Joke police

[Fonda]

Did anyone honestly expect any different? The club made all the right noises about ejecting away fans from home ends, but surely nobody expected that to happen? It's much easier to deal with mildly disgruntled home fans, than groups of punchy away fans. The football club is a business, and unfortunately if we don't have enough fans of our own willing to pay the entrance fee, we'll take the money off those that do. It's money in the till at the end of the day. Rovers fans acting like absolute twats was an unfortunate side-effect. Credit to our own supporters for behaving with restraint in the face of provocation.

[Lloyder5]

The thing that got them to shut the f*ck up was the third goal, shame we gifted them their equalizer. Still 20 minutes of peace and quiet.

[DevonYellow]

Did anyone honestly expect any different? The club made all the right noises about ejecting away fans from home ends, but surely nobody expected that to happen? It's much easier to deal with mildly disgruntled home fans, than groups of punchy away fans. The football club is a business, and unfortunately if we don't have enough fans of our own willing to pay the entrance fee, we'll take the money off those that do. It's money in the till at the end of the day. Rovers fans acting like absolute t**t was an unfortunate side-effect. Credit to our own supporters for behaving with restraint in the face of provocation.

Fair point but why should we put up with it?

If the police are to be believed they weren't happy.

Other clubs wouldn't put up with it - as correctly pointed out above.

We paid an extra £2 for what? Absolute shambles.

[stevegull]

British gas was just having a laugh!

I'm sure he's just as aware as the rest of us that each football club will have a group of fans that can spoil it for the others. It's a shame some Rovers fans appear to have 'baited' the home faithful but you just have to tolerate this stuff. Well done to the Torq fans that refused to rise to it. And well done also to the many Rovers fans that just sat in their seat and watched the game.

[Rach]

I must admit, it was hard to restrain myself at times!

[Dave]

So what happened down on the corner of the popside, heard some saying there was little dust up down there, is this true ? saw Rovers fans in the bench, did not realise they were even on the pop.

[brucie]

I couldn't get a ticket for Bristows Bench so despite making the six hundred mile trip to Morecambe last week I didn't go today.
Cannot really understand the mentality of the Bristol Rovers fans seeing there was absolutely nothing on the game.
Any away fans making themselves known in the home stand should have been removed - its as clear and as simple as that.
Yet again the club has let the supporters down.

[Scott Brehaut]

So what happened down on the corner of the popside, heard some saying there was little dust up down there, is this true ? saw Rovers fans in the bench, did not realise they were even on the pop.

Yes, looking at some status' on Facebook. It would appear there was a bit of a scuffle

[ferrarilover]

I suspect I can work out (such as it takes working out, you needn't be Sherlock Holmes) why the Rovers fans weren't ejected and it really isn't down to the club.

Matt.

[MidDevon]

We got to our usual seats in block G early today and all the rovers fans in our section might have worn rovers shirts they were that easy to spot, it was almost like a school uniform.

I will almost certainly get accused of sterotyping here, but you had to be there so see how identical they all were

All in their 30's or 40's but trying to look much younger in "one direction" trousers and baseball caps. All with short hair, all just slightly overweight from too much cider, which was a nice addition to the spring air! What was most funny to watch was that they all pretended to look hard by the way they strolled around, but no-one seeme to care much.

Our little group were talking about how we reckon each of them probably has a "dog on a rope" at home, probably still lives with mummy, and clearly from Bristol's poorer areas, which is indead saying something. They are probably all on the booze in the bay now, trying to pick up girls when the only thing they are likely to pull is each other !

We were only a few seats away from the main block of segregated rovers fans and as we looked across it was a massive difference, families sat together, older people, younger people and generally fans with a bit of class.

....I suppose what I am saying, if the rovers fans in the home areas never had any intention of getting tickets in the away end at all, just thought it would be a bit more fun to wind up the home fans and act a bit hard.

....As they purchase another martini for some bimbo, who is never going to go back to a seedy Torbay hotel tonight I would just advise eveyone to let it go, let them have their teenage kicks as by Monday they will be back watching "Killroy" at 1pm in the afternoon, pitbull at their feet...and that sadly for them is how they get their kicks.

[Duncan]

We got to our usual seats in block G early today and all the rovers fans in our section might have worn rovers shirts they were that easy to spot, it was almost like a school uniform.

I will almost certainly get accused of sterotyping here, but you had to be there so see how identical they all were

All in their 30's or 40's but trying to look much younger in "one direction" trousers and baseball caps. All with short hair, all just slightly overweight from too much cider, which was a nice addition to the spring air! What was most funny to watch was that they all pretended to look hard by the way they strolled around, but no-one seeme to care much.

Our little group were talking about how we reckon each of them probably has a "dog on a rope" at home, probably still lives with mummy, and clearly from Bristol's poorer areas, which is indead saying something. They are probably all on the booze in the bay now, trying to pick up girls when the only thing they are likely to pull is each other !

