One Game at a Time
Bristol Rovers (A) October 22nd
It is perhaps a measure of how far we as a club are exceeding our own, and others, expectations that the second time in two matches when the Non Dons and Argyle share five goals, no-one was very surprised that almost all of them ended up the in MK net.
It is therefore equally unsurprising that all the chatter in this early part of the week is not about the fact that Schuey has overseen nine out of ten wins since the Charlton debacle, nor that our nap hand of goal scorers, with five players on five league goals, are now the leading scorers in the division, but about how long he will remain as Argyle boss.
All four one, and one for All-bion?
It is bad enough that there are almost fifty pages on Pasoti on the speculation. There are now threads on Albion (of course) Ipswich and Wednesday sites. The latter two seem very keen he should moveā¦
Never mind that the article currently stirring up the mud is couched in speculative non-specific language (and mentions at least two other candidates) in what appears to be some highly effective click baiting.
The question I must answer is, will Schuey still be in place by the time I click send on this article? My gut feel is that there is more chance that he will still be Argyle boss than Liz Truss will be Prime Minister in Jeremy Hunts new Government. So, on that basis I had better get a move on!
Saturday was one of those games that looked like a banana skin right up until the point that Jamie Cumming decided the ball was wrapped in one and fumbled it into the goal. After that Argyle managed to find a proper use for the press, and MK lived up to their fanās expectations and pretty much capitulated, apart from a brief āWill Griggs on fire, oh no, wait a minute, heās gone out,ā start to the second half. Comfortable enough that the decision to rest Scarr by not appealing his red card was justified, and Conor Grant got some more good minutes. As well as rotating the strikers and upping our youth team contingents match experience before they get to play in the Pizza Cup against Crippled Alice on Tuesday, Argyles showed plenty of flair. Unfortunately however, this then triggered some flares within the away section which may create some issues from the FA.
On to the weekend then, and Argyle, in a strange twist of fate caused by this weekendās results, start their next two games still playing against teams from the top half of the division. Away wins for Rovers and the Shrews mean they clamber to eleventh and eighth respectively. Next up after that, will be Exeter, still clinging onto top half tenth place despite a drubbing at home by recovering Oxford. Even Why Come, who we beat recently, have now clawed their way to twelfth. There really are no easy games anymore.
And so, to Rovers, on a bit of a roll since their surprising seven goal inspired elevation on the final day of last season, and who last weekend, like Argyle, could pretty much have played the second half in ācigars and slippersā mode (is that in the new FIFA yet?). Although probably best to keep their boss away from the cigar element of that particular metaphor.
Rovers are the Forest Gump of the division so far. You never quite know what you are going to get. They have rattled in goals away from home at the likes of Burton and Cheltenham yet been torn apart by an otherwise hardly expansive Lincoln City, and whilst being on a run of three league wins on the bounce, have only won twice at home so far this season.
The club were formed in 1883 at a restaurant in Eastville in Bristol, and in admiration of the Arabs Rugby team were christened the Black Arabs, playing in a black strip with snazzy gold sash. After a season they then became Eastville Rovers before becoming Bristol Eastville Rovers. Although lazy journalists will christen this a West Country derby, as we all know compared to Argyle, Brizzle is in the Midlands, and indeed Eastville competed for two seasons in the Birmingham and District League in the mid 1880ās. Case proven.
After playing in the black with gold sash, followed by blue and white hoops, and briefly black and white striped shirts, Rovers adopted a white shirt and blue shorts strip when they joined the Football League in 1920 before settling on the now familiar quartered shirts. These they adopted to make their players look more intimidating. They did the same thing in the seventies by playing Stuart Taylor at centre half, a man mountain of a player, nicknamed Victor after the giraffe at Marwell Zoo, who met an untimely end after doing the splits (the giraffe, not Taylor).
These quartered shirts returned after various dalliances with blue and white stripes in the sixties from 1973 and remain the shirt of choice for Rovers fans. One brief period led to quartered shirts with stripes within the quarters which were disparagingly known as the Tesco bag shirts by fans.
In 2005 the club ran an April Fools spoof about adopting a pink shirt as a strip, but after fans rallied around the idea, and the potential to raise funds for breast cancer charities, the strip was produced. It was only worn once though, against Argyle, in a pre-season friendly.
