them all the same. I always cheer a Rovers defeat and the more goals they concede the happier i am. It bugs me when they get a late equaliser that i don't know about until i get home.

I rarely 'stand up' to the song these days, but my son always has done without any prompting. If you support City and live in Bristol it's the most natural thing in the world to 'hate' our traditional rivals and when my son stands up, grinning in his City shirt, i'm proud of him.

I'm happy to say i can't stand Rovers. Up the City and Down with the gas.

[RedTop]

I've hated them all my City supporting life, not in a violent way, but hated them all the same. I always cheer a Rovers defeat and the more goals they concede the happier i am. It bugs me when they get a late equaliser that i don't know about until i get home.

I rarely 'stand up' to the song these days, but my son always has done without any prompting. If you support City and live in Bristol it's the most natural thing in the world to 'hate' our traditional rivals and when my son stands up, grinning in his City shirt, i'm proud of him.

I'm happy to say i can't stand  Rovers. Up the City   and Down with the gas.

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Amen to that. Those feelings are shared by me and many others. God I hate those late Gas equalisers! Now, I am not suggesting that you HAVE to hate the Gas to be a City fan, nor that hating them is better than not hating them, nor that you should hate them. But you have to understand that the circumstances within which we all support City are different. Some fans, I completely understand, have not grown up in an environment which has bred contempt and dislike of the Gas, or simply do not equate a love of City and dislike of Rovers. No doubt, some of you are simply nicer and more generous people than me!

But if, like me and Nogbad, you have had to sit with a glaring hangover after an early kick-off on New Year's Day and stomach watching us dominate the Gas for 89 minutes at the Gate in one of the most one-sided matches I've ever been to and then see a fluke of a shot by Gary Smart fly in from 30 yards and listen to Bobby Gould rub it in in an interview, if you have had to stomach the taunts as we lost the championship to them a few years ago and watched them relish celebrating in front of us, if you have had to experience filthy little gits like Penrice and Alexander cheat and kick their way through our players year after year, if you have had to stand on the terraces at their crappy old grounds and watch them laugh at us when they beat us time and again, if your phone has rung at 4.50pm almost every week when we were last in Division One, and all you hear down the phone is a Gashead laughing at you because you've lost again, if you have gone to a school where half the boys are Gasheads and half are Cidereds, and the derby result has been the difference between a week feeling like a king and a week feeling 'king awful, if you've watched Gasheads mock and show no mercy, let alone assistance, when our beloved club nearly bit the dust in 1982, then supporting City is likely to go hand in hand with an ingrained dislike of the Gas.

I do not pretend to be a perfect person. Those of you who do not have a pathological loathing for anything blue and white can probably hold your heads up and claim you're much better and worthier human beings than I am. But I can't change who I am, what I am and the emotions that the Gas provoke in me. Yes, they are pathetic at the moment. Yes, we should probably show them pity. But I'm afraid I don't. The only thing I'd like to see more than the Gas getting relegation is the Gas going bankrupt and ceasing to exist. If that makes me a bad person then I hold my hands up. But as far as I'm concerned, provided my hatred does not turn into violence, then I'm entitled to it - and they deserve it!

Surely, the atmosphere in any ground depends on the energy and passion being generated by supporters of the two teams playing - not what might be happening elsewhere? That was the main point I was making - which I think, perhaps, you've missed?

The tribal, antisocial behaviour you refer to helps no-one's cause - certainly not the balance sheet of clubs like ours, where potential supporters, maybe wishing to bring along families, make the decision not to come because they don't particularly enjoy being sworn at, "p***ed on from above", or attacked!!!

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Hmmm....well, yes and no.

The energy in a ground does not just depend on the two teams inside, from my experience. How many times has the crowd felt flat because we're down at half time, only for the news that the Gas are 3-0 down at home to someone like Chester City lifted us, created a buzz and raised the biggest cheer of the day? It may be secondary, but it gives us something else, another interest - a grain of consolation when things are going badly at the Gate, something to irritate us when things are going smoothly (for instance, I remember thinking how it would spoil our promotion party when we last went up if the Gas managed to get promotion too via the play-offs).

