Banter down the pub with the Rovers players

A friend of mine had settled down in his local last Saturday afternoon for a few pints and to enjoy Jeff Stelling’s excellent Saturday Whateverit’scalled show on Sky. He had been forced to go to the pub, he explained, somewhat unconvincingly, because the Rovers home game against Wimbledon had been postponed.

His wife, he later explained, cared so little about football, she would not even have noticed the postponement.

Anyway, as the third – or was it fourth? – pint of ‘apple juice’ disappeared, my friend and his mates recognised some people who, in the regular turn of events, they would have been watching perform at the Memorial Stadium, but for the waterlogged pitch.

The players, unlike my friend and his somewhat raucous pals, were not out on the lash, as such, but with the day job on hold for a week and no training until Monday, what was the harm in touring a few hostelries?

The photos have appeared on social networks this week and reveal nothing other than a bunch of overweight, gurning, middle aged men enjoying a beer with some much younger men. The players, I am happy to say, were the much younger men.

“What would Darrell say if he knew you were having a few beers?” asked my friend, who always prefers quite a few beers rather than just a few.

“He treats us like adults. We know we have to represent Bristol Rovers on and off the pitch and we have to respect that trust. Anyway, whose round is it?” replied one of the players, except that he didn’t say the last bit.

I asked if there was any decent gossip: there was none. It was all very friendly, lots of banter but nothing remotely controversial. A bit like a Bristol Post article about the Rovers really.

He did say that the players were really looking forward to this week’s game at Portsmouth and so they should. Although this is a club which has been in decline in recent years, it is now rising from the ashes, owned by the fans.

Pompey have not done well in recent weeks, tumbling from an automatic promotion position to just outside the play offs. With the games beginning to run out, time is also beginning to run out. They really need a win.

Regarding the Rovers, the pressure is on Darrell Clarke like it has never been since he started to clear up John Ward’s mess. They went up when no one was watching, they have moved into a play off position on the blind side but now they have a real battle to stay in the top seven.

It’s going to get a little messy and awkward now because there are a lot of teams chasing not that many places. The players know this better than anyone else and with any luck they can do a job on Portsmouth, after which we’re gonna believe it because the Gas are going up! And we’ll all have a drink then!