Buckle seen in Bristol

[united09]

Torquay is a good club, and getting into the 3rd tier is not overly ambitious, but being able to sustain it and push on is. I am not having a go at Torquay at all, but considering the size of the place, your average crowds, size of ground etc then it will be hard to sustain it. Bury have been in the Championship for 1 season about 15 years go and came straight back down again, same as Colchester, Scunthorpe etc, yes they have done well but due to the size of the clubs they just cant sustain it. Yeovil the same, they are doing great at the moment but I bet any money they will come back to their true level very soon.

Most of that I would probably agree on. To say you should be a championship team is a bit of a joke but with the right cash and organisation who knows, anything can happen same with every other club. Its just a few posts on here from you're lot, that are laughable.

[usagullmichigan]

We also have come to terms with the fact Crawley are going to walk the league next season

[diamondgirl]

A bit "off subject". Royalgull. I have a pair of Stev Angus, signed, footie boots. Do you want them? They are at home gathering dust.

Christine

[royalgull]

Haha!! Good old Stev, are they two left ones?!?

[CP Gull]

Most of that I would probably agree on. To say you should be a championship team is a bit of a joke but with the right cash and organisation who knows, anything can happen same with every other club. Its just a few posts on here from you're lot, that are laughable.

I must admit I have always regarded Rovers as a Level 3 (old money Third divion/League 1as it is now) club in the main and a quick look at the history books (i.e the internet) reveals that bar a number of years in the fifties and again in the seventies/early eighties (30 years ago now mind) that apart from a very brief flirtation in the early nineties (three seasons) you have always been a level 3 club and more recently even a level 4 club.

See here:

http://www.bristolrovers-mad.co.uk/footydb/loadlghs.asp

That said you are capable of building a Championside side with the infrastructure you have I'm sure but even then I'm not convinced you would be able to sustain it. Undoubtedly a city the size of Bristol should probably have a Premiership side in all honesty but I think the very fact that the city's fanbase is split (i.e City or Rovers) probably weakens it's chances of ever achieving that goal.

[usagullmichigan]

I feel a group hug coming on

[royalgull]

Ha, end of the day football players/managers move on. I have no doubt Bucks is 100% focussed on trying to beat Shrewsbury, he's got a lot of affection for TUFC and has done a great job. If he goes we'll move on, won't be easy to replace him as we won't be able to entice many 'proven' managers, but maybe might open a chance for the dream combo of Leroy and Hargreaves , can't imagine the current board turning to Leroy after 10minutegate though.

[BritishGAS]

You are right Royal Gull.

Rovers are never going to get 40k every week of course not.

But with a succesful side, in a redeveloped Mem playing in top half League one, Crowds I expect would be around the 12-13k mark. Then if promotion to the Championship came maybe 14-15k.

If the dream ever comes true and Rovers did get to the Premier League then I would expect 25k.

You just look at Clubs like Cardiff,Reading Hull, Wigan, Fulham, Blackpool, Swansea, I would say over Rovers history, Rovers have been better than those clubs and I remember playing them all in League one, in the not to distant past and there average crowds were about 4k or lower. All of them have moved into new stadiums or improved the old ones and now get far bigger crowds due to the teams fortunes improving. Rovers are no differnt and have a bigger fan base than all of those clubs.

I am sure Buckle would like to come here with a bigger budget and se what he can do, of course, that is all I said in my original post, but got shot down in flames.

Agreed Irene Goodnight is up there with the best club songs no doubt. IMO its up there with You'll Never Walk Alone. Il probably get accused of being arrogant again now

[happytorq]

Didn't we beat Bristol Rovers at their place last time we played them in the League? Bullet from Morike Sako, booom!

I love how we always see fans (not just rovers fans - it's been Hull, Huddersfield, Oxford, Swindon, Bradford, etc etc in the past ) use attendances as justification for their exhortations of being a 'bigger' club. Because everybody knows that league points get divvied up according to how many people you can get through the turnstiles.

Really, I don't know why we bother with playing the actual games anyway.

[SuperNickyWroe]

SNW did a few pages back...

do you believe everything you read??

i posted it to whip up a bit of enthusiasum!!!

as for the bigger club/smaller club thing, who gives a sh*t??

lets just all

[royalgull]

No it's better than YNWA, in fact I'd go as far as far as to say it's the best one, kudos to that. also kudos for starting that up all those years ago against Argyle, not you personally i'm sure!

What I'd say on your 4th paragraph is they are all the only club in their town/city. Bristol Rovers will always be competing with Bristol City. I think you'll struggle to get those numbers, but 10,000 definitely isn't beyond the realms of possibility if you had a good side. i don't think i've ever been in a Reading league crowd of 4k, not even at Elm Park. Even when they were crap in League 1/Div 2 they had 7-8,000+. in fact on that list probably only Wigan and maybe Blackpool/Swansea had small gates at their old run down grounds. Bloomfield road has had a huge facelift since i last went there in 2000.

With the current state of Bristol Rovers I sense there's a lot of work to be done on and off the field, there may be other opportunites for Bucks (Brentford, Swindon come to mind) but it's one to keep an eye on for sure. Like i said I am convinced he's going somewhere else unless we win promotion. Only chance we've got him staying.

[BritishGAS]

Indeed you did Happytorq.

As did a host of other teams like Cheltenham,Boston, Kidderminster, Darlington, Wrexham....Thanks for bringing back that nightmare.

2001-2006 is the wort side in Rovers history and in 2002 we finished 2nd bottom and would of gone down to the Blue Square. Thank god the 2 down rule came into place the year after.

I thought we had finally banished League 2 out of our repatoire for good, but nope here we are back again.

[royalgull]

i do feel a bit smug about predicting your demise in September Got a pal on the daily email chain whose a Rovers fan and I have taken some delight claiming my £10 from stating you'd go down, sorry about that.

Again not to be too harsh, i don't think clubs like Bristol Rovers, Orient, Wycombe, Yeovil, Swindon, Scunthorpe etc will ever say goodbye to League 2 for good.

[united09]

Didn't we beat Bristol Rovers at their place last time we played them in the League? Bullet from Morike Sako, booom!

I love how we always see fans (not just rovers fans - it's been Hull, Huddersfield, Oxford, Swindon, Bradford, etc etc in the past ) use attendances as justification for their exhortations of being a 'bigger' club. Because everybody knows that league points get divvied up according to how many people you can get through the turnstiles.

Really, I don't know why we bother with playing the actual games anyway.

Also Cambridge, remember seeing all of their faces after are win at Wembley!

[Fonda]

do you believe everything you read??

i posted it to whip up a bit of enthusiasum!!!

as for the bigger club/smaller club thing, who gives a sh*t??

lets just all