‘All City fans should wish the best for Rovers’

I often liken supporting a football team to following a religion. We, the congregation, gather regularly in our place of worship (in my case, Ashton Gate) to actively participate with our fellow believers supporting an outcome we all find vital to our very existence.

We, as football fans, however, don’t always find ourselves singing from the same proverbial hymn sheet. Be it who should start from week-to-week, what formation we should play, how long a manger should remain in a job or even what beer we should serve in the ground, it is rare for a support base to see eye-to-eye on all issues.

But over the next few paragraphs I intend to dip my toe in an even more a muddier water than usual by suggesting that Bristol City fans should want their cross-city rivals, Bristol Rovers, to not only do well, but to get promoted to the Championship.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s where the Bristol derby was a regular feature of our annual season. The first game you look at upon fixture release day, the only game that everyone knew would be a sell-out both home and away. The game that your football supporting but non Bristol City supporting mates would ask you for tickets for.

I still recall the build up to those matches, the daily jibing between myself and the other City supporting classmates versus the Rovers fans in our school. An eight-page special in the Evening Post the day before the game and the endless coverage of the match after the final whistle, often filling both front and back pages. As a teenager, I devoured every inch written about each encounter regardless of the result.

As you may have guessed from my opening remarks, I bitterly miss these games, and, I really, really want them back. When this theme has been floated by well-known City fan The Exiled Robin on Twitter, they have – not surprisingly – ignited much debate.

I accept the assertion that these games caused the average City (and no doubt Rovers) fan a considerable amount of anxiety, fear and stress. But for me, the good certainly outweighed the bad.

This position leaves myself and other City supporters who long for our club’s proper derby to return, in a somewhat awkward position, and, reluctantly, I do indeed find myself wanting Rovers to do well and to achieve promotion to the Championship.

City have been above the Gas for a remarkable 22 years. This means a generation of Bristol supporting football fans have not had the joy, terror and thrill of witnessing a league contest between the two sides that have dominated my favourite city’s footballing landscape for more than 100 years.

To those fans who have not had such an experience, picture this: Bristol City have been drawn to play their home league game against their bitter on the weekend before Christmas, and because money talks that game gets moved to the Friday night and put on Sky.

This happens to coincide with the last working day for most before the festive break, meaning many of those that will attend the game finish work early and begin to fill the pubs around south Bristol from lunchtime. Festive carols fill the air as the pre-match tension begins to build.

This is not a hazy dream scenario of mine that I have wistfully created to allure those skeptical supporters to my side of the argument, but my recollection of the game between City and Rovers on Friday, December 22 2000.

In the match itself, City conceded to a Marcus Bignot goal after just 28 seconds but rallied to win 3-2 with goals from Millen, Beadle and Thorpe. After the game itself I still remember with crystal clarity the evening that followed. A club night at the much-loved and much-missed Creation on Baldwin Street (Drive By for those of you that recall) was followed by a 6am finish at the Black Swan in Easton.

Now, some of you may be speculating as to if I am just reliving the best hits of my well spent youth? Almost certainly, yes. But that doesn’t take away from what was a fantastic night this was and serves as a prime example of the type of occasion we City fans, and I am sure Rovers fans as well, have sadly missed over the two decades plus that we have been plying our footballing trade in different divisions.

I appreciate that the mechanics of us being in the same league again are somewhat painful for City fans to witness. Either, we’d have to suffer what would be an incredibly painful relegation given the club’s comparative success in recent years.

Or, we’d have to put up with what would no doubt be another insufferable promotion emulating the bizarre scenes of last season’s final day drama that saw Rovers score an improbable seven goals to see them promoted to League One.

I understand how unpalatable either of these scenarios are, but for the greater good, it is something we must go through.

I don’t wish to take away from the fun we have against Cardiff, Swansea, Swindon and one or two others. But I can honestly say, with hand on heart, none of these games have ever come close to emulating the consistent match day experience that a Bristol derby use to offer. Think City versus Manchester United or Manchester City in our impressive Carabao Cup run of 2017/18, but with an added edge.

So, to any Bristol City fan reading this, in my best Braveheart Mel Gibson inspired plea to arms: join me in wishing the best for our rivals.

Not because we want to see them do well, but to provide us with the opportunity of beating them on a regular basis. To give the city that I am sure we all adore the footballing spectacle it deserves, to recreate nights like the one I have discussed. To create more memories for us to cherish for future years. And, most importantly, to get one over my many friends who still, to their credit considering how bad it must have been over the last 22 years, follow the second-best team in Bristol.

Dave Skinner is Bristol24/7’s former Bristol City blogger. This article originally appeared in the One Stream in Bristol fanzine

Main photo: JMP

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