Rovers are known as the Gas, and their fans as Gasheads. The clubsā ground at Eastville was next to a gasworks and the term was designed to be disparaging regarding the smell there, and the knock on effect for Rovers fans. The Rovers fans adopted the term of derision as their own, and it has stuck even long after the smell and the ground departed. The club moved in 1986 after financial difficulties, for a temporary ten year sojourn at Twerton Park in Bath, before finally returning to the Bristol area at their current abode, The Memorial Ground, shared at first with Bristol RFC and now exclusively theirs.
One unique feature of Eastville was the placement of flower beds behind each of the goals. The stadium also hosted speedway meetings and greyhound racing (hence the Tote End) for many years, and was acquired by the Bristol Greyhound Company in 1940 for a figure much below market value, in a deal that was done by the then club chairman behind the backs of his fellow directors.
It was that decision that was in the end to lead to Rovers leaving Eastville, as in 1986 the rent required by the owners increased dramatically and left the club on the edge of bankruptcy.
There was also controversy in the early eighties when a fire broke out in the South Stand, causing Eastville to be temporarily closed. Although accusations of arson by Bristol City fans abounded, it was subsequently found to be an electrical fault, rather than foul play. In the eighties football in Bristol was at a generally low ebb, and there was a brief point where Rovers offered to buy Ashton Gate from financially stricken City, where they had played five poorly attended games when their ground being closed from the fire damage, but the rescue of City to become Bristol City (1982) Ltd meant the offer was rejected.
Rovers traditional nickname, commemorated on the club badge, is that of the Pirates, due in no small measure to the seafaring history of the port of Bristol. They were in their very early years also known as the Purdown Poachers, after the ground and area they played in.
The club was also involved in controversy in the 1950ās when their stewardship by the Bristol Greyhound company resulted in an FA investigation which banned the Company from football club ownership, and the club secretary from any football involvement for life.
Perhaps worse, the purchase of a goalkeeper Esmond Million from Middlesbrough in 1962 led to a charge of bribery when Million and co-conspirator Keith Williams were fined by Doncaster Crown Court for contriving to try and lose a game at Bradford Park Avenue. They were fined and banned for life, so not a great afternoons work, as Rovers also contrived to overcome the handicap of a dodgy keeper and drew two all. Desmond scuppered Esmond, you might say.
Perhaps not surprisingly therefore the Poachers turned Pirates eventually ended up employing former convict and football bad boy Joey Barton as their club manager in 2021.
Often described as the dirtiest ever Premier League player, Barton achieved nine red cards in his playing career, a career interrupted by multiple bans for his playing indiscretions, club suspensions, altercations with teammates, opponents and managers alike, a jail sentence for a violent assault in Liverpool, an eighteen month ban for football betting offences, time spent dealing with alcoholism and other addiction issues at Sporting Chance, and frequent apologies for his outspoken comments, such as his description of Thiago Silva as a āfat ladyboyā. Heart of gold though.
His time as a manager has been no less controversial, having been charged and acquitted of an assault on Barnsley manager Daniel Stendahl after a match, apologising for likening playing badly to the Holocaust in a press conference, and currently awaiting trial for an alleged drunken assault on his partner, due in court at the end of the month.
On the plus side he has a real issue with Exeter City, most recently saying he could buy the club and close them down as he has enough money to do so, although he still respected them. An avid social media user he has amassed almost three million followers, and is one of only three footballers so far to have made it to that political Punch and Judy show Question Time, (Clarke Carlisle and Jermaine Jenas (yes really!)) before you ask).
Here Barton managed to offend the audience by describing UKIP as ānot the worst of four ugly girlsā when referring to the state of the political parties at the time. Upbraided by the media, his treatment seems at odds with that accorded to Rovers legend Ian Holloway who used a similar allegory to describe a scruffy winning performance in one of his "hilarious" post-match interviews at QPR one Saturday. Life's just not fair is it Joey?
Indeed, the media generally struggles with a footballer who can quote Nietzsche as easily as he could try and break an opponentās leg. Barton has also been an active champion of gay rights and helped to bring one of his brothers to face justice for a racially aggravated murder (for which he is now serving life in prison) as well as much other charity work.
Letās just call him complex. And possibly damaged.
Mention of Holloway also brings us to the intertwined relationship of players who have been at both clubs. My personal favourite was Mike Green, anchor of the Mariner/Rafferty promotion side and if ever a player was named to lead an Argyle side to triumph it had to be him.
