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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2015 22:22:47 GMT
NEW OWNERSHIP SPECIAL
I'm sure Thea would have had to cope with the begging letters that landed on the doormat in the aftermath of that handsome lottery win. Similar no doubt to my in-box over the last 24 hours which has been flooded with begging posts from TFF members claiming they can't sleep, are taking the wrong pills, have come out in a rash etc, all due to the nerve jangling speculation regarding the club's future ownership. 'I'll be a nervous wreck by Wednesday, if only we could be whisked away to the Land of Legends just to take our minds off the perils of Plainmoor for a short while' is typical of the tone of most of them.
Like the reliable old troopers that we came to love and respect, Nico and Manse have heard the call and responded to the request. There's been a lot of comment regarding the poor standard of The Conference this season. Speaking on Radio Devon before Saturday's game, Dave Thomas recalled that when he was up in Bristol for our New Years Day game against Rovers, the well known journalist from that area, and Sunday Janner columnist, Richard Latham, asked him if he could recall seeing a good team in our division so far this season ? Latham maintaining that there wasn't one; not even Cap'n Manse's Pirates.
If the majority seem to be of one mind that it's not a high standard Conference this year, and with not one outstanding team, then it's a conclusion I'm willing to accept, although as far as the home games are concerned at any rate, I've found them far more entertaining than last season. Do I credit Chris Hargreaves for that, or the players, or is there a general preference for a more open style of play in this division? Or is a 'more open style of play' actually a reflection on many teams not being able to organise themselves well enough to stifle their opponents offensive play and keep clean sheets ? Then again I wondered whether it was down to something as simple as having a much improved pitch for the majority of this season so far, meaning that some decent football could actually be played rather than ball and player sinking into a boggy or rutted surface such as the one that characterised Plainmoor for so much of 2013/14.
That's why I feel particularly sorry for Nico who has had no escape from an abysmal pitch. For one half of every match he'd be on the Bristow's Bench side trying to play in the worst section of the entire pitch in front of the grandstand, and now, probably thanks to Kidderminster's decision to let Worcester City share their ground, Aggborough has been churned up into a nightmare surface this season. It's 4 consecutive home defeats for Harriers, and, thanks to that pitch, the football isn't very good either. 'Let's see some nice neat passing' is the call from the Kiddie fans, but all Kev could tell them after Saturday's game was:
"I feel a bit for the fans because you’re trying to give them something to cheer but you’re having to do ugly stuff all the time.
You hear fans shout things at you like ‘get the ball on the floor’ but I would challenge any team to play nice-looking football on that pitch".
Despite this recent atrocious run of home results, Nico's Harriers still lie just one point outside of the play-off zone. How can they close the gap and make one of those all important places theirs? Kev thinks he may have the answer: Do it the Torquay way !
“I got to the play-offs with Torquay one year and we were that team where everyone who played us wondered how we beat them, because we were just ugly.
We played some nice football now and then but, for the most part, we were probably digging in for 75% of the game.
But when we had our time, we scored.
We’ve maybe got to become a bit like that - perhaps play at home like we would away from home and let teams have the ball a bit more".
link - Kev's Recollections
Ah, is it that old familiar refrain 'What news of the Cap'n?' that I hear? Can it really be true that so many fans are turning up to watch him that some are having to be locked outside of stadiums? Well various claims regarding the number of Rovers fans locked out on Saturday range from 200 to 300. Yes, with the Kingfield Stadium in Woking only a little over half full, the authorities swung into action to shut up to 300 prospective customers out and prevent them from seeing the match even though they'd travelled all the way from Bristol. 'Our proudest moment yet ! , is the as yet unconfirmed boast from the Woking Safety Advisory Group.
On Saturday evening, in the immediate aftermath of the fiasco, Woking had been quick to point the finger of blame at Rovers, stating that the Bristol club had refused a request to make the game all ticket. Rovers were quick to fire back branding Woking money grabbing lying bastards...or words to that effect. Rovers Director Brian Seymour-Smith had contacted his Chairman Nick Higgs:
After speaking with Mr Higgs on Sunday morning, Mr Seymour-Smith continued: “Nick makes it absolutely clear that Woking were advised by BRFC that we were expecting in excess of 1,500 supporters to attend the game.