It is precisely the tribal and, yes, on occasions anti-social atmosphere in a football ground that makes it unique. My dad first took me to Ashton Gate when I was seven (City vs Leeds Utd, 0-0, an appalling game). I was far too young to concentrate on football for 90 minutes. Truth be known, I don't think I even knew all the rules then. But what captivated me completely was the atmosphere and the crowd. It was like nothing I'd ever seen or felt before in my life, and still haven't. The tension which you could cut like a knife, the knot in your stomach as some undeserving team taunts you after taking the lead against the run of play, the sometimes hilarious, sometimes hideously hostile chanting and the tribalism, the unrestrained glee when 'we' scored, the sudden change in mood to anger and frustration among thousands of people when we lost a goal. The surging forward of the crowds in unison (it was terracing in those days), marching of huge swathes of loudly-singing fans to and from the ground by police, the language (which was very different from what I was familiar with!). And above all the emotion.

In this PC, nannying, rapidly sanitising world, a football ground is now one of the few places in life where you can experience the full extremes of emotion, swinging violently and thrillingly between them sometimes in a matter of seconds. Where you can savour an almost nirvana-like spiritual elation at a goal, where you can unashamedly gloat when you win instead of being expected to remain magnanamous and humble like elsewhere in life. Where you can feel despair out of all proportion with reality when you lose. Where you can shout and scream in anger as the referee misses a blatant foul or cheats your team by allowing an off-side goal. Where you can feel better (or worse) than someone else simply because your team is beating theirs, or losing to them. In short, where you can feel completely alive and take your emotions to the limit.

I have had that, and I want my kids to experience that too. I want them to feel like they are on top of the world, and yes, I want them to experience the tears of unrestrained agony and despair too, because they are what make you feel like you've earned the right to unashamedly enjoy the few fleeting moments of success that being a Bristol City fan gives us. In this world, there are few things that stimulate emotion to the extreme. If that can happen within a relatively harmless, controlled environment like a football ground, if we can share those emotions together as a family, then as far as I'm concerned it adds to the richness of life and draws us closer together. That was certainly my experience with my own father, and that feeling of shared pain, of having to console each other on the terraces at Trumpton, of laughing together when the latest Gas defeat was announced over the Tannoy, or the naughty warmth of feeling that you got from hearing they were losing when you were feeling despondent because City were 1-0 down, gave me some of the most precious shared moments I had with my dad. Some of you might think that's sad, but in a world where fathers and sons tend not to openly express their feelings for each other, it was during these shared experiences of extreme emotion that I felt closest to him. So whenever we wanted to talk, football was the excuse for strking up a conversation. Why? Well, it was to football that gave us the most memorable shared experiences because they ran to the extremes of emotion, from hugging each other (and complete strangers) in disbelief when Tinman's goal went in at Anfield, to fear watching a load of Millwall louts trash a pub in Bedminster, to sickness and shared tears when we were relegated from the old Division One. I miss my now-deceased dad most when I am at football for that very reason. And because I know that I feel closest to my father at football, and it the memories of our times following City- good and bad - that are the most vivid, I hope that it will also be an avenue for those same shared experiences with my own children.

If I want my kids to have completely controlled and sanitized fun with no bad language, there are plenty of places I can take them. I can take them to the cinema to watch a 'U' film (though if I have to see Pooh Bear and the Heffalump one more time I think I will go insane). I can take them to Legoland. If I win the lottery I could take them to Disneyland and probably have enough money left over to buy them a Coke. There is no shortage of places where we can go as a family to get that sort of sacharine experience. But I want my kids to experience an edge sometimes. I want them to share in some of the thrilling, enthralling, highly-charged, breathtaking moments of extreme emotion that I know I had watching football, and just as importantly I want them to experience football as an event - the good and bad, for without the one you cannot truly appreciate the other. I don't want to wrap them in cotton wool. As I've pointed out, for those parents who do, or who do not wish to expose their children to adult language, there are plenty of places they can go that are far better suited. There's no need to get rid of the rawness of football just to provide yet another sanitised 'family zone'. Sometimes it's the bad bits that you actually remember and draws you closer together - the appalling choice of nightmare B&B at a far-flung away game, the policing at Walsall away all those years ago, the intimidating atmosphere at Cardiff or Millwall, breaking down on the way to Forest and having to jump on a train that is filled with opposing fans who stare at you. Yes, they'll hear bad language. There might be moments when they feel the atmosphere getting nasty. But I don't care. Football is a unique spectacle, not just a game. I heard all the language when I was seven and was perfectly able to understand that what you heard in a football ground stayed in a football ground. I felt intimidated by huge crowds of Leeds fans pointing their fingers and chanting stuff at me and those around me. And that was part of the attraction and fascination, because you saw and heard things in a football ground that you never saw or heard outside. I loved that, and I know those experiences enhanced my understanding of life rather than spoiling it. And I hope and pray my kids grow old enough to experience it while it still exists, because for all its rawness and all its faults, it is something very special and very rare.