We briefly homed Bruce Bannister, the Grab of Smash and Grab with Alan Warboys, and, as a result of Holloway arriving at Home Park were fortunate to have some productive years of Barry Hayles, whose career is still ongoing, still turning out for England over 50ās even today.
Rovers also produced one of our finest loan signings of all times in Scott Sinclair, albeit we acquired him from Chelsea, and we were also entrusted with the development of Rovers boss Don Megsonās son Gary, who came through the youth set up in the seventies alongside players like Kevin Hodges Mike Trusson and Kevin Smart.
It is slimmer pickings the other way, although Byron Moore is still the fastest ever goal scorer for Rovers, after 12 seconds at AFC Wimbledon in 2017. Seven hundredths of a second slower than Nick Chadwicks goal against Palace in 2005. Byron Moore slower than Nick Chadwick? You couldnāt make it up, and I havenāt.
One thing we will hope to avoid this weekend will be a rendition of the Rovers adopted anthem of Goodnight Irene. This too may be stolen. Either from the Greyhound racing fraternity that shared Eastville in the fifties, where apparently it was the final disc spun by the stadium announcer at the end of the evening in tribute to his daughter Irene, and the record thus was left on the turntable.
More likely though is the that the song was sung by Argyle fans at a match at Eastville, accompanied by a travelling accordionist. The song was written by American R & B singer Leadbelly, who also played the accordion. When Rovers then scored three quick goals to gain the lead, they apparently serenaded the departing Argyle fans with their own song, and it stuck.
There is no definitive answer. If Rovers did āpirateā the song it would fit with the Pirates code, as outlined by Captain Barbosa to Johnny Deppās Jack Sparrow, which as we all know is that it is less of a code, more a set of guidelines.
The Memorial Ground was originally created to pay tribute to fallen Bristol Rugby players in the world wars. We however also lost one of our own this week.
Gordon Sparks was the soundtrack to the Sturrock era, and so much more than that. A fan that was allowed to commentate on his passion, and whose enthusiasm, knowledge and sheer joy will live long in the hearts of all who listened to him.
We mourn his passing and will long remember his boundless love of the Greens.
Goodnight and RIP Sparksy and COYG!!!
Bristol Rovers (A) October 22nd
It is perhaps a measure of how far we as a club are exceeding our own, and others, expectations that the second time in two matches when the Non Dons and Argyle share five goals, no-one was very surprised that almost all of them ended up the in MK net.
It is therefore equally unsurprising that all the chatter in this early part of the week is not about the fact that Schuey has overseen nine out of ten wins since the Charlton debacle, nor that our nap hand of goal scorers, with five players on five league goals, are now the leading scorers in the division, but about how long he will remain as Argyle boss.
All four one, and one for All-bion?
It is bad enough that there are almost fifty pages on Pasoti on the speculation. There are now threads on Albion (of course) Ipswich and Wednesday sites. The latter two seem very keen he should moveā¦
Never mind that the article currently stirring up the mud is couched in speculative non-specific language (and mentions at least two other candidates) in what appears to be some highly effective click baiting.
The question I must answer is, will Schuey still be in place by the time I click send on this article? My gut feel is that there is more chance that he will still be Argyle boss than Liz Truss will be Prime Minister in Jeremy Hunts new Government. So, on that basis I had better get a move on!
Saturday was one of those games that looked like a banana skin right up until the point that Jamie Cumming decided the ball was wrapped in one and fumbled it into the goal. After that Argyle managed to find a proper use for the press, and MK lived up to their fanās expectations and pretty much capitulated, apart from a brief āWill Griggs on fire, oh no, wait a minute, heās gone out,ā start to the second half. Comfortable enough that the decision to rest Scarr by not appealing his red card was justified, and Conor Grant got some more good minutes. As well as rotating the strikers and upping our youth team contingents match experience before they get to play in the Pizza Cup against Crippled Alice on Tuesday, Argyles showed plenty of flair. Unfortunately however, this then triggered some flares within the away section which may create some issues from the FA.
On to the weekend then, and Argyle, in a strange twist of fate caused by this weekendās results, start their next two games still playing against teams from the top half of the division. Away wins for Rovers and the Shrews mean they clamber to eleventh and eighth respectively. Next up after that, will be Exeter, still clinging onto top half tenth place despite a drubbing at home by recovering Oxford. Even Why Come, who we beat recently, have now clawed their way to twelfth. There really are no easy games anymore.