It was Woking's decision therefore not to make the game all ticket and to charge on the gate. Clearly, they felt they had sufficient room in a stadium, catering for over 6,000 to do this.
“They no doubt appreciated that the Rovers allocation would have been greatly restricted, possibly to 600 on an all ticket game, and this would have had an effect on matchday revenue. They must also have been aware from our other away games that Rovers away support is constantly in excess of 1,200 and this attendance yesterday was not uncommon.”
link - Lock Out For Manse
By late afternoon today (Monday) Woking had been forced into issuing an apology. Although it's clear that the heavy hand of the SAG would have been resting on the Safety Officer's shoulder, who in tandem with the police conspired to create a shambles that resulted in hundreds of fans being locked out of a half empty stadium:
"Last November, when planning the fixture, there was a misunderstanding between Woking and Bristol Rovers and, consequently, the club decided to plan ahead for this fixture, working closely together with the police and the club’s safety officer.
"The club wish to make it clear that Bristol Rovers did not refuse its request to sell tickets.
"The advice and intelligence reports were to expect approximately 1,600 to 1,700 Bristol Rovers fans to attend the game and the club’s planning was based on these figures.
"Due to the configuration of Kingfield Stadium, the maximum number of away fans the club can accommodate is 1,900, which is written into the club’s safety certificate.
"When the number of away fans reached 1,869, the club’s safety officer and police took the decision that the gates were to be closed due to a concern about crowd safety on the away fans' terrace.
link - ONE NIL TO THE SAG!, ONE NIL TO THE SAG!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2015 10:02:07 GMT
Good grief, I knew there was something missing from our lives. "Legend Watch". That's it! How have we coped with 2015 without it?
Richard Latham. Now there's an "old school" journo who has graced the Bristol media - as much cricket as football - since Ian Botham was a lad. How much that qualifies him to be a judge of this season's Conference, against its usual standard, I wouldn't know. And it's a funny one anyway. Have a couple of teams steaming away at the top; it's a good league. Have the proverbial "everybody's taking points off each other"; it's a bad league. I've never quite understood such reasoning myself.
Long-serving journalists. That's a discussion in itself. Strange how they are often fresh, incisive and forward-looking when they are young. Repetitive, backward-looking and misty-eyed when they're older. I know. I've been reading a few of them for decades. I might even be getting like that myself.
But Alpine Joe - no spring chicken I'm led to believe - retains his marvellous joie de vivre through these columns. He's even holding out signs of hope for improvement at Plainmoor by commenting on what he considers to be a better playing surface. Steady on, old friend, you could be excommunicated for such sentiments.
And I love the Thoughts of Cap'n Mansell as brought to us by AJ from time to time. They should be bound up as a Little Red Book. Or at least a Little Yellow and Blue Book. Or a Little Blue and White Book. I'm always encouraged by the way the Cap'n, in many of his public utterances, takes the positive approach to history. The relegations have been airbrushed out of the narrative. Quite right too. Nothing wrong with a spot of revisionism. It is on such cornerstones that great legends are constructed.
We should also be grateful to AJ for sharing news of Bristol Rovers' visit to Woking on Saturday. I was on Salisbury station at 9.45 that evening when a group of men, slightly inebriated, appeared from nowhere and started to loudly perform the "hokey cokey". I had them marked down as villagers from the Plain in town for the night. Until, that is, they launched into a chorus of "We're Bristol Rovers, we do what we want!".
I was pleased they weren't taking the "calling at all stations" train to Exeter Central.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2015 17:27:07 GMT
Will Alpine Joe soon be focusing his "legends" spotlight on AFC St Austell? Going great guns in the Peninsula League - and with an application to join the Western League - St Austell won at Greenwich Borough in the FA Vase on Saturday. Their next opponents are Stanway Rovers, from near Colchester, who are managed by Angelo Harrop (son of Geoff). It's at home; perhaps there will be an idiosyncratic report from AJ.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Jan 22, 2015 0:26:03 GMT
focusing his "legends" spotlight on AFC St Austell? Going great guns in the Peninsula League - and with an application to join the Western League I hadn't realised St Austell were going for the Western League. Good luck to them. They were Torquay Town's very first opponents at Plainmoor back in 1910. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 19:42:35 GMT
We all know that Nico is a proud possessor of the highest award handed out during the Seale Hayne campaign. While some preferred to stay behind the relative safety of the barricades, Kev was a chief combatant in the fight to free TUFC from the scourge of Knillism. About a year ago when great Cap'n Manse was able to announce that Knill had been issued with his 'marching orders', Kev's contribution to that victory couldn't be overlooked.
