Fed up watching Rovers - the enjoyment has gone

[keyser_soze]

I've not been much this year, we live an hour and a half away, but got a football mad 8 year old who has been given a Donny kit each year since birth. I've taken him 3 times and they've lost each time and not scored a goal for him yet. He isn't interested in going any more and has started refusing to wear his kit for training when he was always proud to wear it before and be a bit different to all the Wolves, Villa, Man City and Liverpool kits.

Last time I went (Walsall at home) really felt like the life had been sucked out of the stadium and it wasn't a fun place to be. He doesn't want to go and has now bought himself (with his own money I must add!) a Man City kit, and it devastates me that it looks like I won't spend Saturdays heading there (willingly) with him and my Dad.

[normal rules]

I've not been much this year, we live an hour and a half away, but got a football mad 8 year old who has been given a Donny kit each year since birth. I've taken him 3 times and they've lost each time and not scored a goal for him yet. He isn't interested in going any more and has started refusing to wear his kit for training when he was always proud to wear it before and be a bit different to all the Wolves, Villa, Man City and Liverpool kits.

Last time I went (Walsall at home) really felt like the life had been sucked out of the stadium and it wasn't a fun place to be. He doesn't want to go and has now bought himself (with his own money I must add!) a Man City kit, and it devastates me that it looks like I won't spend Saturdays heading there (willingly) with him and my Dad.

Always tough with an 8 yr old. When my youngest was playing junior football his team and him got hammered every week, by double figures in many cases for a whole season and a half. The message from the manager, and parents, stick together, knuckle down and all will come good. And in time it did. They became a very tough, resilient, strong outfit. He also failed his 11 plus at a time when every single one of his mates passed and whilst they went to the local grammar school he trotted off to the local secondary school, alone.  He took it on the chin, after some tears I might add, and knuckled down. He put in a lot of graft. Made new friends. Moved forward. Positively.
Life is about taking the knocks, as well as the spoils. I did my very best to instill this in him from a young age, and i believe it worked. He now takes most of life’s upsets in his stride. He is a very resilient young sole, and I put that down to his young footballing days when defeat was the norm.
He is now 25 and about to become a senior manager for one of the big four accountancy firms in London getting paid sums of money I have only ever read about earning.
And what makes me proudest, is, he has supported Rovers, with me, for the last 17 years. As I first took him when he was 8. There is, and has only been, and will only be, one team in his life. Like me, and my father before me.

[mushRTID]

I've not been much this year, we live an hour and a half away, but got a football mad 8 year old who has been given a Donny kit each year since birth. I've taken him 3 times and they've lost each time and not scored a goal for him yet. He isn't interested in going any more and has started refusing to wear his kit for training when he was always proud to wear it before and be a bit different to all the Wolves, Villa, Man City and Liverpool kits.

Last time I went (Walsall at home) really felt like the life had been sucked out of the stadium and it wasn't a fun place to be. He doesn't want to go and has now bought himself (with his own money I must add!) a Man City kit, and it devastates me that it looks like I won't spend Saturdays heading there (willingly) with him and my Dad.

This is quite depressing to read, I feel for you.
I have 2 boys and i can’t wait to spend my Saturdays watching with them.
My oldest is 5 and has been twice this season both games lost against Kings Lynn and Hartlepool. He’s not really enjoyed either.

I have got him a season ticket for next year and hopefully he has a bit more to cheer about.

I hope your lad comes back round, it would be good if the club could offer him something special to win him back round initially but this slump has got to be stopped soon as we are going to lose another generation.

[normal rules]

Imagine if your lad was 8, during a mid week, mid winter away trip to Barrow in the Conference years. Then a few years later taking that same lad to The Millenium Stadium, Wembley, Leeds, Derby, Brighton, and the like.
This is why we follow. This is why we knuckle down when the going is tough. This is why we survive and see through the Doldrums.
I too am a little desolate at the moment. Uninspired. But I’ll never give in . I’ll never forsake my home town club.

[Lesonthewest]

I've not been much this year, we live an hour and a half away, but got a football mad 8 year old who has been given a Donny kit each year since birth. I've taken him 3 times and they've lost each time and not scored a goal for him yet. He isn't interested in going any more and has started refusing to wear his kit for training when he was always proud to wear it before and be a bit different to all the Wolves, Villa, Man City and Liverpool kits.

