The Golden Wonders - A sort of season review...
May 22, 2017 8:39:48 GMT
Antonio Fargas, baggins, and 9 more like this
Post by mehewmagic on May 22, 2017 8:39:48 GMT
This is probably as close as I'll get to a conventional season review.
Hope you all enjoy.
The Golden Wonders
By Martin Bull
Rovers supporters may have been a tad disappointed to go into the final game of the season without anything to win, or lose, but our Doctor’s were surely ecstatic that our hearts were granted respite for the first time in four seasons.
It was Rovers’ best finish since the infamous 1999/2000 season ended flatter than a Dutch mountaineers’ weekend excursion. I remain convinced that not only was that experience the beginning of our entire demise, but that I can even pinpoint the exact game where the Rovers we knew and loved died… but that’s the subject of a different article.
A noble effort occurred this season and taking the challenge all the way to the penultimate game was a major achievement. The last time Rovers returned to League One Paul Trollope’s men wheezed and skulked over the finishing line, 16th on only 53 points, seemingly distracted by a stunning F.A. Cup run; only our third ever Sixth Round appearance.
When a club ends up just few points away from the play-offs disappointed fans tend to over analyse and point to individual games, injuries, line-ups, formations, substitutions, or even split second moments, before wistfully wondering ‘if only…‘. But surely supporters of every team in the division could do the same? The beauty of a league system is precisely in having 46 games home and away, spread through autumn, winter and spring, in all conditions, on all pitches, and not only facing the opposition team in front of you at that precise moment in time, but also picking your team at that precise moment. Nothing stands still in football and if you don’t keep on pressing forwards another club will, and they might then overtake you.
An abandoned derby giving rise to a spicy replay, a tedious Tuesday trip to a resurgent Bury, several intriguing penalty decisions, and even a plethora of plastic pigs on a pitch. These and other random nik naks are all part and parcel of testing the true resilience of a club, and whilst the eight month trek is still not a perfectly level playing field it’s the best possible; we didn’t ask for Trevor Kettle or Brett Huxtable to be born (how did the latter manage to follow us like a bad smell from the Conference so quickly?), but then neither did any of the other 23 clubs. It’s swings and roundabouts, you run with the hand you’re dealt, and you make your own luck (delete cliché as to your taste).
Football is a game of change and as the Pirates are on the up at the moment we have to enjoy it whilst we can. Anyone who doesn’t think rapid change can occur might wish to chat to an O’s fan in East London or a Sky Blue in Coventry and ask them if they predicted their swift demise. And, as if to labour my point, that 2007/8 League One season saw a certain little club called AFC Bournemouth relegated, whilst Swansea City finally returned to the Championship for the first time in over two decades. Both are now part of the corporate and Premier League elite, and more akin to nibbling prawn cocktail sandwiches and swilling down Prosecco than waiting for a half price cheese and onion pasty after the game has finished.
For the third season running a Rovers squad became a team, with a core of players surviving from the year before (even if some of those players had now become fringe players), and reinforcements arrived either via the careful integration of new signings or the rather less careful game of ‘Loan Bingo’.
Did they all work perfectly? No, but there were still many positive signs, and given that it was the first season within the new loan rules, lessons are still being digested.
I remember writing this time last year that although there was some understandable anxiety about whether we could get the right players for the following season, securing the continued services of young talent like Tom Lockyer, Billy Bodin, and Dan Leadbitter early in the day was actually more crucial in my eyes, as was retaining loyal, dependable players like Lee Brown, Ollie Clarke and Chris Lines.
Given that exactly the same has happened again this season, with a decent core of 15 players already under contract for our next campaign, suggests that this is a deliberate strategy rather than sheer fortune. Unlike the past no-one is given a long enough contract to breed complacency, but new arrivals can get up to two years and existing high performers are offered longer terms during the season rather than waiting until the uncertain days of a bunfight summer.
Just when a Bristol Rovers Former Players Association (BRFPA) has been formed off the pitch, and held a sizeable inaugural dinner with no less than 32 ex-players honoured (including the legendary Gerry Francis!), it’s comforting to see that on the pitch DC is patiently cultivating the Gas legends of the future.
DC’s conviction was obviously tested a little in the first half of the season when we were playing two games nearly every week, but overall he has put incredible faith in our own players, warts and all, until injury, the traditionally ‘difficult’ January window and a leaky defence finally resulted in two exceptionally talented young loanees becoming the first names on the team sheet for the rest of the season.