On Tuesday night super fit Kev, again playing the full 90 minutes, helped his side win at Aldershot. And once you've got a taste for it, 'marching orders' were issued to Andy Scott (the Shots boss) the very next morning. Current league positions would give us an all Legends play-off semi final, although the Cap'n must be hopeful of hauling in Barnet before the end of the season so that Rovers can occupy that automatic promotion place.
With a number of Conference grounds being unsegregated anyway, you do increasingly wonder why fans need be denied entry to a half empty stadium. If they've spent a lot of time and money travelling you have a much more contented bunch if they're allowed to watch the football match that they've turned up to see. Raising tempers by keeping them out when there are 3000 empty seats/standing places inside only unleashes an angry group onto the streets or other premises which are less well policed or stewarded than within the football stadium.
Around 100 Bristol Rovers supporters - who had travelled to Surrey for the Cards game - were unable to enter Kingfield Stadium for the 3pm match due to the capacity in the away section being reached, with some of the frustrated fans then going into neighbouring Woking Snooker Club.
Bob Mason, the proprietor of the club, said: "Their fans were in here before the match and then they left at about 2.45pm.
"Then quite a few came back in here. They weren't happy that they couldn't get in - they had come all the way from Bristol, and one thing led to another.
"They chucked some cartons of milk about, one glass was thrown.
"One of our staff called the police before it got too bad".
Let's hope the S.A.G have the good grace to reimburse Mr.Mason for the costs of repairing any damage caused.
Well done to St.Austell. Their next F.A Vase match is scheduled for 7th February and tempting as it is to attend, I'll have to see whether this clashes with a New Direction Torquay United home game.
link - Further repercussions of SAG stupidity
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 17:03:30 GMT
Oh dear, a dreadful thought. With the possible sale of the club has the return of Manse and Nico - the Management Dream Team - slipped further down the agenda?
AJ must be worried.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2015 22:32:48 GMT
Brought to you in association with 
TUFC FUTURE MANAGEMENT SPECIAL
NICO @ THE NIGHTINGALE ? (A flight of fancy, or has it got wings ?)
Barton Downs
Our minds have been on wild flowers, and probably even more importantly, the nightingales themselves; how are they going to react to noisy construction work ? To think that Barton took a comprehensive set of photo's detailing Plainmoor so soon before it gets demolished, and has followed that up with a great set of pics of our new home, even before the bulldozers have arrived on site. The Nightingale Park pics have helped me pinpoint the location, and it's a post that will grow in historical significance should that actually become TUFC's new home.
It is possible that the best chance of seeing this managerial dream team has passed us by. Once Alan Knill was given his 'marching orders' there wasn't a lot of the season left in which to turn us around and keep us up, and in addition there wasn't a lot of money to spend on doing so. Upgrading Nico and Manse to Manager and Player Coach was clearly the cheapest option at the time, yet in my view it was far from the worst. Nico as the brains of the Operation will surely prove to be splendid manager at some club in the future, and Manse held in high esteem by his fellow players, would have slipped into the role of fist pumping motivational player coach. With time already running short, the big advantage was that they wouldn't have required a bedding in period while a new manager got to grips with how the club itself functions on a day to day basis, and in addition Nico & Manse had a detailed understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing playing staff. Bump their wages up a touch to reflect their new status but it still leaves you quids in, and with more money left over to bring in players to strengthen the team than if you're adding a whole new salary.
Nico would benefit from the anti-Knill feeling that engulfed Plainmoor at the time, as many saw him as a key figure in the departure of the ginger one. Manse, although not at the height of his popularity with the Popside, would have had the players firmly behind him (as he has at Rovers now) and the difference this would have made to team morale compared to the dressing room under AK would have benefitted us from the off.
I was only brave enough to float the idea of The Nico/Manse dream managerial team on the Kiddies site at the time where (maybe thankfully) it met with little or no response.