And so, to Rovers, on a bit of a roll since their surprising seven goal inspired elevation on the final day of last season, and who last weekend, like Argyle, could pretty much have played the second half in ācigars and slippersā mode (is that in the new FIFA yet?). Although probably best to keep their boss away from the cigar element of that particular metaphor.
Rovers are the Forest Gump of the division so far. You never quite know what you are going to get. They have rattled in goals away from home at the likes of Burton and Cheltenham yet been torn apart by an otherwise hardly expansive Lincoln City, and whilst being on a run of three league wins on the bounce, have only won twice at home so far this season.
The club were formed in 1883 at a restaurant in Eastville in Bristol, and in admiration of the Arabs Rugby team were christened the Black Arabs, playing in a black strip with snazzy gold sash. After a season they then became Eastville Rovers before becoming Bristol Eastville Rovers. Although lazy journalists will christen this a West Country derby, as we all know compared to Argyle, Brizzle is in the Midlands, and indeed Eastville competed for two seasons in the Birmingham and District League in the mid 1880ās. Case proven.
After playing in the black with gold sash, followed by blue and white hoops, and briefly black and white striped shirts, Rovers adopted a white shirt and blue shorts strip when they joined the Football League in 1920 before settling on the now familiar quartered shirts. These they adopted to make their players look more intimidating. They did the same thing in the seventies by playing Stuart Taylor at centre half, a man mountain of a player, nicknamed Victor after the giraffe at Marwell Zoo, who met an untimely end after doing the splits (the giraffe, not Taylor).
These quartered shirts returned after various dalliances with blue and white stripes in the sixties from 1973 and remain the shirt of choice for Rovers fans. One brief period led to quartered shirts with stripes within the quarters which were disparagingly known as the Tesco bag shirts by fans.
In 2005 the club ran an April Fools spoof about adopting a pink shirt as a strip, but after fans rallied around the idea, and the potential to raise funds for breast cancer charities, the strip was produced. It was only worn once though, against Argyle, in a pre-season friendly.
Rovers are known as the Gas, and their fans as Gasheads. The clubsā ground at Eastville was next to a gasworks and the term was designed to be disparaging regarding the smell there, and the knock on effect for Rovers fans. The Rovers fans adopted the term of derision as their own, and it has stuck even long after the smell and the ground departed. The club moved in 1986 after financial difficulties, for a temporary ten year sojourn at Twerton Park in Bath, before finally returning to the Bristol area at their current abode, The Memorial Ground, shared at first with Bristol RFC and now exclusively theirs.
One unique feature of Eastville was the placement of flower beds behind each of the goals. The stadium also hosted speedway meetings and greyhound racing (hence the Tote End) for many years, and was acquired by the Bristol Greyhound Company in 1940 for a figure much below market value, in a deal that was done by the then club chairman behind the backs of his fellow directors.
It was that decision that was in the end to lead to Rovers leaving Eastville, as in 1986 the rent required by the owners increased dramatically and left the club on the edge of bankruptcy.
There was also controversy in the early eighties when a fire broke out in the South Stand, causing Eastville to be temporarily closed. Although accusations of arson by Bristol City fans abounded, it was subsequently found to be an electrical fault, rather than foul play. In the eighties football in Bristol was at a generally low ebb, and there was a brief point where Rovers offered to buy Ashton Gate from financially stricken City, where they had played five poorly attended games when their ground being closed from the fire damage, but the rescue of City to become Bristol City (1982) Ltd meant the offer was rejected.
Rovers traditional nickname, commemorated on the club badge, is that of the Pirates, due in no small measure to the seafaring history of the port of Bristol. They were in their very early years also known as the Purdown Poachers, after the ground and area they played in.
The club was also involved in controversy in the 1950ās when their stewardship by the Bristol Greyhound company resulted in an FA investigation which banned the Company from football club ownership, and the club secretary from any football involvement for life.
Perhaps worse, the purchase of a goalkeeper Esmond Million from Middlesbrough in 1962 led to a charge of bribery when Million and co-conspirator Keith Williams were fined by Doncaster Crown Court for contriving to try and lose a game at Bradford Park Avenue. They were fined and banned for life, so not a great afternoons work, as Rovers also contrived to overcome the handicap of a dodgy keeper and drew two all. Desmond scuppered Esmond, you might say.
