Welcome to the Nut House

YOU'RE 3-0 down at home to a team who shouldn't be fit to lace your boots and there is five minutes to go.
Your fans start to stream away from the ground, muttering under their breath about how abysmal you are.
Yet two weeks ago that same group of fans were braying about the good run of form they were on and that an end-of-season celebration was looking extremely likely.
But that's enough about Chelsea...
Meanwhile, 200 miles away in a little corner of the West Country known as the Mem, the 5,000 supporters who paid their £18 to stand on decrepit terraces, watching awful football served up by their team as they slumped to a 3-0 defeat against the might of Leyton Orient, probably stayed to the bitter end.
I don't know, because unfortunately I wasn't there. The Saturday job wouldn't permit it.
Yet I've stood on those same terraces and watched the same sort of turgid dross for more than 90 minutes and can rarely say I haven't stayed to the final whistle. And rarely have I seen the people around me desert their posts either, if only because they wish to stay right to the end to vent their spleen at the players and coach who have so badly let them down.
Just like many other true football fans who support clubs that don't even register on the Premier League poseurs radar.
Welcome to lower league football.
Welcome to true dedication.
Welcome to the nuthouse where we Bristol Rovers fans congregate.

Earlier on Saturday we got another chance for national recognition.
A group of Gasheads took their place on the Sky Sports comedy show Soccer AM.
They certainly made some noise, belting out Goodnight Irene after being introduced.
Unfortunately when it came to kicking a football through a hole they were as inept as . . . well, the team they support I guess you could say.
The only difference, as far as I can see it, is that they managed to score twice, while Rovers only managed one shot on target a few hours later.
A brief description of the afternoon.
Rovers went 1-0 down after 20 minutes and I was pretty miffed.
Seven minutes later it was two, but a little voice inside my head was saying, "It's early enough. We can still turn this around and grab a famous victory."
Shortly afterwards our fullback Carl Regan was sent off for what sounds like a seriously bad challenge.
And all hope died with his dismissal.
Final Score: West Country wobblers 0 Club from a poor East London suburb run by a bloke more famous for managing snooker players 3
Terrible result.
Awful.
And with the next three games against the teams in the top three positions in the League, to my mind we're officially screwed.

So who is at fault?
The board for not investing in the team and blowing millions on a new stadium dream which appears to have been just an halucination?
The players for not being good enough?
Or the manager for not getting the best out of the talent available?
I would have to say it's probably a bit of all three.
So what can we do?
Well, unfortunately, until we find some mad, billionaire sugar daddy we won't be able to oust the board.
The players? Most of them are on good contracts, many of them are now injured or suspended, and the ones we could do with in the current situation have been sent out on loan.
The manager?
Well the argument some people give in support of sticking with Trolls is that
a. We could not afford anyone better and b. Anyone better wouldn't want to manage us.
And both these arguments are, I'm afraid, complete and utter nonsense.
I know this.
I know because as part of my job I have not only covered football teams in a far worse plight than Rovers find themselves in now, but spoken to experienced managers who have made a cast-iron case for why people would be queueing around the block if a vacancy came up.
(And for those who will want names: Peter Reid and Dennis Smith for starters)

The argument goes like this...
FACT ONE: A football career is a very short one. Most players who retire would love to continue in the job they love and, quite honestly, the only job they really know.
They aren't all as intelligent, lucid and camera friendly as Gary Lineker (as we witness on Sky Soccer Saturday every week - Dean Windass, anyone?) so won't walk into a career in the media.
So what do they do? They look to move into football management.

FACT TWO: There are ONLY 92 Football League jobs available as manager. Yes, you can become a number two, or the youth team coach, or the physio or, in rare circumstances, the director of football. But where do all these other ex-pros go to find a job in football?

FACT THREE: Will they care about the money? Unlikely.
What they want to do when they take on a job at, say, Bristol Rovers, or even worse a Lincoln City or Hereford, is make a name for themselves so that EVENTUALLY someone will spot them and offer them more lucrative employment higher up the league.
And most will set their sights on the very top, the Premiership.
Some of the biggest names in football have started from very modest roots.
And at least if you come to Bristol you have a nice city with a potentially big following of supporters.
And the key word here is potential.
Because it doesn't matter WHAT stadium you play in, or which players you have currently on your books. The better you can do in the most trying of circumstances, the more noticeable you will become to the big boys at the top of the tree.

So should Trollope stay or go?
I regret to say, as one who chanted his name from the rooftops after our Play-off triumph of three long years ago, I think his time has come.
He told us to judge the team's capability after 12 or so league games.
We have reached that target and are 15th with a string of tough fixtures to come.
We could be far lower.
We have scrambled a few results, like the 2-2 draw at Hartlepool and, though harsh, the draw with Carlisle. After all, they DID miss an injury time penalty.
We may have had a couple of decent performances, but the bad ones have far outweighed them - Peterborough, Southampton, Oxford, Darlington, Orient. And when we have been bad we've been B A D.
If Trolls does stay on I will continue to back the club, and hope and pray I am wrong about him.
But the one argument I will NEVER entertain is that Paul Trollope should stay as manager because we won't be able to attract anyone better.