So if you want a safe, controlled family experience, take your kids to the panto. If you want them to experience life in all its richness, rawness, edginess and diversity, bring them to a football match. There's room in this world for both, but it would be a terrible shame if we didn't have the choice.

[Colorado Red]

Why hate them full stop?

←

Daftest post I've ever read upon this forum.

Amen to that. Those feelings are shared by me and many others. God I hate those late Gas equalisers! Now, I am not suggesting that you HAVE to hate the Gas to be a City fan, nor that hating them is better than not hating them, nor that you should hate them. But you have to understand that the circumstances within which we all support City are different. Some fans, I completely understand, have not grown up in an environment which has bred contempt and dislike of the Gas, or simply do not equate a love of City and dislike of Rovers. No doubt, some of you are simply nicer and more generous people than me!

But if, like me and Nogbad, you have had to sit with a glaring hangover after an early kick-off on New Year's Day and stomach watching us dominate the Gas for 89 minutes at the Gate in one of the most one-sided matches I've ever been to and then see a fluke of a shot by Gary Smart fly in from 30 yards and listen to Bobby Gould rub it in in an interview, if you have had to stomach the taunts as we lost the championship to them a few years ago and watched them relish celebrating in front of us, if you have had to experience filthy little gits like Penrice and Alexander cheat and kick their way through our players year after year, if you have had to stand on the terraces at their crappy old grounds and watch them laugh at us when they beat us time and again, if your phone has rung at 4.50pm almost every week when we were last in Division One, and all you hear down the phone is a Gashead laughing at you because you've lost again, if you have gone to a school where half the boys are Gasheads and half are Cidereds, and the derby result has been the difference between a week feeling like a king and a week feeling 'king awful, if you've watched Gasheads mock and show no mercy, let alone assistance, when our beloved club nearly bit the dust in 1982, then supporting City is likely to go hand in hand with an ingrained dislike of the Gas.

I do not pretend to be a perfect person. Those of you who do not have a pathological loathing for anything blue and white can probably hold your heads up and claim you're much better and worthier human beings than I am. But I can't change who I am, what I am and the emotions that the Gas provoke in me. Yes, they are pathetic at the moment. Yes, we should probably show them pity. But I'm afraid I don't. The only thing I'd like to see more than the Gas getting relegation is the Gas going bankrupt and ceasing to exist. If that makes me a bad person then I hold my hands up. But as far as I'm concerned, provided my hatred does not turn into violence, then I'm entitled to it - and they deserve it!

Hmmm....well, yes and no.

The energy in a ground does not just depend on the two teams inside, from my experience. How many times has the crowd felt flat because we're down at half time, only for the news that the Gas are 3-0 down at home to someone like Chester City lifted us, created a buzz and raised the biggest cheer of the day? It may be secondary, but it gives us something else, another interest - a grain of consolation when things are going badly at the Gate, something to irritate us when things are going smoothly (for instance, I remember thinking how it would spoil our promotion party when we last went up if the Gas managed to get promotion too via the play-offs).

It is precisely the tribal and, yes, on occasions anti-social atmosphere in a football ground that makes it unique. My dad first took me to Ashton Gate when I was seven (City vs Leeds Utd, 0-0, an appalling game). I was far too young to concentrate on football for 90 minutes. Truth be known, I don't think I even knew all the rules then. But what captivated me completely was the atmosphere and the crowd. It was like nothing I'd ever seen or felt before in my life, and still haven't. The tension which you could cut like a knife, the knot in your stomach as some undeserving team taunts you after taking the lead against the run of play, the sometimes hilarious, sometimes hideously hostile chanting and the tribalism, the unrestrained glee when 'we' scored, the sudden change in mood to anger and frustration among thousands of people when we lost a goal. The surging forward of the crowds in unison (it was terracing in those days), marching of huge swathes of loudly-singing fans to and from the ground by police, the language (which was very different from what I was familiar with!). And above all the emotion.