Joe Lumley and Ryan Sweeney were imposing examples of how some loans hit and spot, whilst others don’t quite have the quality to be in the side every week. Whilst Charlie Colkett, Hiram Boateng, Connor Roberts, and Kelle Roos all had their moments, it is telling that none joined better teams in the second half of the season and none showed that they were deserving of special status just because they came from ‘bigger clubs‘ - as a side-note Alefe Santos has just been released by Derby County after zero League appearances, Norwich City never offered a professional contract to Marcus Beauchamp (and he hasn’t yet played for his new club Newport County), and Olly Mehew was granted just 17 minutes of game time in his first season at Forest Green Rovers after leaving the Blackburn Rovers Academy. All were Gas starlets whisked away under the cover of darkness by the Premier League’s ludicrous Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP); coaxed to Category One Academies to be coached to death and occasionally let out to play in fantasy leagues with their fellow stolen starlets. Back in the real world Tom Lockyer, just four months older than Santos, has played 197 games of real football and still qualifies as an under-23. Comparing the two experiences is like comparing potatoes and oranges.
Of the full year loanees Jake Ready-Salted had to endure a sporadic season and Luke James huffed and puffed but to be honest never looked like a goal scorer or a goal creator. He certainly has attributes, including a surprisingly effective leap and good link-up play, but he’s no Matty Taylor.
The ‘Class of 2004’ (Campbell, Elliott, Disley, Lescott, Hinton, Walker et al) may still prove to be a hard act to ever better, but we do now have our own group of golden wonders; a new era of stable club men.
Chris Lines and Lee Brown both recently hit 250 league appearances for Rovers, and are now locked in a race to reach their 300th appearances overall (Linesy has 286 and Browner 284). Tom Lockyer continues to be a phenomenon; just three away from 200 appearances yet still just 22. Dare I mention the name of the great Stuart Taylor, but surely Tom is the only player for decades who would even stand a chance of getting close to our own unique gentle giant?
Ollie Clarke would have hit the 150 mark against the last day Lions if he had been able to play the final quartet of games, and Dan Leadbitter’s crisp century could have also been achieved if similar circumstances had transpired.
Ellis Harrison passed 150 appearances, Stuart Sinclair achieved his ton at Oxford United, and the silky feet of Billy Bodin are not too far behind.
And here’s the rub - seven out of the eight players listed above are already contracted to Rovers for next season, and the gooseberry has been offered a contract to remain.
Lines and Ollie Clarke formed a particularly effective partnership in the centre of midfield, and whilst it may not yet be as iconic as Smash and Grab, Cannon and Ball, or even Salt and Vinegar, Ollie in particular was a revelation, adding an impressive consistency to his performances.
Whilst we were sadly given little chance to replace a certain M.Taylor, at least we still created chances after his hasty flight, and although no-one has been able to fill his talented boots yet, three forwards suffering stop-start seasons still managed 30 goals - Billy Bodin with 12, and Ellis and Gaffers with nine each. Finally an almost forgotten goal machine from the back, Peter Hartley, showed that there is a real art to scoring via set pieces and bagged six in only 25 games.
Finally, after 54 games we can let our players and staff enjoy a well earnt rest. A week in the sun, a barbeque on the beach, or even enjoying a scampi & lemon basket and a Lambrini with the missus. Meanwhile I imagine DC and a select band of brothers will still be beavering away to unearth the gems of the transfer market and to plot a real tilt at a promotion next season.
Off the pitch the owners have taken a pragmatic approach to the future, with a seemingly four fold approach to ’evolution, not revolution’. First, small scale value for money ‘quick fixes’ on the infrastructure of a tired old stadium - a lick of paint, new gates, more food outlets, more seats, better toilets; secondly, improving relationships with supporters and honouring the rich history of the club (ticket offers, more open communication and kick starting the BRFPA mentioned earlier, of which I’m a committee member); thirdly, a huge increase in the depth and quality of staff members, especially those behind the scenes who help improve the playing squad; and finally the big one, the large infrastructure of the future, and whilst we may still be waiting for concrete news of a stadium, they have started on something that in the long run is possibly equally important, a training ground that will not only be fit for purpose for an aspiring club, but will be a haven that ultimately hosts ALL BRFC players at all levels, including a Level Two Academy, and will give us a chance to find, nurture and finally retain the brightest stars around.