Perhaps not surprisingly therefore the Poachers turned Pirates eventually ended up employing former convict and football bad boy Joey Barton as their club manager in 2021.
Often described as the dirtiest ever Premier League player, Barton achieved nine red cards in his playing career, a career interrupted by multiple bans for his playing indiscretions, club suspensions, altercations with teammates, opponents and managers alike, a jail sentence for a violent assault in Liverpool, an eighteen month ban for football betting offences, time spent dealing with alcoholism and other addiction issues at Sporting Chance, and frequent apologies for his outspoken comments, such as his description of Thiago Silva as a āfat ladyboyā. Heart of gold though.
His time as a manager has been no less controversial, having been charged and acquitted of an assault on Barnsley manager Daniel Stendahl after a match, apologising for likening playing badly to the Holocaust in a press conference, and currently awaiting trial for an alleged drunken assault on his partner, due in court at the end of the month.
On the plus side he has a real issue with Exeter City, most recently saying he could buy the club and close them down as he has enough money to do so, although he still respected them. An avid social media user he has amassed almost three million followers, and is one of only three footballers so far to have made it to that political Punch and Judy show Question Time, (Clarke Carlisle and Jermaine Jenas (yes really!)) before you ask).
Here Barton managed to offend the audience by describing UKIP as ānot the worst of four ugly girlsā when referring to the state of the political parties at the time. Upbraided by the media, his treatment seems at odds with that accorded to Rovers legend Ian Holloway who used a similar allegory to describe a scruffy winning performance in one of his "hilarious" post-match interviews at QPR one Saturday. Life's just not fair is it Joey?
Indeed, the media generally struggles with a footballer who can quote Nietzsche as easily as he could try and break an opponentās leg. Barton has also been an active champion of gay rights and helped to bring one of his brothers to face justice for a racially aggravated murder (for which he is now serving life in prison) as well as much other charity work.
Letās just call him complex. And possibly damaged.
Mention of Holloway also brings us to the intertwined relationship of players who have been at both clubs. My personal favourite was Mike Green, anchor of the Mariner/Rafferty promotion side and if ever a player was named to lead an Argyle side to triumph it had to be him.
We briefly homed Bruce Bannister, the Grab of Smash and Grab with Alan Warboys, and, as a result of Holloway arriving at Home Park were fortunate to have some productive years of Barry Hayles, whose career is still ongoing, still turning out for England over 50ās even today.
Rovers also produced one of our finest loan signings of all times in Scott Sinclair, albeit we acquired him from Chelsea, and we were also entrusted with the development of Rovers boss Don Megsonās son Gary, who came through the youth set up in the seventies alongside players like Kevin Hodges Mike Trusson and Kevin Smart.
It is slimmer pickings the other way, although Byron Moore is still the fastest ever goal scorer for Rovers, after 12 seconds at AFC Wimbledon in 2017. Seven hundredths of a second slower than Nick Chadwicks goal against Palace in 2005. Byron Moore slower than Nick Chadwick? You couldnāt make it up, and I havenāt.
One thing we will hope to avoid this weekend will be a rendition of the Rovers adopted anthem of Goodnight Irene. This too may be stolen. Either from the Greyhound racing fraternity that shared Eastville in the fifties, where apparently it was the final disc spun by the stadium announcer at the end of the evening in tribute to his daughter Irene, and the record thus was left on the turntable.
More likely though is the that the song was sung by Argyle fans at a match at Eastville, accompanied by a travelling accordionist. The song was written by American R & B singer Leadbelly, who also played the accordion. When Rovers then scored three quick goals to gain the lead, they apparently serenaded the departing Argyle fans with their own song, and it stuck.
There is no definitive answer. If Rovers did āpirateā the song it would fit with the Pirates code, as outlined by Captain Barbosa to Johnny Deppās Jack Sparrow, which as we all know is that it is less of a code, more a set of guidelines.
The Memorial Ground was originally created to pay tribute to fallen Bristol Rugby players in the world wars. We however also lost one of our own this week.
Gordon Sparks was the soundtrack to the Sturrock era, and so much more than that. A fan that was allowed to commentate on his passion, and whose enthusiasm, knowledge and sheer joy will live long in the hearts of all who listened to him.
We mourn his passing and will long remember his boundless love of the Greens.
Goodnight and RIP Sparksy and COYG!!!
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