Vale of Silence

WENT to watch a game of football last night.
Ended up at a sponsored silence.
Everywhere I looked told me that Bristol Rovers were playing at home to Port Vale at the Memorial Stadium.
That's Bristol Rovers, the team that had won their last game at the Mem 5-2.
But although there were over 5,000 people there and everyone appeared to be decked in blue and white I felt more like I was on a visit to the City Morgue (and I DON'T mean Ashton Gate).
It wasn't helped when some people ran onto the green expanse of grass in front of the crowd.
Because even though there was a football involved, only one team seemed intent on passing it, moving and playing to any sort of pattern and plan.
That wasn't the team in the blue and white quarters.
And as the team that did turn up then went and put three goals into the net opposite them, the tumbleweed rolled along the terraces and the eery silence grew.
I don't know how much would have been raised for 86 minutes but eventually the crowd could wait no more. They decided it was time to shout.
And, remarkably, they all said the same thing at once.
"What a load of rubbish, what a load of rubbish, what a load of rubbish".
Then I realised. The small man in front of me was Bristol Rovers manager Paul Buckle.
The immoveable objects on the pitch were my beloved Gas.
I'm at a loss to sum up what is happening at Rovers at the moment.
The fans, who had bought into the idea that Dr Buckle would create an instant remedy to everything that ailed us last season, are now realising that his tonic has serious side effects.
One of them is that you cannot expect to replace a whole team of players with another 11 people and then think everything will be hunky dory.
The other is that you cannot keep falling out with the ones you have brought in, chopping and changing them at every opportunity, and then expect them to perform for you on the pitch.
I thought Buckle had it right in pre-season. He had bought some good players who were going to work hard, but he also had given them the remit to play attacking, stylish football.
He had signed two wingers abundant with pace and trickery, a proven goalscorer and a target man.
But it seems to me that very early on he lost his way.
And now he is having trouble finding it again.
He can't keep saying he has been unable to play a settled side when it seems to me he hasn't decided what pattern or team he wants to play in any given game.
What he needs to do is establish a style best suited to his players and stick with it.
Mind you, it isn't helped by the all-pervading gloom that seems to surround the Mem these days.
Ok, we lost to Burton at the weekend but weren't in a bad position overall.
Some of our supporters should stop thinking we have some divine right to turn up and win matches, just because we are a division lower this term.
The amount of negativity surrounding me, even before kick off, was pretty staggering.
I'd set off with enthusiasm because I had missed a fair few games through work commitments.
But already I found my mood brought down by the stream of downbeat comments from the Gasheads surrounding me.
I remember when, even in our worst hour, we used to create an atmosphere - even if it involved chanting "(insert manager's name here)'s Blue and White Army" for the whole of the second half.
Not now.
Barely a whimper before the match.
And already you could sense the tension of both supporters and players.
As for the manager, they are demanding his head on a platter already. I am not one of them.
But what Buckle must do is take a good look in the mirror. He can blame the players, the wet grass and the supporters as much as he likes.
It is time he stood up, took the criticism and decided what he is going to do about it.
He should establish how he wants to play and which players he needs to carry out his plans... it seems pointless, for instance, to bring on two wingers as he did last night, play one down the middle and withdraw our most creative midfielder, Matt Gill, to full back.
I still believe he has a decent squad of players.
It's HIS job to man up, shut up and get the best out of them.

AN UNRESERVED APOLOGY: I may have given the impression in my last entry that Uncle Albert was to blame for our "losing mentality". Well, he was nowhere near the dug out yesterday and, apart from Byron Anthony and Gary Sawyer, neither were any of last year's team.
I now fully accept that Uncle Albert is NOT responsible for this problem...