The future is still bright; the future is blue and white.
Hope you all enjoy.
The Golden Wonders
By Martin Bull
Rovers supporters may have been a tad disappointed to go into the final game of the season without anything to win, or lose, but our Doctor’s were surely ecstatic that our hearts were granted respite for the first time in four seasons.
It was Rovers’ best finish since the infamous 1999/2000 season ended flatter than a Dutch mountaineers’ weekend excursion. I remain convinced that not only was that experience the beginning of our entire demise, but that I can even pinpoint the exact game where the Rovers we knew and loved died… but that’s the subject of a different article.
A noble effort occurred this season and taking the challenge all the way to the penultimate game was a major achievement. The last time Rovers returned to League One Paul Trollope’s men wheezed and skulked over the finishing line, 16th on only 53 points, seemingly distracted by a stunning F.A. Cup run; only our third ever Sixth Round appearance.
When a club ends up just few points away from the play-offs disappointed fans tend to over analyse and point to individual games, injuries, line-ups, formations, substitutions, or even split second moments, before wistfully wondering ‘if only…‘. But surely supporters of every team in the division could do the same? The beauty of a league system is precisely in having 46 games home and away, spread through autumn, winter and spring, in all conditions, on all pitches, and not only facing the opposition team in front of you at that precise moment in time, but also picking your team at that precise moment. Nothing stands still in football and if you don’t keep on pressing forwards another club will, and they might then overtake you.
An abandoned derby giving rise to a spicy replay, a tedious Tuesday trip to a resurgent Bury, several intriguing penalty decisions, and even a plethora of plastic pigs on a pitch. These and other random nik naks are all part and parcel of testing the true resilience of a club, and whilst the eight month trek is still not a perfectly level playing field it’s the best possible; we didn’t ask for Trevor Kettle or Brett Huxtable to be born (how did the latter manage to follow us like a bad smell from the Conference so quickly?), but then neither did any of the other 23 clubs. It’s swings and roundabouts, you run with the hand you’re dealt, and you make your own luck (delete cliché as to your taste).
Football is a game of change and as the Pirates are on the up at the moment we have to enjoy it whilst we can. Anyone who doesn’t think rapid change can occur might wish to chat to an O’s fan in East London or a Sky Blue in Coventry and ask them if they predicted their swift demise. And, as if to labour my point, that 2007/8 League One season saw a certain little club called AFC Bournemouth relegated, whilst Swansea City finally returned to the Championship for the first time in over two decades. Both are now part of the corporate and Premier League elite, and more akin to nibbling prawn cocktail sandwiches and swilling down Prosecco than waiting for a half price cheese and onion pasty after the game has finished.
For the third season running a Rovers squad became a team, with a core of players surviving from the year before (even if some of those players had now become fringe players), and reinforcements arrived either via the careful integration of new signings or the rather less careful game of ‘Loan Bingo’.
Did they all work perfectly? No, but there were still many positive signs, and given that it was the first season within the new loan rules, lessons are still being digested.
I remember writing this time last year that although there was some understandable anxiety about whether we could get the right players for the following season, securing the continued services of young talent like Tom Lockyer, Billy Bodin, and Dan Leadbitter early in the day was actually more crucial in my eyes, as was retaining loyal, dependable players like Lee Brown, Ollie Clarke and Chris Lines.
Given that exactly the same has happened again this season, with a decent core of 15 players already under contract for our next campaign, suggests that this is a deliberate strategy rather than sheer fortune. Unlike the past no-one is given a long enough contract to breed complacency, but new arrivals can get up to two years and existing high performers are offered longer terms during the season rather than waiting until the uncertain days of a bunfight summer.
Just when a Bristol Rovers Former Players Association (BRFPA) has been formed off the pitch, and held a sizeable inaugural dinner with no less than 32 ex-players honoured (including the legendary Gerry Francis!), it’s comforting to see that on the pitch DC is patiently cultivating the Gas legends of the future.
DC’s conviction was obviously tested a little in the first half of the season when we were playing two games nearly every week, but overall he has put incredible faith in our own players, warts and all, until injury, the traditionally ‘difficult’ January window and a leaky defence finally resulted in two exceptionally talented young loanees becoming the first names on the team sheet for the rest of the season.