We were only a few seats away from the main block of segregated rovers fans and as we looked across it was a massive difference, families sat together, older people, younger people and generally fans with a bit of class.

....I suppose what I am saying, if the rovers fans in the home areas never had any intention of getting tickets in the away end at all, just thought it would be a bit more fun to wind up the home fans and act a bit hard.

....As they purchase another martini for some bimbo, who is never going to go back to a seedy Torbay hotel tonight I would just advise eveyone to let it go, let them have their teenage kicks as by Monday they will be back watching "Killroy" at 1pm in the afternoon, pitbull at their feet...and that sadly for them is how they get their kicks.

Being a gulls fan I've been grumpy for weeks, but that has made me laugh again Mid Devon.

[Gazzableedsgull]

So I travelled from Leeds with my mrs on Friday, the journey down consisted of her being asleep, me reading football forums and when she awoke, boring her with talk of football league survival .. She said to me this morning "it's not gonna be like York away is it? You know? Cold, wet and boring?" .. I said definitely not! You'll love it babe! .. Fast forward to 14:45 we take our positions in popside by the away end (or so we thought). Soon it became quite apparent that us gulls fans were not alone .. This is where it got interesting .. No matter how many times we told the police or stewards that the rovers fans were in the pop, try just wouldn't listen .. Cue one nil rovers .. Chaos prevails, my girlfriend (popside virgin) gets crushed while I force back some rovers fans as they charge forward .. I'm no David Haye but when anger fills you with that adrenaline I found the strength to keep her safe .. So on to one all .. Same again pretty much apart from more stewards segregating us .. After 5-10 minutes of harmless banter .. Stewards remove a united fan for what all I could see was a couple if hand gestures .. Basically he was an easy target .. Never mind the rovers fans showing obscene gestures (as well as most Torquay fans at this end) but they singled out a bloke who travels home and away and was ejected during the quietest part of the afternoon .. Absolutely ridiculous ..I was physically shaking with anger at this point .. Behind every man is a good woman supposebly and that showed today with my lass because if she wasn't there ( those that know me will confirm) then I wouldn't have lasted much longer in the ground. I'm no hooligan but can't stand not voicing my opinion at clear injustice.

[PlainmoorRoar]

the rovers fans in the Bench were n*bs no doubt it, they all should have been kicked out!

Thought the police marshaled the area between the pop and the away end

Also Torquay fans deliberately moved from the middle to that end to try and cause trouble, saw one guy telling them p*ss off

[friendlygas]

Do you not feel that you are going way over the top on this? How many disorderly fans were actually in your ground today? How many disorderly fans did you have in the ground today. For the sake of the fan who said on this thread that he told me not to go in the Home side. I do not understand this.I was in the AWAY end and was always going to be in the away end but if our fans had not been there today you would have had a gate in the region of 4000. How much money has your club made from over 2000 of our fans? Will this not help you to sign new players or Loan players.
There is no way that our fans deserve the drivel some of you are spouting on here. We created the atmosphere today at your ground and it was a fantastic match. Do you honestly expect our fans whatever part of the ground they were end to sit in silence for 90 minutes? How much trouble was there actually in the ground or around the ground?
To spout on about our "Big Club" attitude couldn't be further from the truth although surely you have to agree that compared to yourselves we are a big club. We sold out our allocation in just two days and even many of our season ticket holders could not get tickets in the away allocation. Remember many of our fans had booked accommodation for a good weekend out and do you really think that many of our fans didn't miss out? Many fans will not attend if they cant get tickets in the Away end. I am sure that had there been 4000 tickets available for this game they would have been sold.
We have had plenty of games in our stadium where away fans have been in our part of the ground.
The worst thing is that many on this thread are tarring our fans with the same brush. Most of our fans at the match today did not want your team to go down, the majority were well behaved and totally outsung your supporters and left the stadium in an orderly fashion. Yes there was banter, why not?
Perhaps if you turned up in bigger numbers then your Board would not want so many away supporters in the ground and then you would be a "bigger" club. IMO you are a nice friendly club with a high percentage of well behaved fans but in proportion to numbers you probably have your trouble makers so please don't tar us all with this brush as if you are holier than holy.

[Gullscorer]

I completely agree with Friendlygas here.

Every club has a small minority of hooligan knobhead fanatics who call themselves supporters, nasty pieces of work with short fuses who try to wind up opposing fans with chants and obscene gestures and who are spoiling for a bit of trouble. Bristol Rovers have a few and Torquay United certainly has them too.

The vast majority of supporters of most clubs are sensible friendly people who enjoy a chat and friendly banter and who want to watch the game together in peace. So what's wrong with fans of both sides intermingling around the ground and watching the game together whilst supporting their respective teams? I experienced this as a child watching games with my Dad side by side with opposing supporters with no trouble at all. If anyone did behave stupidly, they were soon put to shame by those around them.

Happy days..!!