Bill And Ben

[Bentley Bullet]

It was 1997. Bill has been a Rovers fan for donkey's years, along with his mate Ben. It was a dire season - the worst they'd ever witnessed. It ended with the club going out of the football league.

Ben carried on supporting Rovers the next season. Bill didn't. Ben said we need to support our club more than ever, in our hour of need. Bill said, "no! we've no future, we're finished as a club. I'm never going again." Wherever Bill went he spoke nothing but bad of the Rovers and tried to gather support in his opinion. On the other hand, Ben tried his hardest to get people to support the club and give it a future.

The few that agreed with Ben saw the club start afresh and eventually climb up the league, reaching the Championship and even winning at Wembley and the Millenium stadium. Rovers ended up more successful than they had been for half a century!

That was down to supporters like Ben, who proved that their optimism was worthwhile, and they were rewarded for it.  Had it been down to supporters like Bill, the club would have been dead and buried by now, and they would have claimed that they'd made the right decision to leave the sinking ship when they did because it was finished anyway. Little would Bill and the rest of the deserters have realised that it was their pessimism that actually killed the club.

[idler]

 IT wasn't Ben T. Lee Bullet was it?😉