In this PC, nannying, rapidly sanitising world, a football ground is now one of the few places in life where you can experience the full extremes of emotion, swinging violently and thrillingly between them sometimes in a matter of seconds. Where you can savour an almost nirvana-like spiritual elation at a goal, where you can unashamedly gloat when you win instead of being expected to remain magnanamous and humble like elsewhere in life. Where you can feel despair out of all proportion with reality when you lose. Where you can shout and scream in anger as the referee misses a blatant foul or cheats your team by allowing an off-side goal. Where you can feel better (or worse) than someone else simply because your team is beating theirs, or losing to them. In short, where you can feel completely alive and take your emotions to the limit.

I have had that, and I want my kids to experience that too. I want them to feel like they are on top of the world, and yes, I want them to experience the tears of unrestrained agony and despair too, because they are what make you feel like you've earned the right to unashamedly enjoy the few fleeting moments of success that being a Bristol City fan gives us. In this world, there are few things that stimulate emotion to the extreme. If that can happen within a relatively harmless, controlled environment like a football ground, if we can share those emotions together as a family, then as far as I'm concerned it adds to the richness of life and draws us closer together. That was certainly my experience with my own father, and that feeling of shared pain, of having to console each other on the terraces at Trumpton, of laughing together when the latest Gas defeat was announced over the Tannoy, or the naughty warmth of feeling that you got from hearing they were losing when you were feeling despondent because City were 1-0 down, gave me some of the most precious shared moments I had with my dad. Some of you might think that's sad, but in a world where fathers and sons tend not to openly express their feelings for each other, it was during these shared experiences of extreme emotion that I felt closest to him. So whenever we wanted to talk, football was the excuse for strking up a conversation. Why? Well, it was to football that gave us the most memorable shared experiences because they ran to the extremes of emotion, from hugging each other (and complete strangers) in disbelief when Tinman's goal went in at Anfield, to fear watching a load of Millwall louts trash a pub in Bedminster, to sickness and shared tears when we were relegated from the old Division One. I miss my now-deceased dad most when I am at football for that very reason. And because I know that I feel closest to my father at football, and it the memories of our times following City- good and bad - that are the most vivid, I hope that it will also be an avenue for those same shared experiences with my own children.

If I want my kids to have completely controlled and sanitized fun with no bad language, there are plenty of places I can take them. I can take them to the cinema to watch a 'U' film (though if I have to see Pooh Bear and the Heffalump one more time I think I will go insane). I can take them to Legoland. If I win the lottery I could take them to Disneyland and probably have enough money left over to buy them a Coke. There is no shortage of places where we can go as a family to get that sort of sacharine experience. But I want my kids to experience an edge sometimes. I want them to share in some of the thrilling, enthralling, highly-charged, breathtaking moments of extreme emotion that I know I had watching football, and just as importantly I want them to experience football as an event - the good and bad, for without the one you cannot truly appreciate the other. I don't want to wrap them in cotton wool. As I've pointed out, for those parents who do, or who do not wish to expose their children to adult language, there are plenty of places they can go that are far better suited. There's no need to get rid of the rawness of football just to provide yet another sanitised 'family zone'. Sometimes it's the bad bits that you actually remember and draws you closer together - the appalling choice of nightmare B&B at a far-flung away game, the policing at Walsall away all those years ago, the intimidating atmosphere at Cardiff or Millwall, breaking down on the way to Forest and having to jump on a train that is filled with opposing fans who stare at you. Yes, they'll hear bad language. There might be moments when they feel the atmosphere getting nasty. But I don't care. Football is a unique spectacle, not just a game. I heard all the language when I was seven and was perfectly able to understand that what you heard in a football ground stayed in a football ground. I felt intimidated by huge crowds of Leeds fans pointing their fingers and chanting stuff at me and those around me. And that was part of the attraction and fascination, because you saw and heard things in a football ground that you never saw or heard outside. I loved that, and I know those experiences enhanced my understanding of life rather than spoiling it. And I hope and pray my kids grow old enough to experience it while it still exists, because for all its rawness and all its faults, it is something very special and very rare.

