Have football fans changed?

[normal rules]

It speaks volumes that the player of the season should be, imho, Joseph Olowu. He has been consistently outstanding at the back . Had the season panned out differently then it could have been a striker or a pivotal midfielder. But it’s not been that kind of season.

[Avsuptem]

Yes, we have been there and thereabouts all season and have a gripping last few games ahead. You would think that means there is a lot to like. I do sometimes wonder though if it might be a better business model for the club if we stay at the top end of league 2 without actually getting promoted.

Where the hell is that dislike button? 

On your bathroom mirror ?

[Red wizard]

If we go up we will see a difference in tactics from GM. After making the statement saying we will win the league has effected the way he's setting us up. It's like he's scared of proper going after teams in case we get caught out and end up losing. He can see there's been nothing in it from 6th to 2nd all season and now 1st and is happy to grind out wins and draws. We have the best away record in the league and really we should have better home record. How many goals or points have we dropped in the last  5 minutes at home ? A few tweaks with personal and I think we will be top half maybe playoff's next year if we go up. L 1 is GM bread and butter and he understands and knows what is needed to be up there. I'm sure he admitted he struggled last year to get to grips with L2 and although we have done much better this season I bet he would admit he's struggled at times this season.

[dickos1]

I think a lot of the replies to the opening post just emphasise how correct he was

[BillyStubbsTears]

If we go up we will see a difference in tactics from GM. After making the statement saying we will win the league has effected the way he's setting us up. It's like he's scared of proper going after teams in case we get caught out and end up losing. He can see there's been nothing in it from 6th to 2nd all season and now 1st and is happy to grind out wins and draws. We have the best away record in the league and really we should have better home record. How many goals or points have we dropped in the last  5 minutes at home ? A few tweaks with personal and I think we will be top half maybe playoff's next year if we go up. L 1 is GM bread and butter and he understands and knows what is needed to be up there. I'm sure he admitted he struggled last year to get to grips with L2 and although we have done much better this season I bet he would admit he's struggled at times this season.

A positive take is that we won't see a change if we go up.

McCann's style this season has been to build a side that is much better when not in control of possession.

We are very good at fast breaks that take advantage of space against a side that is pressing high against us.

This year, that's been a struggle because most better sides let us have possession, sit deep and say "You try to break us down and we will hit YOU on the break".

In L1, we would come up against more sides that are good enough to dominate possession and control the game.

But.

Give us space to hit them with fast breaks.

I can well see the current squad, strangely being better in L1. Perhaps with a couple of better players in the deep lying midfield and No10 positions.

[les@donr]

Isn’t Moly our No. 10? Would you switch him elsewhere?

[Nudga]

Social media, the scourge of the masses.

Or at least it is for those who use these platforms to abuse, ridicule & berate people with no thought to the psychological harm they are causing.

So pretty much what you've been doing to one member of this forum since you joined last year. 

[Ryaldinhio]

Social media, the scourge of the masses.

Or at least it is for those who use these platforms to abuse, ridicule & berate people with no thought to the psychological harm they are causing.

This from a grown bloke who types, and I quote 'I feel sorry for your wife and kids'

[Barmby Rover]

Rovers fans were spoilt last season with that run they had. Myself included I expected us to run away with it this season and we have stumbled and drawn too many matches we could have won. It isn't a bad season, but not like the 2003/04 season where we dominated so many of our opponents and had promotion wrapped up early and won the division with a game or two to go. That would have been nice, but I will take it if Rovers get promoted by beating Notts County now! I am not sure it is good for our health, but fingers crossed for the players health over the next few games.

[ravenrover]

Talk about Notts County I'll give you one name to bring shivers down your spine
McGoldrick

[mushRTID]

Football vloggers by a mile the worst change in football fans over the years. They are popping up everywhere. I will never get my head around going to the game and filming for 90minutes to create a video when you get home. Weirdos.

[Avsuptem]

  It all went downhill when they started putting seats in everywhere in my humble opinion.

[Chris Black come back]

Football vloggers by a mile the worst change in football fans over the years. They are popping up everywhere. I will never get my head around going to the game and filming for 90minutes to create a video when you get home. Weirdos.

If you want to really zero in, really analyse in the greatest detail what encapsulates everything - literally everything wrong with not only football but society more widely today - it is that w**ker who claims to be a Bolton fan and shoots videos with his Dad.

[pib]

CR

I've got a lot of sympathy with that post, but I think the reactions to this season are very specific to this season. Certainly in my case - I'm an eternal optimist who always hopes against hope when we are 0-3 down after 70 minutes "If we can just nick one now..."

But I don't see any contradiction between that and also being a realist on the facts. It's like indulging both your emotional side and your rational side.

This year, I'll confess, the rational side is winning out in my case. That's partly because this season has really not been much FUN. We had 2-3 cracking performances early on in the season. Really good away days at Bradford and Grimsby for example. But since then it's been grim.