Joe Lumley and Ryan Sweeney were imposing examples of how some loans hit and spot, whilst others don’t quite have the quality to be in the side every week. Whilst Charlie Colkett, Hiram Boateng, Connor Roberts, and Kelle Roos all had their moments, it is telling that none joined better teams in the second half of the season and none showed that they were deserving of special status just because they came from ‘bigger clubs‘ - as a side-note Alefe Santos has just been released by Derby County after zero League appearances, Norwich City never offered a professional contract to Marcus Beauchamp (and he hasn’t yet played for his new club Newport County), and Olly Mehew was granted just 17 minutes of game time in his first season at Forest Green Rovers after leaving the Blackburn Rovers Academy. All were Gas starlets whisked away under the cover of darkness by the Premier League’s ludicrous Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP); coaxed to Category One Academies to be coached to death and occasionally let out to play in fantasy leagues with their fellow stolen starlets. Back in the real world Tom Lockyer, just four months older than Santos, has played 197 games of real football and still qualifies as an under-23. Comparing the two experiences is like comparing potatoes and oranges.
Of the full year loanees Jake Ready-Salted had to endure a sporadic season and Luke James huffed and puffed but to be honest never looked like a goal scorer or a goal creator. He certainly has attributes, including a surprisingly effective leap and good link-up play, but he’s no Matty Taylor.
The ‘Class of 2004’ (Campbell, Elliott, Disley, Lescott, Hinton, Walker et al) may still prove to be a hard act to ever better, but we do now have our own group of golden wonders; a new era of stable club men.
Chris Lines and Lee Brown both recently hit 250 league appearances for Rovers, and are now locked in a race to reach their 300th appearances overall (Linesy has 286 and Browner 284). Tom Lockyer continues to be a phenomenon; just three away from 200 appearances yet still just 22. Dare I mention the name of the great Stuart Taylor, but surely Tom is the only player for decades who would even stand a chance of getting close to our own unique gentle giant?
Ollie Clarke would have hit the 150 mark against the last day Lions if he had been able to play the final quartet of games, and Dan Leadbitter’s crisp century could have also been achieved if similar circumstances had transpired.
Ellis Harrison passed 150 appearances, Stuart Sinclair achieved his ton at Oxford United, and the silky feet of Billy Bodin are not too far behind.
And here’s the rub - seven out of the eight players listed above are already contracted to Rovers for next season, and the gooseberry has been offered a contract to remain.
Lines and Ollie Clarke formed a particularly effective partnership in the centre of midfield, and whilst it may not yet be as iconic as Smash and Grab, Cannon and Ball, or even Salt and Vinegar, Ollie in particular was a revelation, adding an impressive consistency to his performances.
Whilst we were sadly given little chance to replace a certain M.Taylor, at least we still created chances after his hasty flight, and although no-one has been able to fill his talented boots yet, three forwards suffering stop-start seasons still managed 30 goals - Billy Bodin with 12, and Ellis and Gaffers with nine each. Finally an almost forgotten goal machine from the back, Peter Hartley, showed that there is a real art to scoring via set pieces and bagged six in only 25 games.
Finally, after 54 games we can let our players and staff enjoy a well earnt rest. A week in the sun, a barbeque on the beach, or even enjoying a scampi & lemon basket and a Lambrini with the missus. Meanwhile I imagine DC and a select band of brothers will still be beavering away to unearth the gems of the transfer market and to plot a real tilt at a promotion next season.
Off the pitch the owners have taken a pragmatic approach to the future, with a seemingly four fold approach to ’evolution, not revolution’. First, small scale value for money ‘quick fixes’ on the infrastructure of a tired old stadium - a lick of paint, new gates, more food outlets, more seats, better toilets; secondly, improving relationships with supporters and honouring the rich history of the club (ticket offers, more open communication and kick starting the BRFPA mentioned earlier, of which I’m a committee member); thirdly, a huge increase in the depth and quality of staff members, especially those behind the scenes who help improve the playing squad; and finally the big one, the large infrastructure of the future, and whilst we may still be waiting for concrete news of a stadium, they have started on something that in the long run is possibly equally important, a training ground that will not only be fit for purpose for an aspiring club, but will be a haven that ultimately hosts ALL BRFC players at all levels, including a Level Two Academy, and will give us a chance to find, nurture and finally retain the brightest stars around.
The future is still bright; the future is blue and white.
