“I can cope with being in the National League, relegation is part of being a football fan, but what I want is a sustainable club with decent morals and values and not one which is part of one man’s ego.”
Continue reading “Editorial: Board Out? Board In? Or Just Shake It All About?”
There will be people who tell you that ‘the club’s fan base has never been so divided’ as it is right now. But to be honest, in the 12 years I’ve been editor of this fanzine, I can’t recall a single point where all Rovers fans have been united in their view on the club. Perhaps those 18 seconds at Griffin Park. But I suspect within a minute of James Coppinger tossing his shirt into the crowd, someone in the away end was criticising the club for missing out on a play-off pay day.
Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 111”
In the last edition of this fanzine I wrote about enjoying the opening games and weeks of a new season. About optimism and about how enjoying watching football should be the thing which sets the tone, not the results or what they might mean.
Continue reading “Marshall Matters: Starting to take a back seat”
The streets of South London were eerily quiet as I emerged from my house and walked the short distance down the road to the tram stop. An early autumn breeze blew through the trees and the skies were still dark, occasionally illuminated by streetlights and the big forecourt sign at the Shell garage.
Continue reading “For Peat’s Sake: To Barrow… via Dublin”
And to think we’d been so full of optimism in issue 109 back in August. Ordinarily we’d do an ‘if a week is a long time in politics it’s an age in football’ gag here, but given there’s no guarantee we’ll still have the same Home Secretary when I finish this sentence as we did when I began typing it, that comparison is a little redundant. Still, it’s most definitely been a rollercoaster start to Rovers 2022-23 season.
Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 110”
Well, let’s start with the positives. It can’t be as bad as last year… can it? After the doom-laden pages of the relegation special that was issue 108, now comes the unbridled optimism of a first fanzine issue of a new season.
Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 109”
Well, thank God that’s all over. A terrible season that started badly and never really looked like getting better. A 46 game-long slow trudge towards League Two. Each of our most recent engagements with the fourth tier have ended in promotion… it’s hard to see 2022-23 going a similar way.
Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 108”
This is only the penultimate edition of the fanzine for 2021-22, but you won’t have to get far through its pages to see that the majority of our correspondents are already accepting of it ending in relegation. Rovers have had a mini resurgence, just before this issue went to print, but it hasn’t been enough of a revival to switch faint hopes the way of creeping beliefs.
Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine issue 107”
On the opening page of issue 105 of popular STAND I promised that we wouldn’t be bottom of League One by the time issue 106 came round. I have to be honest, I was hoping to be somewhat higher than 23rd, but hey, a win’s a win.
Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine: issue 106”
New season, new manager, new players; a fresh start, a time for optimism. Right? Well ordinarily yes, least that’s usually the case when we put out our first issue of a Rovers campaign.
Continue reading “popular STAND fanzine: issue 105”
popular STAND fanzine 