Only Fools and Kit men

IT was a weekend full of shocks.
The mighty Manchester United were beaten 6-1 at home by their noisy neighbours, QPR overcame the power of Chelsea and Arsenal left their main man van Persie on the subs bench.
Oh, and Bristol Rovers lost 2-1 at Burton.
Shock?
Well, if you listen to some Gasheads you would think it was on a par with Wimbledon beating Liverpool in the FA Cup final.
Not to me, it wasn't.
The one consistent thing about Rovers at the moment is there inconsistency.
Even so, I was a bit surprised at the latest excuse coming out of the mouth of our manager Paul Buckle.
I have already alluded to the fact that I am not overly convinced about his statements in the press.
But the latest one, that he is still trying to turn around a losing mentality at the club, is pretty hard to swallow.
After all, he has got rid of most of last year's losers and replaced them with an entirely new set of players.
Is he talking about goalkeeper Scott Bevan or striker Chris Zebroski, who he brought with him from Torquay?
Unlikely. They both reached the play-offs last year and Bevan kept a record of clean sheets that went a long way to putting them there.
So what about our defenders? Fullback Lee Brown may not have played much last season but he was at a club - QPR - which must have been full of positive energy as they romped away with the Championship title.
Youngster Michael Smith was in Ireland getting rave reviews with Ballymena while centre back Cian Bolger, who was brought back after a loan spell with us last season, must be doing something right or we would have left him at Leicester.
Our captain Matt Gill was at another promoted team - Norwich - while up front Scott McGleish was part of an Orient side who built on a magnificent cup run by just missing out on the League One play-offs. His partner Matt Harrold suffered a similar fate in League Two with Shrewsbury.
That leaves last year's caretaker player manager Stuart Campbell, who tried his best to keep Rovers up all to no avail. I would be surprised if it was him, though, because Buckle is talking about promoting him to the coaching side and has made him an ever-present in recent weeks.
Gary Sawyer can hardly take the blame because he has been injured most of the season while Byron Anthony, another of last season's regulars, hasn't even been getting in the squad.
So is the losing mentality down to the management team?
Wouldn't have thought so. Buckle and his assistant Shaun North were in charge of Torquay as they marched to the play-off final.
The chairman Nick Higgs, rather than harbouring a losing mentality, has dug deep to enable them to change the whole ethos of the team, putting his money where his mouth is to sanction a new manager and a host of new signings.
The fans? Well, most of us seemed convinced that the goings-on in the summer had guaranteed we would walk back into League One without challenge.
That leaves physio Phil Kite and the affectionately nicknamed Uncle Albert, the kit man.
I think it must be Albert's fault. Not only does he look like the accident-prone character from Only Fools and Horses, but he must go around in the background with an air of defeatism that makes Dad's Army's Corporal Frazier positively optimistic.
"We're ALLLLL DOOOOOMED," Uncle Albert must be whispering to the players the moment Buckle's back is turned.
What other reason could there be for this "Losing Mentality"?

I think I've stumbled on a plan to get us back up challenging for promotion. It's quite simple, really. Make every home game an evening kick-off.
Rovers are unbeaten at home when a match has started under floodlights. We've won all three of our league games - Northampton (2-1), Shrewsbury (1-0) and Rotherham (5-2). In our one cup game, at home to Championship Watford, we drew 1-1 but went on to win on penalties.
There must be something about our players that, like some kind of hallucogenic plant, reacts positively to artificial light.
I hope the run continues. We could really do with a win at home to Port Vale tonight.