So if you want a safe, controlled family experience, take your kids to the panto. If you want them to experience life in all its richness, rawness, edginess and diversity, bring them to a football match. There's room in this world for both, but it would be a terrible shame if we didn't have the choice.

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Best post I've ever read upon this forum.

[gazareth]

But if, like me and Nogbad, you have had to sit with a glaring hangover after an early kick-off on New Year's Day and stomach watching us dominate the Gas for 89 minutes at the Gate in one of the most one-sided matches I've ever been to and then see a fluke of a shot by Gary Smart fly in from 30 yards and listen to Bobby Gould rub it in in an interview, if you have had to stomach the taunts as we lost the championship to them a few years ago and watched them relish celebrating in front of us, if you have had to experience filthy little gits like Penrice and Alexander cheat and kick their way through our players year after year, if you have had to stand on the terraces at their crappy old grounds and watch them laugh at us when they beat us time and again, if your phone has rung at 4.50pm almost every week when we were last in Division One, and all you hear down the phone is a Gashead laughing at you because you've lost again, if you have gone to a school where half the boys are Gasheads and half are Cidereds, and the derby result has been the difference between a week feeling like a king and a week feeling 'king awful, if you've watched Gasheads mock and show no mercy, let alone assistance, when our beloved club nearly bit the dust in 1982, then supporting City is likely to go hand in hand with an ingrained dislike of the Gas.

Ah, the lost verse of Kipling's classic

[richwwtk]

So if you want a safe, controlled family experience, take your kids to the panto. If you want them to experience life in all its richness, rawness, edginess and diversity, bring them to a football match. There's room in this world for both, but it would be a terrible shame if we didn't have the choice.

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At the Donny game if some random bloke from the row in front of you shakes your hand it'll just be me saying thank you for all that. Put far more eloquently than I could ever hope to no matter how hard I tried. Agree with every single word, just not quoting it all

[Barman]

400 police at Monday's match...another needless drain on resources, all due to their anticipation of senseless, deep seated tribal attitudes being demonstrated by some on both sides...though, fortunately, minimal violence, on this occasion.

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Unfortunately the only reason there was minimal violence was because of the huge Police presence - if they hadn't been there it would have kicked off big-time.

As for "If You Hate The Gas" I have no problem with the odd rendition of it but there are some home games where it's non-stop and then it DOES get annoying. What's the point? They can't hear us!

I agree that we should spend more time backing the boys in red on the pitch in front of us and less worrying about an irrelevant team on the bottom rung of the league ladder playing in poxy Rochdale or somewhere.

[PhatWill]

An irrational hatred of the g*s if you're a City fan should come with the territory of following the club.

Why are we bothering to search for reasons?

They hate us, we hate them. End of.

If you are one of the pansies who on this thread has stated 'oh no I don't hate the g*s', 'I don't have a reason to hate them' then you should be slapped around the face with a wet fish.

[everreddy]

"I do not pretend to be a perfect person. Those of you who do not have a pathological loathing for anything blue and white can probably hold your heads up and claim you're much better and worthier human beings than I am. But I can't change who I am, what I am and the emotions that the Gas provoke in me. Yes, they are pathetic at the moment. Yes, we should probably show them pity. But I'm afraid I don't. The only thing I'd like to see more than the Gas getting relegation is the Gas going bankrupt and ceasing to exist. If that makes me a bad person then I hold my hands up. But as far as I'm concerned, provided my hatred does not turn into violence, then I'm entitled to it - and they deserve it!"

An excellent response, Red Top, from the heart!

As the originator of this thread, have to admire your eloquence and passion in putting forward your views!

I am almost persuaded to "stand up", after reading your justification!

Much as I applaud and admire your personal denial of violence, though, I still dislike the word HATE applied to a football team, no matter how pathetic they may seem to many.

It's a strong term, "HATE". Yes, I hate the mindless terrorist bombers in London and elsewhere. Surely, that's an appropriate level of hatred? But I hate bigotry, intolerance and prejudice, too. To my mind, the extreme attitudes demonstrated by some "Gas haters" smacks too much of the kind of religious and political fanaticism and intolerance which has brought so much misery to the world.. .