But the specific point is more forward looking, and a consideration as to whether new ownership of the club would make it less likely to see us guided by a Legends Managerial partnership. If you've got a bunch of outsiders coming in, particularly if it were a group who we mistrust most of all - Londoners !, then you need a more familiar trustworthy figure to put in front of the locals in order to get them 'onside'. Just think of Mike Ashley at Newcastle presenting the fans with Dennis Wise and Alan Pardew, and the different reaction there would have been if only Peter Beardsley was a credible managerial appointment. The alienated Orient fans where the Chairman and Manager, and 95% of the backroom staff speak to each other in Italian; you need the Reverend Alan Comfort as your front man. When the Yanks tell us we have to help invading Iraq, Libya, Syria Afghanistan or wherever, it wouldn't go down well if Obama delivers the news to the British public directly, it needs to come from a British mouthpiece assuring us that it'll be good for us. And so a group of businessmen, remote and attending to their business interests in the capital, or in Florida, need to put a familiar, trusted and even more ideally, legendary face, in front us, to give the natives someone to identify with, and who will tell us 'Trust me I'm a Gull' and endorse the new regime.
This surely initially bodes well for the current Manager? If Thea has departed the scene, and they immediately cull Chris, then we really would be dealing with an interesting new regime.
With Nico and Manse's playing careers winding down over the next few seasons, it will also depend to a large extent on what standard of football there is at Nightingale Park. Would a managerial duo with the enormous potential of Lee & Kev even be willing to start off at Non League level ? They could go straight in at League 1 level at a very minimum surely ? Nico is the man I'd mark out as having the greater managerial potential than Manse, who I'd see as probably more suited to coaching.
As ever, we'll just have to wait and see. Although it would be rather nice to start an 'A Legend Returns' thread for either or both of them 
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2015 0:48:15 GMT
I'm not sure how tongue-in-cheek Joe is being in the post above but I might actually embrace the partnership of Kev and Manse at some point in the future. Although I have said I would like CH to continue into next season before his position is reviewed, if the decision is to remove him, then replacing him with the dynamic duo might just work. Of course, if CH has established himself as a competent manager, having finally built his own squad, then any talk of 'legends returning' will remain just that, which I hope proves to be the case. By the way, Joe, I'm sure you know, but I wasn't sure about in your post, that Mike Ashley is also a southerner (Burnham, Bucks, I believe, and rumoured to be a Spurs fan) which is probably why Jokin' 'ere, Dennis Wise (before the recent edition of a syrup - link) and Alan Pardew, were the favoured sons of the owner. |
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Post by stefano on Jan 31, 2015 1:22:09 GMT
I'm not sure how tongue-in-cheek Joe is being in the post above but I might give Manse and Nico a go Hell Florida that sure trumps any 'tongue in cheek' that may have been intended! Happy clappy American style let's pass the doughnuts around. I can see what you mean though. Bloke with long hair played well for us and then stated from the comfort of the tv studio that our manager wasn't up to it and that he wanted the job. Yes that worked. Now two blokes who had one good season in five are in contention. Yes I know Jon will fire in and say I should get a time machine and go back to 1965. Well I don't want to be 13 again. I just want a club I can say I am proud to follow! It's bad enough at the moment, but Manse and Nico would finish it. Wouldn't mind Alpine Joe as manager mind, I reckon he could jump over the heads of all of them. Good chap for a Celt!  |
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Post by stefano on Jan 31, 2015 1:34:17 GMT
“Getting relegated last season will stay with me for the rest of my days, and I will be truly gutted until Torquay get back into the League again,”
“Apart from the two games between Torquay and Rovers next season, I will be cheering the Gulls on every week.
“The perfect season for me will be Bristol Rovers and Torquay United to go up.” - Cap'n Manse
I assume in saying that from his heart he had forgotten the previous two times he got relegated out of the Football League? Yes, I know, I'm turning into a troll. Quaint expression that I had never heard of until I looked at a football forum. This one in fact. I always thought they were quaint little ugly male dolls that you bought when on holiday in the Alps. Anyway I'm not. I think it refers to nasty people who wish ill will against the object of the forum. I would love to see an upturn and the nearer we can get to playing by Marks & Spencer the better it will be for all of us! |
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hector
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Post by hector on Jan 31, 2015 21:43:27 GMT
“Getting relegated last season will stay with me for the rest of my days, and I will be truly gutted until Torquay get back into the League again,”
“Apart from the two games between Torquay and Rovers next season, I will be cheering the Gulls on every week.