We are just about grinding out enough results to keep in the hunt, but never feeling like the squad is performing as well as the sum of its parts. And never really having that edge of the seat feeling.

Two big matches recently against Walsall and Wimbledon are excellent examples. Those should have been humdingers but in both games the second halves in particular have been grimly dull. A side lacking a systemic approach that either entertained or was effective, and waiting for a moment of individual excellence Gibson/Sharp vs Walsall) or luck (big deflection Vs Wimbledon) to lift things.

So yeah, I've surprised myself with how emotionally detached I've been feeling about a situation that ought to be heart in mouth every week. But I think overall, if we DO make promotion, it'll be great rationally, but it'll be the least enjoyable one in my 50-odd years as a fan. And I really didn't expect that from a McCann side. We are possibly going to go up, having had no more than a slack handful of really entertaining performances all season.

I wanted to come back to this, and this is not to be a knob, or to pick you out in particular BST as I've seen this theory in various guises from quite a few people on here (e.g. "it'll be the most underwhelming promotion ever" etc.)

I just wondered if people who've expressed this kind of view still feel the same now we're up?

It's a view I might have been inclined to agree with a few weeks ago, but I think what Saturday and the aftermath have taught me is that every promotion as a fan is so special. In many ways, the circumstances of the game on Saturday, the reaction of the players and the celebrations, made this one more satisfying and enjoyable than, say for example 2016/17.

We've not been as eye-catching or dominant a team as that Ferguson team over the season, but the actual promotion itself, the way it was sealed, and the connection between the supporters and players that has transpired in the wake of it has been way more special this time around, IMO. Helped by the fact that our support seems to have grown and become more partisan/vocal in that time I think. We had 9900 in against Mansfield when we sealed promotion in 2017 (and possibly from memory more away fans in), and only just averaged over 6k over that season. This season we've averaged over 8k and had over 11k home fans in the ground to witness our promotion.

I think when you get scenes like that on Saturday, it just eclipses all the ups and downs of the season. Look at 2012/13 as well when the football was largely a grind to watch, but that day at Brentford will never ever be forgotten, and possibly never topped.

[drfchound]

CR

I've got a lot of sympathy with that post, but I think the reactions to this season are very specific to this season. Certainly in my case - I'm an eternal optimist who always hopes against hope when we are 0-3 down after 70 minutes "If we can just nick one now..."

But I don't see any contradiction between that and also being a realist on the facts. It's like indulging both your emotional side and your rational side.

This year, I'll confess, the rational side is winning out in my case. That's partly because this season has really not been much FUN. We had 2-3 cracking performances early on in the season. Really good away days at Bradford and Grimsby for example. But since then it's been grim.

We are just about grinding out enough results to keep in the hunt, but never feeling like the squad is performing as well as the sum of its parts. And never really having that edge of the seat feeling.

Two big matches recently against Walsall and Wimbledon are excellent examples. Those should have been humdingers but in both games the second halves in particular have been grimly dull. A side lacking a systemic approach that either entertained or was effective, and waiting for a moment of individual excellence Gibson/Sharp vs Walsall) or luck (big deflection Vs Wimbledon) to lift things.

So yeah, I've surprised myself with how emotionally detached I've been feeling about a situation that ought to be heart in mouth every week. But I think overall, if we DO make promotion, it'll be great rationally, but it'll be the least enjoyable one in my 50-odd years as a fan. And I really didn't expect that from a McCann side. We are possibly going to go up, having had no more than a slack handful of really entertaining performances all season.

I wanted to come back to this, and this is not to be a knob, or to pick you out in particular BST as I've seen this theory in various guises from quite a few people on here (e.g. "it'll be the most underwhelming promotion ever" etc.)

I just wondered if people who've expressed this kind of view still feel the same now we're up?

It's a view I might have been inclined to agree with a few weeks ago, but I think what Saturday and the aftermath have taught me is that every promotion as a fan is so special. In many ways, the circumstances of the game on Saturday, the reaction of the players and the celebrations, made this one more satisfying and enjoyable than, say for example 2016/17.

We've not been as eye-catching or dominant a team as that Ferguson team over the season, but the actual promotion itself, the way it was sealed, and the connection between the supporters and players that has transpired in the wake of it has been way more special this time around, IMO. Helped by the fact that our support seems to have grown and become more partisan/vocal in that time I think. We had 9900 in against Mansfield when we sealed promotion in 2017 (and possibly from memory more away fans in), and only just averaged over 6k over that season. This season we've averaged over 8k and had over 11k home fans in the ground to witness our promotion.

I think when you get scenes like that on Saturday, it just eclipses all the ups and downs of the season. Look at 2012/13 as well when the football was largely a grind to watch, but that day at Brentford will never ever be forgotten, and possibly never topped.

That is an interesting take on things pib.
As you say, there have been several of our posters who have talked down our league position etc over the last few weeks, months even in some cases.
But I wonder how many of them were out on Saturday with the team after the win over Bradford, telling the lads how great they are.