‘The perilous reality of a Rovers career’

And the wins just keep on coming. An impressive home win against promotion partners Barnet, and the Gas have moved into the promotion area of the league.

It’s August, the sun is still out and there are thirty odd games to go, but it’s definitely time to get excited for any self-respecting football fan when their team gets off to such a positive start.

As I suggested last week, Rovers are also doing it the right way, with Clarke bringing a positive, on-the-floor footballing approach currently wrapped up in a 3-5-2 formation.

When teams are playing well, I always look at the fringes of the side where you will be able to see the spirit in the club as those not playing can resent those on the pitch but, whilst all clubs can suffer from the odd clique, Rovers seem to have a good spirit going across the squad that is always important when you need to keep winning runs going across the dog days of January and February.

Cue subs joining in the celebrations when Rovers sealed the Barnet win late on being a very positive sign.

Mind you, every football club is a soap opera that offers more human interest stories than the average run of Eastenders. This week’s episode at Cribbs Causeway is called “employee relations” as two players find themselves at opposite ends of the job spectrum.

While there are four or five players currently on trial at Cribbs with no pay looking for the pot of gold of a football career, two current professionals are also looking over their shoulders.

Everyone should know that outside the premier league, football is not a passport to riches and wealth and a lengthy retirement with no need to earn a crust, apart from the odd appearance in a TV studio mouthing cliches.

While it is the premier lifestyle that all kids aspire to, more often than not, if you have the ability you may make it to the lower leagues and a decent wage for a few years followed by a prompt change of career after that thirtieth birthday.

Steve Mildenhall has passed that landmark and has earned a living in the game for two decades, but suddenly finds himself back in the corridor of uncertainty – and I don’t mean behind the fullbacks.

Told he is surplus to requirements, the top shot stopper has to take a close look at his future and even face the mortality of the end of a lengthy football career. To his credit, Mildenhall has stood and fought for his shirt but with DC making it clear he is not his first choice, this is possibly just the first chess move in a final career step as the gloved one looks to eek out as many months as he can from his footballing life.

At the other end of the career path is Billy Bodin, a young and obviously talented striker. In his early twenties, but with already a century of league appearances behind him, an unlucky run of injuries left him without a contract last summer and facing the potential end of a career much shorter than his new keeper colleague.

Forced to tout his wares this summer like Willy Loman going door to door, Bodin arrived at Rovers and impressed enough in pre-season to earn the football famous short-term contract.

The manager was quoted as saying that this meant Bodin had the opportunity to earn a Bristol Rovers career. Here lies the conundrum of a budding footballer, who now needs injuries or poor form from colleagues to get that chance to impress.

So far, he has had the round total of thirty minutes in which to earn that contract with the clock ticking on his current deal. There are others with short term deals and most are on one-year contracts and we can see why our relationships with our heroes on the pitch are usually fleeting as they come and go to earn a living.

A trip to table-toppers Orient is a challenge that may show where the Gas really are in promotion prospects, but the blue army go there in confident spirits.

Rick Johansen is away

Picture from www.bristolrovers.co.uk