Once upon a time in the west

THERE is a big game on tonight.
Huge.
You wouldn't know it.
Most of the newspapers and radio stations seem to be blabbing on about the little matter of Chelsea v Manchester United at Stamford Bridge.
Billionaire's plaything in London versus worldwide brand in the North West.
I couldn't really give a stuff.
Because 200 miles or so to the west my beloved Gas will be playing Colchester United in a crunch match in our relegation fight.
Win it, and we could actually lift ourselves out of the bottom four for the first time since Paul Trollope departed as manager.
Lose it, and we are going to be staring head long into the abyss that is League Two.
As a bloke whose glass is always half empty, I am quietly confident.
From the evidence of our last two games - a 1-0 home win over Oldham and a controversial 1-0 reverse at Brentford (controversial because the winning goal was a debatable penalty) - the players seem to have developed some spirit and backbone.
Of course, we aren't talking about the same players who began the season.
In fact, possibly only four - but at a push five - of the players that Trolls selected for the away match with Peterborough on August 7, 2010, will make the starting line up tonight.
That team - for those who care - was: Andersen, Anthony, Coles, Tunnicliffe, Sawyer, Brown, Campbell, Blizzard, Hoskins, Kuffour, Hughes.
Many of us Gasheads had high hopes for their chances of doing well this season - but others were concerned about the lack of experience in the ranks. And even more so on the bench.
Yes, there was Chris Lines and Carl Regan - two first team regulars the previous season - plus the out-of-favour striker Darryl Duffy.
But the others were Mike Green (reserve goalkeeper without a first team game of any note), Eliot Richards (young striker), Charlie Reece and Ben Swallow (elevated from the youth team having shared a handful of first team appearances between them the previous season or so).
I imagine Danny Coles, Gary Sawyer, Will Hoskins and Jeff Hughes may start tonight (and Byron Anthony if he has recovered from injury) but what of the others?
Our dependable loanee goalkeeper Mikkel Andersen was recalled by Reading in January.
James Tunnicliffe, our season-long loan signing from Brighton, has not been good enough to get into a team with even our poor defensive record.
Skipper Stuart Campbell is injured.
Wayne Brown, our trumpeted signing from Premier League Fulham, has upset someone, because he's barely had a sniff of the first team.
Dominic Blizzard has proved so disappointing, from a confidence and fitness perspective, that Rovers want to offload him and Jo Kuffour, handy though he can be from the bench, isn't consistent enough to command a first-team place.
It's an easy job, with hindsight, to see how this pretty thin squad was always going to struggle, shorn as it was of the experience of players like centre back Steve Elliot and Aaron Lescott.
And it hasn't taken new manager Dave Penney long to realise that the vital ingredient - football nous - was needed and fast.
So tonight at the back we are likely to see the experience of Conrad Logan, who was keeping goal for Championship Leicester earlier this season, Danny Senda (whose been around the block with the likes of Wycombe and Millwall) and Jerel Ifil (a man mountain with a good reputation from his days at Swindon).
Meanwhile in midfield Gavin Williams (Highly rated ex-Bristol City midfielder) and JP Kalala (Congolese international hardman who performed consistently for Yeovil) have come in to strengthen the squad.
They may be waifs and strays, discarded by their own clubs, but the key is that they have something to prove.
Senda is desperate to get his career back on track after an horrific injury which had left him kicking his heels in Torquay.
Logan has had his nose put out of joint by star worshipper Sven Goran Eriksson, who signed Portuguese international goalkeeper Ricardo when he arrived at Leicester.
Ifil was released by Aberdeen after an ignominious spell in the Scottish Premier League
And Williams hadn't had a sniff of Championship action across the other side of Bristol.
They all want to earn themselves contracts beyond the end of this season.
We are banking on that hunger to pull us clear of the dreaded drop.
It may not happen, but I for one will salute Penney for trying. Not every player will necessarily work out, but you know they won't be just sitting around waiting for their next wage packet to arrive, or feeling sorry for themselves.
It's about self-preservation, a will to succeed, a never-say-die attitude. I hope they all have it.
If not, then we will be down among the dead men this season.
And it is quite possible we will be joined by three of our west country neighbours.
It would only take a spurt of form from Walsall and Dagenham to leave the four relegation places looking like this (in no particular order): The Gas, Yeovil, Swindon, Plymouth.
Oh well, at least there will be some local derbies to look forward to.
And in times when fuel prices are going through the roof, that would a godsend for paupers like us.