In terms of the current debate, I just fear that the provocation of the opposition and mindless chanting can, in some minds, be just the first step to fuelling needless violence between rival groups who both, at the end of the day, just want to see their team succeed. I see nothing wrong in that. And yet are Liverpool fans "pansies" if they applaud a team that demonstrates superior skill to their own, in a phase of a game on a particular day - as they have notoriously done, on occasion? I think not....

Life's too short....

As for me, I guess, at the end of the day, I'm a "glass half full" guy. I prefer channelling all my energy into supporting City - nothing more, or less!

[annanimo]

An irrational hatred of the g*s if you're a City fan should come with the territory of following the club.

Why are we bothering to search for reasons?

They hate us, we hate them. End of.

If you are one of the pansies who on this thread has stated 'oh no I don't hate the g*s', 'I don't have a reason to hate them' then you should be slapped around the face with a wet fish.

←

Really?

I don't think hatred really has a place in football. I lived in Glasgow for a number of years and know how socially divisive it can be.

OK, Gas v Robins - hardly of Old Firm proportions. But in regards Rovers, I simply couldn't give a damn. I'm not remotely interested. They're a pathetic club going nowhere. I'm not going to waste my time hating something as useless as Bristol Rovers Football Club. Not that I like them, it's just that to "hate" something you really have to be passionate, and I really can't be passionate about the Gas at all. I'm beyond hatred - I'm apathetic.

In regards last minute equalisers I think I've experienced a lot of them in the last few years, and it's not only the Gas who seem to score them. If that is a reason for hating a team, it could be applied to any number of clubs.

Someone mentioned Forest on here. Some of my family are Forest supporters, living in Nottingham. During the Clough era a lot of County fans used to watch Forest, and vice versa. Forest supporters turned from hating County to hating Derby, because there was a good reason to when County were languishing in the third division. The rivalry between them had become a thing of the past.

I can't hate Rovers I'm afraid. Much as I want to. They're just not worth it.

[gazareth]

I would say I hate the Gas. But more than anything else, I love City. I think there are many City fans who see supporting City and hating the Gas as equal things, but for me supporting City and seeing them succeed comes above anything else.

My main issue with "stand up if you hate..." chants is that I like to sit down and watch the game, not keep having to stand up like a jack-in-the-box!

The thing that really gets me though is that if City are losing and news comes through that Rovers are losing as well, there will be big cheers around the ground. If City aren't winning, I couldn't give a crap how anyone else is doing unless it directly affects our league position. I'm sorry, but I can't take any solace from the Rovers failing unless we succeed, and that's what I mean when I say I'm a City supporter first and a Rovers hater second.

[Guest thatchermeup]

A heartfelt plea:

This season, can we all try to turn ALL our energy into supporting OUR team, and not waste time and effort into mindless chants about irrelevances?

It pains me to hear the sad, mournful chant cropping up in every game: "If you hate the Gas, stand up!"

I'm indifferent about the Gas.

I'm at AG to support our team, to help get it out of this poxy division, and two divisions (at least) above our neighbours.

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everreddy,

I take it you have never been to an away match? If so and you had your hearing aid on, you would hear other teams chanting similar to what City do. For example at Swindon they chant if you hate the reading, as do WBA and Birmingham, Cardiff Swansea.

Its light hearted banter between sets of supporters. I don't think for one minute the players mind us singing if we ate the gas. Stop being so old and grumpy and just enjoy the atmosphere and stop being a silly man

[Niall]

Amen to that.......... There's room in this world for both, but it would be a terrible shame if we didn't have the choice.

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Fantastic stream of conciousness post, Brian. Much more Joyce than Kipling. And impossible to disagree with anything in it about the thrill and the passion of being a football supporter. The overwhelming majority of what you wrote was about the game and the atmosphere created around it and I particularly identify with the points about a father/son bond. Taking my sons to football is one of life's great joys. The play-off final still rankles so much that whenever one of them sees a dive, he calls it a 'Leon Knight'.

