Bristol City thrash Bristol Rovers in Fans Derby, with controversial 'ringer' Lee Trundle starring
By Tristan_Cork | Posted: September 05, 2016
The Bristol City-Rovers fans' derby ended with the red side of the city celebrating with a whopping win, and more disputes and banter than ever before between the football divide.
For City's fans' team managed to recruit two former players – including one star striker – to their line-up, and thrashed the Bristol Rovers fans' team in the charity match.
And while the red and blue halves of the city will never agree on which is the best team in Bristol, it seems they can't even agree on what happened in the lead up to the fans' derby or what happened on the pitch.
Bristol City fans were celebrating an 8-0 victory on Sunday, while the Rovers' side said the score was actually an only marginally less embarrassing 7-0 defeat.
And there was also a bit of post-match controversy about the fielding of 'ringers' – players who are actually pretty good at football.
City fans were crowing about recruiting former favourite Lee Trundle, who scored a hat-trick of goals and ran Rovers' hapless fan defence ragged, as well as Moldovan international defender and former City player Ion Testimitanu, 42, to their ranks.
Read more: Follow all today's City and Rovers news live
image:
www.bristolpost.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276268/binaries/trundle.jpgLee Trundle
Afterwards, City fans claimed the Rovers' team had also recruited former players Nathan Ellington and Barry Hayles, but had been 'let down' by them – something that was strongly denied by Rovers' fan player and organiser Tom Rowland.
Video: Hilarious moment Rovers fan in Chelsea end when Rovers score
"We've heard they've been saying this, that we had a couple of former pros lined up but they didn't turn up, but that's simply not the case at all," said Tom. "We never had any plans to get any former Rovers players in the team, it was a fans team and we stuck to that. We had Wael al-Qadi playing, but he's not a footballer."
"The idea was supposed to be that it was a fans' team, so them bringing them in at the last minute was a bit of a surprise. We didn't have anybody lined up and nobody let us down," he added.
"Obviously Lee Trundle is something else – he's still actually playing."
Trundle is, indeed, still a professional footballer of sorts: he has scored five goals in two games for his new club Llanelli Town, three years after he appeared to have ended his career in non-league in the north west.
City captain Luke 'Brimo' Brimson, who upped the ante in advance of the game by staging a photo-bomb stunt with a City scarf at Rovers' ground in advance of the game, maintained the score was 8-0, not 7-0.
Read more: City fans team captain trolls Rovers with scarf photo stunt
"We counted up the scorers and we had eight," he said. "We had two disallowed as well."
"But it was a great day, and we were expecting a harder game, to be fair, because more than half of their team play together week-in, week-out, whereas we come together just for this game," he added.
image:
www.bristolpost.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276268/binaries/oscar.jpgOskar Pycroft leads out the teams
'Brimo' also disputed Rovers' version of events surrounding the 'ringer' controversy. "Last week, their captain was with me on the radio saying they were expecting Hayles and Ellington to play for them, so it was a shame they didn't in the end," he said. "We didn't know whether Lee Trundle would turn up or not, so it was obviously a bit one-sided when he did.
"Actually, even without Lee Trundle playing for us, it would still have been a convincing victory. I have to say, though, that Lee did take it a bit too seriously. He was whingeing at the ref when we didn't get a penalty, he was whingeing at us when a pass to him went astray, he really wanted to win.
Read more: Young City fan Oskar Pycroft named Football League supporter of the year
"It was a huge honour to play with him and with Ion – just to play alongside two players who I grew up watching for City was amazing. The biggest honour was walking onto the pitch Oskar, however. Just to meet him and spend time with him was great," he added.
The City players were also very impressed with Rovers' owner Wael al Qadi. "What a top, top guy he is. Everyone said what a great man he was," said 'Brimo'.
image:
www.bristolpost.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276268/binaries/walealqadi.jpgWael al Qadi
"He made himself available for all the fans, and let's hope he can get Rovers successful again – as long as they are in their rightful place in the division below City. It would be nice to see Rovers as a Championship team, when City are in the Premiership," he added.
But one thing both sets of fans could agree on was that the entire day was a great success. "We raised something like £3,500 for the Children's Hospice for the South West, but we're still counting and people are still collecting," said Tom.
"It was a massive success, we had City and Rovers fans mixing together at the game in the stands and everyone got on well and it's probably the first time that's happened. Everyone had a great time," he added.
Read more:
www.bristolpost.co.uk/bristol-city-thrash-bristol-rovers-in-fans-derby-with-controversial-ringer-lee-trundle-starring/story-29685544-detail/story.html#ixzz4JSVfujvu