| During it's inception this page was going to be a tongue in cheek look at our 'rival' clubs around Gloucestershire, but since then I've decided to write from a different angle. |
| City have for many years now been accruing an unsustainable debt, but the recent deal to pay off the huge majority of those debts by selling the ground have mean't that the club is now able to operate on a more level playing field. By this, it means that to ensure any such kind of debt doesn't build up again the playing squad will basically be funded by sponsorship and 'bums on seats'. |
| At the time of writing there are certainly more seats than bums and this is an off hand look at a way of filling them (the seats, not the bums!) |
| At present, on offer in a small fifteen mile radius around the City Stadium we have higher level football at Cheltenham and Nailsworth. We also have rugby, with Gloucester RFC being one of the biggest and best supported club rugby clubs in the whole world. Of course, theres always the lure of Tesco's on a saturday afternoon, but thats only for the soppy 'modern man' isn't it Tommy! |
| Lets have a look at some of our rivals... |
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| Gloucester RFC - The Cherry & Whites |
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| (pic taken from ) |
| Rugby has never done it for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm Gloucester born and bred and all but I just have no desire whatsoever to go to Kingsholm. Well, actually, I do. I'd like to go just once to get a feel of the supposed atmosphere, it's just that whatever happens on the pitch would pass me by, I just don't get rugby. It's a shame, for the Tigers then, that thousands do 'get' it. |
| I suppose what really matters here is the importance that rugby holds against the greater scale of things. I'm sure that some folks believe that the top league in rugby is on a par with the top league in football and that Gloucester are just as big as Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool. It's my opinion that thats a load of old tosh. If both standards were placed side by side I reckon that the top of the rugby world would struggle to match, say, midway in the first division of the Football League. |
| Let's face facts. Rugby doesn't really matter, but football is IT. Think back to the summer of 2002 and the World Cup in Japan. The country was football crazy. Important stories in the news were relegated to second best as the England team took centre stage and commanded the very first headlines in newspapers and news bulletins across the land. Can you see the England rugby team every achieving that? I can't. I think it highlights how highly football is regarded over the game played with a funny shaped ball. |
| On a more local front, from a personal slant something which has always got me is the sheer overkill in the local press as far as the Rugby club is concerned. The Citizen have always gone OTT with them, often making saturdays game last until wednesday and then spending the rest of the week previewing the next game via it's back page headlines. I appreciate that it's all about selling papers, but it's also been said that the Citizen makes that much money from it's classifieds that they don't really need to charge for it. |
| They also receieve more than their fair share of coverage from the local BBC radio, but I don't listen to it any more so to pass judgement wouldn't be fair, so I'll leave it there. |
| There is also the train of thought that people who like rugby don't actually like football (and vice versa). I did ask my uncle, a regular at Kingsholm, whether he'd come to Wembley with the City if we'd beaten Dagenham in the Trophy semi replay. He said no because he didn't like soccer (I hate that word!) |
| So thats all for the Cherry and Whites. We'll never compete with them, and as has been said before, most 'Glaws' fans think that the Tigers are Leicester. Sadly, thats how the mentality of the average rugby fan works. Whatever happens, it won't stop us laughing when they win their league by fifteen points and still finish second! |
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| Cheltenham Town FC - The Robins |
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| (pic taken from ) |
| Everyone loves Cheltenham don't they? Do they f**k! |
| There was a long time in history when Gloucestershire was the largest English county that didn't have a football league team. This all changed around 1999 when the Robins won promotion to the Football League on the back of a lucky elevation from the Doc Martens Premier thanks to Gresley's deathtrap of a ground. |
| Since their non-league days they've also enjoyed promotion to the second division via the playoffs, although they were out of their depth there as their first relegation in ten seasons saw them back in the third didvision. |
| Now, I predict they'll do a Hereford, where they'll exist as a Football League side in twenty seasons of mediocrity before they drop out of the league and back into obscurity where they belong. |
| Some say that my opinion of the Robins is tarnished by jealousy. I disagree. I put it down to sheer rivalry. They are our rivals and thats that. I want them to lose as much as I want City to win. Thats why our wins against them, although rare, are always so much better than the three points gained against any of our other league 'rivals'. |
| Their supporters are another irritant. The go from having three figure crowds to capacity crowds and everyone inside Whaddon claims to have followed them to Bashley and Hastings, something doesn't quite work out there! They also have a habit of latching onto the nearest club in their division and calling them rivals, dismissing City as 'not mattering any more' at the same time. How a club of Herefords standing should react to being called 'Herescum' (I ask you!) and what do Oxford and Swindon think of being labelled as rivals to this fresh bunch I don't know. |
| Anyhow, I digress. Apparently there are more Cheltenham Town fans in Gloucester than there are Gloucester City fans in Gloucester. Hmm, thats the typical nonsense that comes from their users. Whether theres any kind of truth in that or not I don't know but it has to be a concern. Personally, I'd hate to think that Gloucester people were putting money over the turnstile there when they have a perfectly good football team to watch here. |
| There was also a spell where our local paper, the Gloucester Citizen was glorying everything that the Robins did. I was of the opinion that it was damaging to our club and our prospects. Losing headlines to the rugby club is one thing, but dropping behind a club from another town with their own paper from the same publisher was another. I said my piece and I like to think that it was listened to because their coverage has been toned down somewhat nowadays. |
| In conclusion, are there people who are going from Gloucester to watch the hated Robins play on a saturday afternoon? They must be stopped. I'm of the opinion that you should support your local team. And if you're out driving and you see some numpty in one of their shirts, go easy on the middle pedal!!! |
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| Forest Green Rovers FC - The Little Club on the Hill |
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| (pic taken from ) |
| Hands up all those Gloucester folk who would admit to knowing more about Forest Green other than it was the destination for most buses from Gloucester to the Stroud area! |
| Rovers have had a fairytale rise from local football to the pinnacle of the semi-professional game. I won't admit to knowing all about the club, because I don't. I do however know that in 1983 they did the Hellenic League and FA Vase 'double', with an impressive 3-0 win over Rainworth Miners Welfare at Wembley. That day featured one of the better goals ever scored at the home of football, a 30 yard lob from Kenny Norman and also there was crowd violence among the FGR fans! |
| For years they were nothing more than a run of the mill southern league club, each season struggling to avoid the drop to from whence they came. Then some bright spark hit upon the idea of renaming them 'Stroud FC' in an attempt to raise awareness in the weird, sleepy little town five miles north on the A46. It was an abject failure. |
| Even after the club once again became Forest Green Rovers, they were still struggling with crowds just into three figures (and often less). Then local buisnessman Trevor Horsley took control and helped to finance the club as they won successive promotions from the Southern Division of the DML to the Conference. |
| Incredibly, people started to support the minnows on top of the hill and the Forest Green six became the Forest Green six hundred. I would often go to watch them when I couldn't be arsed to travel to watch City but not since the 2001-02 season when the football on offer was some of the worst that I've ever seen. |
| Would you go to watch FGR play just because they're in the Conference? I can't see that they affect the numbers coming in at City and I'd be very surprised if I went there and recognised someone who used to be a regular at Meadow Park. |
| They're still the little club on the hill, but they're in the Conference. So what! They're being bled dry by ex-pro's and I wouldn't be surprised if May 2004 finally see's them relinquish their place among the non-league's elite. Then it's a slippery slope. The support will go in droves and they'll be playing City on Boxing Day within the next three years.... |