But forgive me, I don't want to show disrespect to your word count but you can have all that tribal feeling towards your own team (and lets face it, most of us do or we wouldn't be frittering away time writing about it on a forum like this if we didn't) without hating a team that you're not even flippin' playing! I understand why you have that view, I understand why its a part of your City DNA and I know you understand that those of us who don't share the loathing can be as passionate too.

[everreddy]

Interestingly, first away match: Swindon! Latest: Gas (Monday night)

In between: around 300 away matches. You?

My hearing is notoriously acute, within a youthful body (so 'tis said)!

[rumbellow]

A heartfelt plea:

This season, can we all try to turn ALL our energy into supporting OUR team, and not waste time and effort into mindless chants about irrelevances?

It pains me to hear the sad, mournful chant cropping up in every game: "If you hate the Gas, stand up!"

I'm indifferent about the Gas.

I'm at AG to support our team, to help get it out of this poxy division, and two divisions (at least) above our neighbours.

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Although I don't agree whatsoever with the thrust of this post, The regular chanting of this 'ditty' usually means that our season is less than satisfactory.

Football was and should be a tribal experience, Unfortunately we now have a generation of 'fast show' type supporters who know nothing of football or it's historical working class background, Who have become football 'groupies' because it's cool at Uni or in the City wine bars.

These people are the Roy Keane prawn sandwich brigade, What next instead of 'The Wurzels' at halftime how about a string quartet, Or anorak, train spotting, star trek or stamp collecting conventions before the game instead of going to the pub.

It has been pointed out many times that AG can be quiet and less than intimidating, So surely any noise is better than none at all.

[Guest thatchermeup]

Interestingly, first away match: Swindon! Latest: Gas (Monday night)

In between: around 300 away matches. You?

My hearing is notoriously acute, within a youthful body (so 'tis said)!

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everreddy,

yes and.....................whats your point, oposition fans still sing similar so why can't we?

I have ben going to home and away matches for 25 years just about and have notched up a few hundred away matches, not all city but mostly.

Ill reiterate my first point, if you listen, you will hear other fans singing similar songs. Big deal! Haven't you got anything else to moan about. You obviously have far too much time on your hands!

[Guest MaloneFM]

Do I read from this, MaloneFM old bean, that you are indeed one of the sad sag haters?

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Not at all old chap. I was the author of a post concerning everyone behaving themselves on monday night.

The stand up stuff is very old hat now and should you want to kick a dying 4th division dog choose another song.

This was my attempt at humour. Listen...is that Noel Coward spinning in his grave?

[everreddy]

Not at all old chap. I was the author of a post concerning everyone behaving themselves on monday night.

The stand up stuff is very old hat now and should you want to kick a dying 4th division dog choose another song.

This was my attempt at humour. Listen...is that Noel Coward spinning in his grave?

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I can't help but agree with you, my man!

Noel who? Surely, he didn't play for the Gas?

[megansdad]

agree with the original post and have argued so consistently over the years. Hating the Gas is all very well and good but it says nothing for your support of our own team. Wasted emotion on a team that are an irrelevance and fixating upon them condemns us to medoicrity. The Gas no longer represent a serious local competitor and whether they win or lose will have no impact on our own season. The only results I will be focussing on are City's and singing in support of the team is far more preferable than singing a negative song about a team that have no relevance.

[Guest MaloneFM]

Noel who? Surely, he didn't play for the Gas?

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You are thinking of lovely lovely Noel Gordon. Friend of Laz Grayson. Crossroads stalwart.

[CiderEagle]

You are thinking of lovely lovely Noel Gordon. Friend of Laz Grayson. Crossroads stalwart.

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As opposed to Noel Coward who was a friend of Dorothy.

[Guest MaloneFM]

Who was a good chum of Lesley Judd...I think we have crossed topics here old chap!

[Wurzel_Bill]

A heartfelt plea:

This season, can we all try to turn ALL our energy into supporting OUR team, and not waste time and effort into mindless chants about irrelevances?

It pains me to hear the sad, mournful chant cropping up in every game: "If you hate the Gas, stand up!"

I'm indifferent about the Gas.

I'm at AG to support our team, to help get it out of this poxy division, and two divisions (at least) above our neighbours.

←

Who are the gas?

[annanimo]

Who are the gas?

←

You know, I don't know either!

[everreddy]

You know, I don't know either!

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...a good point to put this thread to bed, methinks!