“The perfect season for me will be Bristol Rovers and Torquay United to go up.” - Cap'n Manse
I assume in saying that from his heart he had forgotten the previous two times he got relegated out of the Football League? Yes, I know, I'm turning into a troll. Quaint expression that I had never heard of until I looked at a football forum. This one in fact. I always thought they were quaint little ugly male dolls that you bought when on holiday in the Alps. Anyway I'm not. I think it refers to nasty people who wish ill will against the object of the forum. I would love to see an upturn and the nearer we can get to playing by Marks & Spencer the better it will be for all of us! The m&S factor may well be a hitherto overlooked benefit. Husbands benevolently offering to take their wives shopping at The Willows on the afternoons TUFC are at home, and whilst their good ladies are perusing the handbags, the husband can say 'I'm, err, just popping up to Next,' and come back a couple of hours later, keeping his excursion to Nightingale Park a secret by explaining his lack of new trousers away because of the fact that Next only do 'skinny leg' and that the sort of Top Shop/Burton hybrid store next to Boots or wherever are even worse. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2015 3:49:46 GMT
Anyone whose wife only needs 2 hours for handbag shopping is a lucky man indeed!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2015 14:42:34 GMT
I hope Alpine Joe still has time to nip down to his local shop to peruse page 3 of today's Non League Paper. Then he'll see the banner headline "Hypnotherapy left me feeling 18 again: Nicholson gets new lease of life".
Here Kevin talks about signing up for "award-winning gym" Winners 2000 (have they written this?) and - within just two months - losing a third of his body fat.
He also talks of his regular hypnotherapy sessions with Chris Fleet.
I won't spoil it for AJ by going into too much detail save for Kevin saying "I'm now, at 34, fitter than I was at 18."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2015 19:56:40 GMT
JE SUIS CAP'N
MANSE IS A MUDDY MARVEL
Jealously guarding TFF's reputation as a bastion of free speech (except where attempts at portraying good Devon folk in a poor light are concerned) we let Cap'n Manse and Nico's magnificent careers speak for themselves. Even in a thread aimed at the further glorification of two of TUFC's greatest legends, a little mild criticism can just about be tolerated, be it from a troll or anyone else
Stefano
Well I do, or to be more accurate I fully intended giving it a try for 90 minutes next weekend, by paying a nostalgic visit to Poltair to watch the Lillywhites take on Stanway Rovers in that crunch last 16 F.A Vase tie. A venue where I haven't watched a game since I was, well about 13 I'd guess. In fact any other Trophy tie for The Gulls other than F.C United of Manchester at Plainmoor, and I would have set sail for Cornwall next Saturday instead.
And Barton informs us that Nico has taken the necessary steps to revert to being a sprightly 18 year old again. So now it's not just Jake Hutchings that we released 15 years too early. Hopefully a bit of noise and colour will rejuvenate us all next Saturday, time machine or not.
So how did the legends do this weekend ? Well there was no game for the teenaged Nico, as Harriers game was a victim of the weather. Cap'n Manse's Rovers travelled to Dartford but could only come away with a single point as it finished 2-2. Plenty of criticism of the muddy pitch at Dartford, but the truly great players have always found a way to make light of the conditions and let their talent shine through; it'll be no surprise to see who the Bristol Post declared to be the STAR MAN on the Rovers side: Lee Mansell – 7 – STAR MAN – Made light of the boggy nature of the pitch and kept things ticking over for Rovers throughout the duration of the game.
link - Cap'n Manse Is Star Of The Show
Mud bath: Dartford 2 Bristol Rovers 2
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Feb 1, 2015 20:20:14 GMT
.... et je m'appelle Judas. A sticky pitch can often assist where a player is wont to overhit passes and have the type of first touch that ends in the second touch being a tackle. Probably irrelevant, though. I'm sure the treacherous one wallowed well.
'Friendly gas' on t'other site has heard a rumour Rovers are after Luke Young. Can't be true. They've got that base covered, haven't they?
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