Last time I went (Walsall at home) really felt like the life had been sucked out of the stadium and it wasn't a fun place to be. He doesn't want to go and has now bought himself (with his own money I must add!) a Man City kit, and it devastates me that it looks like I won't spend Saturdays heading there (willingly) with him and my Dad.

That's sad, I have a similar problem, we have a 10 year old grandson, 9 year old granddaughter, taken them 5 times with a new shirt. We have not won a game & had the grand total of 2 goals. Grandson is now totally disinterested, might coax granddaughter because she likes Donny dog!!

[sedwardsdrfc]

1st games are huge to get a fan hooked. I was about 11/12 when I was first taken (not interested in football at all till then to my dads horror) and was so lucky to see us draw 3-3 with Derby at Belle vue (can’t remember who won on pens)

If my 1st game would have been something like what we’re getting now I’m not sure I’d have got hooked at that age. I’d certainly not look forward to my dad saying we’re going on a freezing cold Tuesday like I did thereafter

[DonnyOsmond]

The first eleven is good enough to be playoffs at the least. We have underachieved massively. This is not a good league and it’s been made harder than it needed to be.

Our players are overrated by our fans.

[Beerseller]

1st games are huge to get a fan hooked. I was about 11/12 when I was first taken (not interested in football at all till then to my dads horror) and was so lucky to see us draw 3-3 with Derby at Belle vue (can’t remember who won on pens)

If my 1st game would have been something like what we’re getting now I’m not sure I’d have got hooked at that age. I’d certainly not look forward to my dad saying we’re going on a freezing cold Tuesday like I did thereafter

Wasn’t that the game we won 8-7 on pens?

I agree with most of what you say but for me as a kid, it was the atmosphere as much as the result that got me hooked. As there is very little atmosphere watching the rovers at home lately, I doubt I’d have the same love of football if this was my introduction as an under 10.

[andysly]

My first game was 0-4 v Torquay.....47 years ago come August, and I was Rovers through and through from then.
Grandson 1 has got the bug, but is obviously fed up with our poor we've been recently, but i keep telling him the bad days make the good days even better.
Grandson 2 would rather watch Liverpool on telly, work to be done on that one.

[Sammy Chung was King]

The first eleven is good enough to be playoffs at the least. We have underachieved massively. This is not a good league and it’s been made harder than it needed to be.

Our players are overrated by our fans.

I don’t think they are, some fans are happy for happy’s sake. The two managers we’ve had recently, both have failed to consistently get the best from players. Sometimes the boat has to be rocked and admit the people managing the side haven’t been good enough.

[ncRover]

My first game was in 02/03. 0-0 against Halifax on a cold winters night I think. I was only 7 and didn’t have anything to cheer that night but something about it just made me fall in love. All I can remember is Simon Marples bombing forwards on the right.

My grandad could see me starting to get in to football and glory support Arsenal, so saw an opportunity to indoctrinate me I think! His timing was perfect, as the next 5 years was surely not matched by any other football fans in the country.

I grew up around Selby where there isn’t many Rovers fans at all. If I would get teased for supporting Rovers over Man U / Arsenal my grandad would say “ask them how many games they’ve been to”.

He passed away in 2020 so has been spared seeing this decline. But he’d come back and kill me if he knew I ever gave up on it.

[sedwardsdrfc]

1st games are huge to get a fan hooked. I was about 11/12 when I was first taken (not interested in football at all till then to my dads horror) and was so lucky to see us draw 3-3 with Derby at Belle vue (can’t remember who won on pens)

If my 1st game would have been something like what we’re getting now I’m not sure I’d have got hooked at that age. I’d certainly not look forward to my dad saying we’re going on a freezing cold Tuesday like I did thereafter

Wasn’t that the game we won 8-7 on pens?

I agree with most of what you say but for me as a kid, it was the atmosphere as much as the result that got me hooked. As there is very little atmosphere watching the rovers at home lately, I doubt I’d have the same love of football if this was my introduction as an under 10.

Yes. The atmosphere was great too which was a part of it as much as result. Packed in standing at belle vue watching a end to end game like that I think anyone would be hooked after that.

[normal rules]

My first game was 85. Dad took me after much pestering by myself to “that” game against QPR.